Setting the scene for the Australian Grand Prix
After doing the rounds of the Melbourne paddock on the Thursday of the Australian GP weekend, Edd Straw discovers that nobody is giving anything away just yet…
After six weeks of the testing phoney war, the serious stuff is at last under way... sort of. After six weeks of pre-season testing during which the public utterances of the major players were vague and non-committal, Thursday in the Australian Grand Prix paddock offered much the same thing. There wasn't even the advantage of some pleasant Melbourne weather, with more wind and rain than we saw at any time in Spain.
For the most part, Thursday was about downplaying expectations. The exception was Ferrari, whose drivers started the day at a Shell press conference held at V-Power Caffe Veloce. Fernando Alonso and Felipe Massa both tried out the coffee-making machinery as one of those photo-ops that proliferate before the first race of the season. They were doubtless delighted to get their hands on machinery that actually worked after a tough winter in the F2012.
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