Motorsport: Formula 1 opener was a total fizzer

Lewis Hamilton leads the field at the start of the 2018 Australian Grand Prix. Photo / Getty Images

Well, there you have it. The opening salvo of the 2018 Formula One season was like one of those fireworks you light, run away and look on in great expectation to be entertained. And all it does is go fzzzzzzzzzzzz, splutter, emits a puff of smoke and then fizzles out.

In the run up to the opening race at Albert Park for the Australian Grand Prix we were assured by the sport's new owners things would be different. The cars would sound better, there would be more passing, the racing would be, well, like racing. And what did we get? A procession of very expensive cars playing follow the leader lap, after lap, after lap.

The thing that did force a small chuckle to inadvertently pass my lips, was that the most controversial thing involved a virtual safety car. I would have been happy to have seen some virtual racing, or even pretend racing, but more of that later.

I only tuned in to watch the race because New Zealander Brendon Hartley was about to start his first full season. I thought he qualified quite well, but heading into the first corner he flat spotted his tyres and then it was into the pits. He rejoined the race on his own and remained on his own for the majority of the race.

Hartley did a good job, albeit at the back of the field, and you have to remember he did finish the race with a straight car. More than a few others did.

Half way through the race a thought popped into my head. It reminded me of watching a train set my mate had in his garage years ago. The train would go past followed by the carriages and a few minutes later it would do exactly the same again with everything in the same order.

Back to the virtual safety car for a moment, for that to be the most controversial moment — well it wasn't actually, it was Mercedes stuffing up their timing — does not bode well looking to the rest of the season.

The next highlight of the race was, according to the commentators, was the two Haas cars breaking down. When did a mid-pack mechanical failure become a major highlight in a motor race? Sure, if the leader's car blows up with smoke and fury on the last lap that's exciting. Not when a team can't fit a wheel properly and its cars wobble to a stop.

I have to give some credit where credit's due. I hope the race commentators get paid a shed load of money, because trying to make that load of old tosh over the weekend sound interesting takes some serious self-belief in something that's been inherently boring for years. Good luck fellas for the rest of the season.

On a side note, if an organisation is going to launch a 'new' logo (F1) that looks like a reject from the late 1980s, you'd think they'd would want to also recreate the racing from the same era. Just saying.

To shut the lid on the weekend, I reckon there will have been a lot of diehard F1 fans converted to Supercars racing because that was well, racing.