Well after watching the race i've concluded that there is considerably more parity than last season but it'll likely be a two-team race once again between Mercedes and Ferrari. But after those two teams it's up for grabs between the likes of Red Bull, Haas-Ferrari, McLaren & maybe even Renault.
I thought Wiliams would do better but they lack experienced drivers. Now i'm starting to think that maybe they should have hired Robert Kubica instead of Sergei Sirotkin. Sirotkin was the first driver to leave the race due to a mechanical breakdown. We'll see what happens in the next races.
I was very surprised that Valteri Bottas didn't do better than he did. Sure he finished in the top 10 but he simply wasn't able to find the power & opportunity to pass the drivers ahead of him, including the likes of Verstappen and Alonso. It was great seeing Alonso finish in 5th position with his McLaren. That's great for the sport. I love the look of the McLaren, by the way. Beautiful-looking car. Same thing with the Ferraris' look this year....all red.
Haas-Ferrari was doing great until bad luck hit them in consecutive pit stops by Magnuson and Grosjean. At first i thought one of the wheel men had fucked up but it seems like the problem was with one or two of the air guns. Had they not encountered the bad luck they very well could have finished in 4th and 5th. But the team's bad luck was Ferrari and McLaren's good luck. Grosjean's problem led to safety car being deployed which allowed Alonso & Vettel to gain positions. Vettel had been just ahead of Hamilton after Hamilton had pitted earlier and shockingly he came out ahead of Hamilton after pitting while the safety car had been deployed. This shocked the hell out of Hamilton, which i enjoyed tremendously!! :lol:
I expected a better race from Verstappen, Bottas and Stroll. Verstappen's mistakes killed his chances of finishing in the top 3 and for whatever reason Bottas wasn't able to pass the top 7 racers. Maybe the course is too difficult for passing, who knows. It seems like it's a course where success will depend mostly on successful pit stop strategies and luck.
As for Stroll he did finish the race but just behind some rookie racer named Charlie Leclerc (Sauber) in his first-ever F1 race. That shouldn't have happened.
