According to Fernando Alonso there will be five Formula One teams who all have a shot at winning the opening round of the Formula One World Championship in Australia.
The 2012 Formula One season was often seen as a lottery during the opening rounds of the championship, seven different winners coming from the first seven different races, with five different teams powering those drivers to victory.
But the races were not quite the highly competitive affairs you’d imagine when looking back on the results. Each race had its own story, with most all dominated by one team who found the sweet spot on the Pirelli tyres while the other teams battled for consistency.
This season however proves to be different, the Pirelli rubber is understood a lot better by the teams and while it should create various race strategies and exciting pit-stop battles, the cars and drivers on the track should determine the results.
2012 ended with McLaren, Red Bull and Ferrari mostly on top, but limited regulation changes have allowed both Lotus and Mercedes to close the gap and former two-time Formula One World Champion Fernando Alonso believes anyone driving one of those five cars could take victory on Sunday.
‘Mercedes, McLaren, Ferrari, Lotus and Red Bull showed potential in testing. Difficult to choose,’ Alonso told the BBC.
‘No-one knows who can win this race at the moment, We need to wait and see and answer some questions that winter testing didn’t answer.
‘It will maybe not be the same as last year with mixed results.
‘I expect the five top teams to have a little advantage and not to have many surprises in the first races.
‘But from these five top teams it is really difficult to see who has the extra two or three tenths that can make you win. It is very close.’
Our current VitalF1 poll suggests that Lotus driver Kimi Raikonnen could be the early season favourite, taking 44% of the poll.
Who will win the Australian GP?
Raikkonen 44%
Alonso 20%
Button 17%
Vettel 8%
Hamilton 6%
Perez 2%
Webber 1%
Rosberg 1%
Massa 1%
To vote use the voting panel to the right of this article.
Do not forget to enter the Vital F1 Prediction Competition!
Entries must be made before qualifying begins – CLICK HERE.
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