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F1 2017: Sky F1's pundits say new season still has much to reveal

The Sky F1 team on the Australian GP's biggest talking points

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A recap of how Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel took victory in the Australian Grand Prix

Formula 1's new era still has lots more to reveal over the course of the 2017 season, according to Sky F1's pundits.

Sebastian Vettel and Ferrari's success at the Australian GP means an F1 season has begun without a Mercedes victory for the first time since 2013.

Hamilton: 2017 the best v the best

However, after F1's new-look and faster cars raced for the first time, there was also a mixed reaction among drivers, pundits and fans over the quality of the action on track with estimates suggesting there were fewer than 10 overtaking moves during the 57-lap race.

But Sky F1's Pat Symonds reckons judging the success of F1's new faster cars on the evidence of Albert Park forgets plenty of lessons from history.

"Let's not get too excited; this is race one," said the former Williams technical chief.

"This is an unusual circuit and not a circuit where we see overtaking. We saw some close racing and I didn't see evidence it was harder to follow. When we get to China we're going to see a different story, so let's not be negative at the moment."

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Watch the whole of the first lap of the Australian GP!

Damon Hill, the 1996 world champion, fears drivers did find it harder to follow each other closely in Melbourne, but is willing to withhold judgement until the next race in China on April 9 - an event which produced a record 128 passing moves last year.

"I have some sympathy with the views of those who say there was not enough overtaking," said Hill.

"I feel the cars out there on the circuit were getting stuck in a hole in the air, they weren't able to get close enough. It's always been an issue in this sport but it's maybe particularly more so at the moment.

"But we'll go to a different circuit and maybe the excitement and the action will be there."

Can Ferrari sustain a title challenge?
Ferrari's first victory at an F1 season-opener since 2010 has whetted the appetite for the first genuine multi-team title fight for several years, with Lewis Hamilton claiming "this year you are seeing the best against the best with the best drivers at the top".

Martin Brundle reckons it is already clear that Ferrari are genuine front-runners, but says it is too soon to say whether they will win the majority of races.

"With Barcelona testing and here, seeing the pace and the way the Ferrari looks after its tyres, the form they are on and the reliability they have, I think we have got a fight all season long," said Brundle. "We've already got that answer.

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Sky F1 looks at how Mercedes lost the Australian GP after Lewis Hamilton started from pole, but had to settle for second place behind Sebastian Vettel

"But whether they can start winning the majority of the races, we won't know until at least after Bahrain [the third round of the season on April 17], frankly."

Paul di Resta says Ferrari's pace in Melbourne pushed Mercedes' strategists to make swift decisions in a way that has been rarely seen in F1's hybrid engine era, with Vettel and Hamilton now poised for a season-long duel.

"What we have seen is flaws in Mercedes," said the Scot. "Nobody has been able to push them into that recently and Ferrari took advantage of that. What Mercedes have got is two cars close to each other, but over the grand prix weekend it's about who is going to get on top and who is going to make the difference.

"Lewis and Seb, the body language between each other, they know they've got to keep out of trouble and be there at the end because they are going to be the two guts at the end of the year who are going to be fighting for it."

Hill added: "I don't think it's going to be a breeze, it's going to be a very tightly-fought championship. This is too tight to call."

What happened to Red Bull?
Over one second adrift of pole and then nearly half a minute behind Ferrari at the chequered flag in fifth place, the underperformance of Red Bull at Albert Park proved one of the opening week's most curious talking points.

But Di Resta says it would be unwise to write the former champions, and their technical guru Adrian Newey, off.

"They can play catch up very quickly, we know they can develop faster than any team around them," he said. "They were the ones pushing for regulations like this because this is where Adrian excels.

"The car looks nervous and when the guys are pushing it doesn't look a very nice car to drive. They're there or thereabouts, they can make a big step, but it's whether Renault and their engine package can make a difference as well because they look like they're not as close as where they were at the end of last year compared to the others."

And where was Kimi Raikkonen?
While Valtteri Bottas finished within three seconds of Hamilton on his Mercedes debut, Finnish countryman Kimi Raikkonen toiled relative to Ferrari team-mate Vettel at Albert Park despite the Scuderia's return to winning ways.

Raikkonen, F1's oldest driver, outqualified Vettel at the final five races of 2016 but struggled with set-up and tyre problems at the season-opener and finished a distant fourth.

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"He wasn't a disaster this weekend, was he?" said Hill. "He had a bit of a lack of pace compared to Vettel.

"At the same point in the weekend so did Valtteri Bottas [relative to Hamilton] and he got better. There is still life there and he'll hopefully, for Ferrari's sake, he'll put another car between Sebastian and Mercedes."

Symonds concurred: "Kimi has had a bad weekend, but maybe these cars are more difficult to set up. We saw Ferrari off the pace on Friday and right back there on Saturday."

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