So here we are at the first grand prix of the 2011 season. Just a short 5 months or so since the champagne was being sprayed in Abu Dhabi. This is of course 2 weeks later than originally planned due to the cancellation of the Bahrain Grand Prix. Incidentally I hope we never go back to Bahrain while the current government are in power as F1 needs to take a bit of a moral stand. F1 does not need Bahrain, its a dull race that isn't attended by many people in a location that has no history or interest in the sport. There are much better alternatives around I am sure. No one wants to see beige races in every sense of the word, dull Beige racing lap after lap on a Beige circuit surrounded by beige sand.

So anyway the F1 circus arrives in Melbourne for what maybe one of the last few Australian grand prix's at the Albert park circuit. I hope if that does happen they go back to the street circuit of Adelaide which was a quality circuit and had many memorable incidents in its 11 year history. That is all by the by curently as there is a new season upon us. 19 race weekends between now and Brazil on the 27th of November.

Australia is a Bumpy high tyre wear circuit with heavy breaking at the end of long fast straights into slow corners and with the new Pirelli tyres which are supposed to degrade faster then expect a lot of pitstops. The BBC pit crew will be kept busy with most drivers making 3 stops and some of them 4 could see up to 75-80 pitstops every race.

I expected the Red Bull cars to be comfortably 1 and 2 on the grid after Saturday's qualifying as this circuit is ideally suited to the Red Bull car. Pre-season testing is always a bit of an enigma with the times not always being full representative however it does looked as though Mclaren had a lot to do. After the first 2 practice sessions Mclaren sit 1 and 2 at the top of the timing sheets. I expected them to be closer but that was a big surprise. Practice is not always representative though and Qualifying and the Race will be the real test of where everyone is. If Mclaren have passed Red Bull and Ferrari as these times appear to show then my pre-season predictions may be way off.

Australia sees 5 World champions on the grid, some promising rookies and a seemingly highly competitive midfield which should make for a corker of a season. This is the first real test to see how the new Movable rear wing works which will no doubt require some tweaking over the first few races. So nearly there, the 5 red lights go out this Sunday morning. Just don't forget to put your clocks forward or you might miss the first half.

2008 Pole position lap by Lewis Hamilton

Circuit map by User:Will Pittenger - Wikimedia Commons