What we learned from Melbourne so far

Optimism engulfed Formula 1 after pre-season testing, with fans and paddock insiders alike excitedly asking the same question: 'Is Ferrari really quicker than Mercedes?'

The anticipation was palpable for F1's new era, but Ferrari's performance at Barcelona meant those arriving in Melbourne for the curtain-raising Australian Grand Prix were even more eager to find out the truth.

Unfortunately, it seems the reality is that while a new dawn broke for F1 on Friday when the 2017 cars hit the track for the first time on a race weekend, the headlines from the two practice sessions of the season make it look very 'same stuff, different ruleset'.

There was much more to be learned, though, with Red Bull having kept its cards close to its chest in testing and the McLaren-Honda debacle going from bad to farce among the main topics leading up to Australia.

Autosport's team on the ground had plenty of questions in the build-up to the first event of the season, and so far Melbourne has offered several answers.

MERCEDES - WITH HAMILTON - IS ON TOP AFTER ALL
Andrew van Leeuwen (@avlmelbourne)

After all the pre-season chat about Ferrari's pace, Lewis Hamilton came out swinging in Melbourne.

The Mercedes driver was wildly fast on Friday. Not only was he the only driver to drop under the 1m24s mark, but his 1m23.620s was also 0.547 seconds clear of the field, 0.556s clear of new team-mate Valtteri Bottas, and more than a second clear of Daniel Ricciardo's Red Bull.

It was a supreme showing of strength from the three-time champion, and a worrying sign for anyone looking for a shake-up in the running order.

"Well, I'm on it," said Hamilton with a chuckle after practice two.

"I didn't know what to expect coming into today, whether we'd be ahead or not.

"It's a wonderful feeling firstly to have a car so strong, and we're in a good place. It was a night and day difference to how the car felt on the last day of testing, which was kind of a relief, I guess, for all of us."

We can also expect the lap records to be smashed as the weekend progresses. Hamilton's time was just under a tenth slower than the unofficial lap record set by Sebastian Vettel in 2011, and already half a second quicker than Michael Schumacher's official race lap record from '04.

BOTTAS DOES NOT LOOK COMFORTABLE
Scott Mitchell (@ScottAutosport)

Hamilton might be in the zone in Melbourne, but his performance was definitely flattered by a messy couple of sessions for his new team-mate Bottas.

Even the Finn admitted he was surprised to be more than half a second slower than Hamilton in both Friday sessions, although mistakes on his ultra-soft tyre runs contributed to that.

Bottas has identified those performance runs as his main area to focus on ahead of Saturday practice and qualifying, and he'll need to quickly strike a balance that lets him push without those errors creeping in.

"I'm not worried yet," Bottas insists. "Looking at the race, it's looking OK but the short runs are my priority tonight, to get that fixed and try to find a bit more pace for qualifying."

Based on Hamilton's form and the underwhelming Ferrari challenge on Friday, all those watching on will be hoping his pursuit of more performance is a fruitful one.

FERRARI AND RED BULL HAVE SLIPPED BACK
Andrew van Leeuwen (@avlmelbourne)

Apart from Hamilton, none of the key contenders was all that happy on Friday evening. Poor balance and struggles with set-up were common issues in both the Ferrari and Red Bull garages. Vettel was best of the rest in the afternoon, but felt that the car wasn't working anywhere near its potential.

"The car still doesn't yet feel as good as it should," said the German. "The balance wasn't yet where I want it to be, so I think we can still do a decent step forward."

Kimi Raikkonen had his own complaints over balance and set-up: "Nothing was as clean as we wanted and for sure we have things to improve. We have to look at the big picture. It's hard to say from today where we're going to be against the Mercedes, but we have to improve in a few areas and then we will see."

There was a similar tune being sung by the Red Bull drivers.

"In the morning we looked pretty strong and then we did try to obviously go quicker in the afternoon," said Ricciardo. "We made some changes [that] probably didn't work out the way Max [Verstappen] and myself wanted or expected."

RENAULT HAS GOT ITS ACT TOGETHER...
Scott Mitchell (@ScottAutosport)

Testing was frustrating for the Renault-powered teams, thanks to a problem with insulation on the MGU-K unit in the ERS - for which the French manufacturer has introduced an all-new design this year as part of a major overhaul of the engine.

Still, the positive was that Renault insisted it had a solution on the horizon, having identified the issue before testing had even started. Its "big fix" made it to Melbourne - and it looks like it's worked.

The trio of Renault teams - the works outfit, Red Bull and Toro Rosso - were the least productive of all in testing, with the exception of McLaren-Honda. That story changed on Friday in Australia, although Max Verstappen's Turn 12 off in second practice, which damaged his floor and limited his running, and Jolyon Palmer's shunt makes the final mileage count misleading.

Nico Hulkenberg, Daniil Kvyat and Carlos Sainz Jr matched the mileage of those running with Mercedes and Ferrari power in second practice, and Ricciardo wasn't far behind. Palmer lost time in the morning because of a gearbox-related issue, but it seems there's not an engine problem in sight.

Given the hope attached to Red Bull by those yearning for a proper multi-team fight at the front, this can only be good news for F1 2017.

...AND McLAREN-HONDA'S PICKED UP AS WELL
Scott Mitchell (@ScottAutosport)

After a disastrous pre-season performance, and McLaren sounding out Mercedes about a possible engine supply if things with Honda did not improve, the MCL32s were under great scrutiny in Melbourne.

Fernando Alonso's 12th place in second practice was a surprise given the talk of McLaren battling to just avoid the final row of the grid in qualifying. And Stoffel Vandoorne's 33-lap haul in practice two was about as much mileage as anyone else managed in that session.

That points to genuine progress from the team - although not enough to avoid further jokes from Alonso, who laughed that his motivation for the weekend was "trying to get miracles".

"At least we were able to run more than winter testing, and every time you're on track you learn things," he said. "We lost a lot of time on the track in Barcelona and today we recovered some of that time. We were able to test some new components that we brought here and I think they were working fine, which is a positive.

"There's definitely a lot to come from ourselves and maximising the potential in the car - it's not unlocked completely."

KERB CRAWLING HURTS AT TURN 12
Andrew van Leeuwen (@avlmelbourne)

The high-speed complex consisting of Turns 11 and 12 got a big birthday as part of the Albert Park revamp for the quicker cars, including the installation of a 'double negative kerb' on the exit.

What that effectively means is replacing the smooth concrete run-off on exit with a second sawtooth kerb in a bid to make running wide as uncomfortable as possible for the drivers.

And it worked pretty well.

Verstappen was the most noteworthy driver to take a trip to double negative land, spraying his Red Bull wide on his ultra-soft tyre run during second practice, while Hulkenberg claimed he was "sucked in" by it during the first practice session.

"I had a similar thing in FP1," said the Renault driver.

"It is super-high-speed at the exit and if you take a little bit too much that kerb sucks you in and there's no way out for you.

"You get hits on the chassis and the floor. The old one was a bit more fun, a bit more friendly to the cars. I don't see why we had to change it, but that's what it is now."

THESE NEW CARS BITE
Scott Mitchell (@ScottAutosport)

Palmer's a long way from his racing career being over, but he could potentially find a job in clairvoyance. Discussing the manner in which the new cars are more challenging to control - with some reports of drivers losing grip with little warning in testing - on Thursday, Palmer said Melbourne offered the perfect storm for somebody to get caught out.

"Coming to any track with close barriers and high-speed corners is more challenging," he said. "The speed is higher [this season], and when it's bumpier you've got more risk as well. When you lose the car you're at a higher speed and you've got to react quicker to save it."

Little over 24 hours later and Palmer was back in front of the media, this time explaining his heavy crash at the final corner - the rear let go, and the Renault slammed hard into the tyres.

"When the rear went I had no chance," he said. "It's the first time I've had that sort of problem in this car. It just let go."

Several other incidents occurred through the practice sessions, including Turn 1 offs for Ricciardo and Raikkonen, Romain Grosjean running wide at Turn 3, Verstappen taking a wild ride exiting Turn 12 and Marcus Ericsson spinning his Sauber into the gravel at Turn 6.

THE FIA'S T-WING CLAMPDOWN HAS BEGUN
Scott Mitchell (@ScottAutosport)

Images of the unpopular T-wings flexing were quite common during testing at Barcelona. It led to FIA director Charlie Whiting confirming that the governing body's technical delegate Jo Bauer would be checking the devices in Melbourne - and Haas is the first team to feel the burn.

Television images repeatedly showed the device on the VF-17s of Grosjean and Kevin Magnussen moving significantly in opening practice, and when the cars emerged (before any other, ironically) at the start of the second session the T-wing was absent on both.

The loss of the T-wing didn't stop Grosjean going eighth quickest, but team boss Gunther Steiner said the team's data proved there was an aerodynamic gain.

It also seems rulemakers are not going to stop with short-term bans, either. Whiting expects shark fins and T-wings to be completely removed for next year given the backlash from fans over the aero appendages, an unintended consequence of the new regulations.

ONE-STOPPERS LOOK LIKELY - FOR NOW
Adam Cooper (@adamcooperf1)

Pirelli believes the ultra-soft will be the most popular tyre compound in the Australian Grand Prix and has predicted most teams will opt for a one-stop strategy on Sunday.

Friday practice pacesetter Hamilton managed a 25-lap run on the ultra-soft tyres in the afternoon session, which led Pirelli's F1 boss Mario Isola to declare: "If I look at the number [for] degradation now, we are below the target."

Some observers have expressed concern that a succession of one-stop races will not be entertaining enough, and offer limited strategic variety. Pirelli reckons over the course of the season the aero development will put extra loads on the tyres and one-stoppers will become less likely.

Perhaps more encouragingly, Isola remains confident that the drivers will be able to race hard, even with one-stoppers.

"What is good is that the overheating is very, very limited, and this is an important factor that gives the drivers the ability to push on the tyres," he added.