Australia Preview - Red Bull, or Prancing Horse?

After all the anticipation of the opening round of the championship in Bahrain a fortnight ago, this weekend’s second round is almost as eagerly awaited - if only to see if anyone catch match Red Bull’s fearsome speed, or unsettle Ferrari’s finishing ability.

As things stand after events at Sakhir, Red Bull start the favourite in Melbourne from Ferrari, with McLaren and Mercedes a little slower unless they can get effective updates on to their cars quickly enough.

"We are kind of on the same level as Mercedes, I would say," McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton said after Bahrain. "We just did maybe a better job in Bahrain but it's a battle between us and Mercedes to see who can step up and improve faster and do a better job.

"As for the Red Bull, it’s ridiculously faster than anyone else. It's insane. The downforce they had on their car last year was at some points just about double what we had. Even at the end of the year they had so much more than us, even though we had won a couple of Grands Prix. They have got the fastest car by quite a big step. They should be quite a lot further ahead in general."

Hamilton also believes that, despite Fernando Alonso setting fastest lap in Bahrain by a second from Force India’s Adrian Sutil, that there is still a gap between the Ferrari and the Red Bull. “Fernando was very quick in the race and they are obviously a little bit closer, but it's a good half second,” said the British driver.

Ferrari’s team principal Stefano Domenicali was delighted with their first one-two since France in 2008, but says the reds need to raise their game after reliability concerns obliged them to fit fresh engines for the race, and Felipe Massa had an overheating problem in the race.

"We have just done a check of all the problems we faced in the three days we had in Bahrain," Domenicali said. “Of course the result in the end was very, very good - it was excellent, a first and second place in the first race. It was really an outstanding achievement, but we have seen the list of problems was quite high and we need to address them all and make sure that these are solved before the start of the race in Australia."

Behind the big four, Renault and Force India are expected to fight for ‘best of the rest’ honours, with Williams hoping to take a step closer to them. The R30 showed more speed than expected in Bahrain, but both Robert Kubica and Vitaly Petrov were unlucky not to score points. Force India’s Sutil will be hoping to avoid mistakes, while Vitantonio Liuzzi is determined to build on his good start to the season.

BMW Sauber, too, hope that they have cured the two disparate hydraulic problems that brought Pedro de la Rosa and Kamui Kobayashi to premature halts.

Among the newcomers, Virgin showed they have the fastest car so far but it too has been plagued by hydraulic issues, as was Karun Chandhok’s HRT. The Indian will be hoping for a lot more track time than he got in Bahrain, as he and team mate Bruno Senna get to grips with Formula One racing, while Lotus are hoping that an update can get them some more speed.

Albert Park is a notoriously bumpy track and is always very green on Friday before it rubbers in. Grip levels are usually quite low anyway, so the set-up priority focuses on driveability to generate maximum driver confidence. It is also very hard on brakes, and there have been disc failures in the past.

The ban on refuelling may be felt even more keenly here because of that factor, and management of Bridgestone’s hard and soft compounds could be trickier than it proved in Bahrain even though the compounds are harder here.

Interestingly, the weather forecast suggests that rain showers might further enliven proceedings.

Europe Friday quotes: Ferrari

Luca Badoer - 18th

: I am happy with the way things went today. I expected a difficult day and so it was. It was vital that I did not make any serious mistakes so that I could get through the programme we had established. Now we can begin to work on the car set-up to try and adapt it to my driving style. The team has not set me any specific goal for this weekend and I am pleased about that consideration because it is important I return to having full confidence in the car and with the world of the grand prix weekend. I am also grateful to Michael who wanted to be here this weekend. It is important for me to be able to count on his support, especially from the human point of view and of course, also in terms of technical matters.

Kimi Raikkonen - 11th: It was a positive day. I am happy with the handling of the car and the performance of both types of tyre we have here from Bridgestone. There's no point in looking at the time sheet, because as usual on a Friday, it doesn't tell us much. The first session was rather difficult as the track was very dirty and slippery, but in the second one the situation was much better. I think a podium finish is still a realistic target for us, even if a lot will depend on where we qualify.

Stefano Domenicali - team principal: My first thoughts today are with Felipe and once again, on behalf of the entire team I want to wish him a speedy recovery. From today, his seat in car #3 is occupied by Luca Badoer, who faces a difficult task, but he can count on the support of everyone in the knowledge that Ferrari has every confidence in him. Given his situation - a long time away from racing, an unknown circuit - the first day can be considered a positive experience for Luca. Clearly this weekend is something of a test session for him and that is how it must be judged. At this grand prix, it falls to Kimi more than usual to bring home a useful result to defend our third place in the constructors' classification which, at this point of the season remains our realistic target.