Mark Webber has come through with the goods, being the first driver this season to win from pole position and carried on the tradition of the pole sitter winning the Spanish Grand Prix. 

Webber, Vettel and Hamilton all fought for the first corner.  Webber kept his nerve and held his line through the first corner, leaving Vettel to pull back in behind where he narrowly avoided making contact with Hamilton who had a great run into the first corner.  Webber and Vettel would then fight for the next braking zone with Mark again closing the door.  From this point on, Webber would go on to drive a flawless race, managing the gap and posting ever improving fastest laps. 

Sebastian Vettel was the first to pit amung the front runners.  Again Red Bull fumbled the pit stop, the increasingly widening gap in their armour, leading to Vettel eventually losing a place to Hamilton when he and Webber pitted on the next lap.  Webber's stop was perfect, leaving him to drive a straight forward stint to the end of the Grand Prix.

What an eventful race the good people of Melbourne hosted on the weekend. Once again we've seen how a bit of weather can really spice up the racing in what could have otherwise been another boring race. Unfortunately, Red Bull got it wrong in more ways than one.

Obviously Vettel was on the receiving end of another Red Bull reliability glitch. This is a great challenge for any team, however, with the second year of similar car specifications, it seems odd for the team to have moved backwards in this regard. Sebastian could well argue that he has lost two races in a row to reliability issues with Luscious Liz, the pet name he has labelled his car. He may regret doing so, as the relationship has so far been an unhappy one.

Did you happen to catch last weekend's season opener to the 2010 Formula 1 World Championship? I did. I sure did...

Never have I been so excited about a season. All the cards were in place for a fantastic season. Ferrari has a bad season the year before so cut their losses early and decided work on this year's car, meaning it was more likely than not to be on the pace. McLaren had an innovative new rear engine cover/wing arrangement and dominated a few rounds towards the end of the 2009 season. Brawn, who dominated the beginning of last season showed they still had some form towards the end and with Mercedes buying in, they had the cash injection they needed to hang on to the pointy end of the field. Add to this the impressively quick Red Bull team who dominated the end of last season and the comeback of F1 god Michael Schumacher and you had, at least on paper, the makings of the best season in living memory.

Sadly, this year's season opener in Bahrain proved to be a disappointment of biblical proportions. It was dissappointing on so many levels, but worst of all, it was flat out boring. Never have I had to ensure such pain. I have never referred to an F1 race as boring until this most recent race. I watch all the free practice sessions leading up to the weekend. And yet, I still found the race painfully boring. Which means the FIA have a real problem on their hands because if I, a die hard fan is considering turning away from the sport if the next few rounds are anything like Bahrain, how do they ever hope to retain the casual viewer who already criticise the sport as boring due to a lack of overtaking.

Last weekend in Bahrain there was not a lack of overtaking, there was NO overtaking. That's right, other than the first lap, the 1 pitstop and a failing car, there was no overtaking in the top 10, at least any for which I was awake. So what, that has happened in the past you say? Well perhaps, but usually there are more pitstops to break up the action. With the ban on refuelling, all the major runners locked in a one stop strategy which meant there was one set of pitstops a quarter to a third of the way through the race and then it was a case of follow the leader.

So how did we arrive here? Well, here are the key issues I think need to be considered:

Overindulgence is real problem these days. Australia is turning into one of the largest nations in terms of waist measurements and it seems we have no shortage of contestants for The Biggest Loser. It seems people have a tough time calling it quits and saying enough is enough.

Are we ourselves to blame? Of course we are! The only people responsible for our own health is ourselves. However, one must admit that advertising does play a role, but really we shouldn't leave ourselves so open to the suggestion.

Car manufacturers seem to be guilty of the same crimes. Every new model needs to be bigger. But is there really a need? Making cars bigger means they get heavier. The heavier they are the most sophisticated the cars must become at dealing with the bloat. And then of course there are the horsepower wars which always rage until we have some sort of crisis to pull things back into line.

When I first heard Roy & HG going on about this "Grand Slam" of V8 Supercars on the Gold Coast, I thought they were on their usual rant about making V8's an international sport and asking the government to kick in about $100 billion on the venture. However, it seems that someone has been listening and decided to take them up on their advice. The idea is to bring in international drivers to co-drive with existing drivers, rather than having teammates or competitors team up. The results would be spectacular (FACT!). Watching an unfamiliar international driver fight a V8 Supercar around possibly the most daunting of tracks in the championship would not only be a ratings winner nationally, but also has the chance to boost the championship's profile internationally.

Just like in real life, we tried to avoid Facebook. But it has quickly become apparent that the rest of the world doesn't feel the same way. As such, in celebration of Facebook's 6th birthday, we've decided to join in the fun!

So if you too enjoy reconnecting with people you cared little for in the past and posting dull and pointless updates to bore the pants off all your friends, or simply like to feel bad about yourself having seen what everyone else has done with their life, then why not become our friend too by coming a fan of motorcentral's Facebok page by clicking the link below.
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I'd like to think someone at the FIA read my article about the problems with this and last year's point system (F1 Points Mess). Even though I'm sure they didn't, I'm still thrilled they have taken the following steps. The points system has been revised to the following:

1st - 25 points
2nd - 18 points
3rd - 15 points
4th - 12 points
5th - 10 points
6th - 8 points
7th - 6 points
8th - 4 points
9th - 2 points
10th - 1 point

So what's the fuss all about? Well it all hinges on that 2nd place. Instead of scoring 20 points and only having a 5 point difference between first and second, the FIA have revised the system to award second place with 18 point; a difference of 7. This means that a non-finish (DNF) will take only 4 rounds to overcome (assuming the driver who DNF'ed wins every round and their rival comes second). It's not as good as the system from several years ago (which only required 3 rounds), but it is definitely a step in the right direction. Who knows, it may even prove to be the perfect balance.

Bring on the 2010 season!

If you are anything like me you will be hanging for the release of the Golf R. Those of you unfamiliar with the Golf R may be more familiar with it's older brother, the R32. The concept is simple, shoehorn a compact V6 under the bonnet of a Golf and keep the whole thing under control with an all-wheel-drive system.

Volkswagen have changed the formula but maintained it's spirit through ditching the V6 power plant and exploiting Audi S3's 2.0L turbo to make rapid progress. Not only is this already a cracking engine, but it should be lighter and more compact than the outgoing engine, helping weight distribution and ultimately balance. That's not to say the old car had a problem in this department, but there is always room for improvement. My only reservation is that, at least in my opinion, half of the point of buying the R32 over the GTI was the barking sound the 3.2L V6 made. Hopefully the improved balance makes up for this deficit.

Is skipping a testing session ever a good idea? It seem Red Bull Racing think so and have pulled the pin on the first potential opportunity to pit their car against the opposition. Instead the team has decided to make it's track debut at Jerez.

Red Bull seem to instead be turning their focus towards the wind tunnel. Obviously the reason they can get away with this is because the 2010 specifications aren't significantly different to the previous season's. As such, the car is more of an evolution than a complete redesign. From that, the team should have a good understand of how the car is going to behave on the track, while wind tunnel work can be utilised to make incremental gains with minimal changes to the core structure of the car.

Let's hope this is a tactical decision and not a sign of the 2010 campaign running behind schedule.

The FIA hasn't revised the points system within Formula 1 for quite some time now. It was widely speculated that the current system we now hold dear was introduced to try and stop the Schumacher domination of a few years ago. In doing so, we were given a system which rewarded consistency and punished mistakes. Bit by bit, the FIA are taking the fun out of the sport. Getting a single point in F1 used to be precious. Now it's almost like a participation award. This isn't pre-school, this is the big leagues. We don't want to be rewarding people for finishing, we want to reward people for winning! Not only are they banning refuelling and robbing us of a level of in-predictability, but they also had to go and stuff around with the points system.