MELBOURNE, Australia — “You are going to see a few guys run out of talent in the race,” Mark Webber predicted to National Speed Sport News prior to the Australian Grand Prix.
The drivers had been running out of talent — and off the track — ever since practice began on Friday morning.
The slipping and sliding and spinning and sideways moments were due in part to the green track made even slicker by the debris blown around because of the windy conditions. And it was because of the lack of traction control and electronic engine braking.
The drivers had recorded countless laps in pre-season testing without the now-banned driver aids, but this was the first time they were all out on the track in anger.
“When the drivers get to a race weekend they take it up another level,” Williams Technical Director Sam Michael said, “so they are pushing a bit harder than they were in testing, especially in qualifying.”
As in testing, most of the incidents happened while braking into corners because the rear of the car is much more unstable without the engine braking system.
Lewis Hamilton told NSSN that the incidents were due to the lack of driver aids, not the slippery track.
“We are all trying to maximize the potential of the car,” he explained, “and it is definitely tricky on corner entries for some people.”
To make it even trickier for the drivers, they headed into the final qualifying session with a pretty heavy fuel load because the cars cannot be refueled between the end of qualifying and the start of the race.
At the start, many drivers complained they had too much wheel spin now that there was no traction control. And the lack of driver aids caused many an incident in the race.
“With the driver aids gone, it makes it more difficult,” Nico Rosberg said.
“Yeah, Nico’s right,” said Hamilton. “It was more demanding on the drivers but also on the tires and on the car. We have no engine braking so it puts a lot more demand on the brakes so the temperature from the brakes, and the whole car is probably quite a lot higher than last year, but in terms of racing, it’s real racing. This is how it should be!”