So it is all on you, Nico Rosberg. No pressure. After only one race of the 2015 Formula One season it already appears that whether this season turns out to be good or bad rests solely on the shoulders of the 29-year-old German.
After just a single race it’s clear F1 is in a mess. Only 15 cars started in Australia (one team, Manor, did not even leave the garage in Melbourne), Red Bull Racing are already making veiled threats about quitting the sport unless the regulations change, and the once great McLaren were trying to put a positive spin on finishing last of the classified runners at a venue they have won six times at previously.
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Sauber spent most of the weekend in the news for the wrong reasons. The team got themselves in a tangled legal mess after they had three drivers contracted to race for them this year. It led to them spending as much time in court as on the track in Melbourne.
And there is still the ongoing financial problems for many of the teams as they struggle to cope with the high costs of competing. The debate on how to fairly distribute F1’s money is set to run for much of the season.
F1 in crisis is by no means a new phenomenon. Two teams fell off the grid towards the end of last year, there were concerns over falling global TV audiences as well as declining crowds at some venues, most notably Germany, as well as arguments over engine regulations between the teams.
But a lot of that was overshadowed by the title race being fought between the Mercedes-GP drivers, Lewis Hamilton and Rosberg, with the pair battling it out against a backdrop of accusations of cheating and contact on track as well as close racing.
The Mercedes were head and shoulders above the rest of the field last year, but at least Hamilton and Rosberg were competitive with each other, and there appeared genuine animosity on occasions between the pair on occasions, which only increased the spotlight on them.
Hamilton came out on top winning 11 of the 19 races, but a mixture of Rosberg’s consistency and Hamilton’s misfortune with car reliability early in the season ensured it went down to the wire at the Etihad Airways Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.
In Australia, Hamilton continued where he left off by winning, with Rosberg a close second – the Briton has won seven of the last eight races in F1.
It is crucial not only for Rosberg but for F1 that the German halts Hamilton’s momentum quickly, ideally in Malaysia, on March 29, the venue for the second round of the season.
Rosberg cannot afford to let a man, already full of confidence, pull away and open up a sizeable lead in the championship, and he cannot rely on mechanical problems hindering his rival like last year either.
Rosberg had a great opportunity to be crowned world champion last year, but hecame up short. But this year he has another good opportunity. Mercedes have a clear performance advantage of between 0.5 to one second a lap over their nearest rivals, so another year of Mercedes domination looks likely.
The good news for Rosberg is that he is in the best car on the grid. The bad news is he regularly loses to his teammate on Sunday afternoons. Last year, in races where neither driver had a problem with his car all weekend, the score was 7-3 to Hamilton.
On his day though Rosberg is capable of beating Hamilton. He was superb in Monaco last season, a performance overshadowed by the allegations from Hamilton that Rosberg had deliberately gone off in qualifying to prevent him taking pole position, and under huge pressure in Brazil he held off Hamilton with a faultless drive.
Rosberg has to find more of those days, and quickly. If he does not and Hamilton keeps winning, the world champion is going to disappear into the distance and we are facing a season similar to the Sebastian Vettel/Red Bull dominated ones in 2011 and 2013 where the question rapidly becomes when, not if, the title will be wrapped up.
A one-sided title race is not what F1 needs right now. With so much wrong with the sport, both on and off the track, it desperately needs a Hamilton v Rosberg repeat.
If spectators and TV viewers do not have a title fight to keep them occupied, they will only have the constant infighting that threatens to pull F1 for entertainment. They could stop watching it altogether.
A lot is hanging on Rosberg stepping up and to the challenge of his teammate.
Over to you, Nico.
gcaygill@thenational.ae
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