Nigel Roebuck's verdict on the start of F1's new era

In terms of predicting how a season will go, history shows it's a mistake to set too much store by what happens in Melbourne. For one thing, it's the first race of the year; for another, Albert Park is hardly a typical Formula 1 circuit.

That said, the events of last weekend suggested that the Barcelona tests did not lie, that - Saints Be Praised - at last the endless Mercedes domination is under genuine threat.

Yes, you can say that if Lewis Hamilton hadn't pitted early, then lost time behind Max Verstappen, he would have been ahead when Sebastian Vettel came back out after his stop, and you can throw in that 'track position' - with this latest generation of cars - is now more crucial than ever.

You can say all that, but while it may be a different story in China or Bahrain, the fact is that Vettel and Ferrari won the Australian Grand Prix conclusively.

Despite the slight increase in allocation this year, drivers still reported the need for 'fuel saving', but a great plus is that the drivers, rather than pussy-footing around on ridiculous 'high degradation' tyres, at last have Pirellis on which they can race, and for long periods at a time.

Thanks to the increase in downforce, it didn't take a Rhodes Scholar to predict there wouldn't be much passing last Sunday, but if the race was absorbing rather than thrilling, at least it felt like a contest again.

Already, though, the minds of Ross Brawn and others are on the next Formula 1, and with good reason. At a distance the latest cars, with their huge tyres, look good in a meaty sort of way, albeit festooned with unsightly appendages, including - new for 2017, folks - T-wings, which look like TV aerials. The wider front wings may be masterpieces of carbon sculpture, but do nothing to improve 'The Show'. Quite the opposite, in fact, but then we expected that, didn't we?

When Bernie Ecclestone suggested that the cars needed to be way quicker, and the F1 Strategy Group meekly went along with him, immediately the holy grail became 'more downforce', even though Lewis Hamilton and others pointed out that it was the last thing Formula 1 needed.

Problem was, given the whale-like cars of today, with their cumbersome hybrid power units, how else were they to be speeded up? "As I anticipated," Lewis said at the weekend, "following another car is a lot worse than before."

Albert Park, as we said, is something of an anomaly of an F1 circuit, so we should wait a while before passing judgement on the new cars, good and bad. It may be that when we get to more traditional tracks lap times will indeed be five seconds quicker, as suggested by some, but that was far from the case in Melbourne.

Come to that, although it may be very different in Malaysia or Singapore, on the podium the drivers looked anything but wiped out, something else that was predicted.

Down the road Brawn speaks of 'a more affordable power unit', such as could be produced by a company like Cosworth, thereby reducing reliance on the major manufacturers. To be more affordable, it would need to be simpler, although presumably retaining its 'hybrid' credentials.

When asked in Melbourne what he would like to see, Sebastian Vettel said "V12!", and no purist would take issue, but the high priest of political correctness Jean Todt recently came out with the fatuous comment that 'the public wouldn't stand for noisy engines anymore'. Ah yes, all that suburban housing alongside Becketts and the Curva Grande...

Through the winter Ferrari people maintained something of a vow of silence, and while this was manna for Kimi Raikkonen and nothing new for Maurizio Arrivabene, who - when not angry - comes across like a human press release, Vettel traditionally has plenty to say, not least on the radio.

In Melbourne, not surprisingly, his sunny disposition made a welcome reappearance, but one wondered how it felt to James Allison, now installed at Mercedes, to see 'his' Ferrari ahead of Hamilton and the quietly impressive Valtteri Bottas.

At the other end of the pack, meantime, Fernando Alonso and Stoffel Vandoorne did not mince their words about the Honda situation. "I don't think I ever drove a better race," said Fernando, "but I've rarely sat in a less competitive car."

And a remark from Stoffel reminded one of his team-mate's past comment that the Honda was 'like a GP2 engine': "We lack so much power that it's impossible to fight - we're really driving in another category." Zak Brown may have galvanised McLaren, but can he - can anyone - galvanise Honda?

After coming through the second Barcelona test without apparent problem after being injured in January's Race of Champions, Pascal Wehrlein caused a surprise by declaring after the first day that he doubted his ability to complete the race, and was withdrawing.

I was amazed by this. Just as I was in Adelaide 30 years ago, when Stefano Modena, making his F1 debut, came in after 30 laps, saying he was too exhausted to continue. Keke Rosberg's comment was to the point: "In your first grand prix you carry the bloody car over the line if you have to. You can forget him..."

This wasn't Wehrlein's first race, of course, but his decision allowed Antonio Giovinazzi into the Sauber, and - with only a single day of practice - he impressed in the Ferrari-engined car. At Maranello they think highly of Giovinazzi, and with Raikkonen's contract up at the end of the year, some see him alongside Vettel in 2018.

One race down, 19 to go, and if most people's money remains on Hamilton, at least this time he will be in a fight with more than his team-mate. As for the new Formula 1, more than ever one suspects that races will be decided by the sprint to the first corner.

As Bottas said: "Once you get within a couple of seconds of another car, you lose so much grip - definitely more than before..." Not good.