Quote Originally Posted by zako85 View Post
It's very premature indeed to judge the whole season by its first race. The affluent teams will continue car development during the season, and the engine manufacturers will continue the development as well since most of them have a number of tokens left.

Nonetheless, I am willing to believe into the rumor, promoted by all the news articles, quotes and blogs, that the Renault engine development has seriously fallen behind. Ferrari is now going to be clearly the number two engine, and the pace of Ferraris and Saubers confirmed this during the Australian GP. This doesn't mean that Ferrari will always stay in front of Red Bull during the season. Red Bull is an expert at tweaking the chassis, and they have proven in 2013 that they can bounce up from an also run up to a dominant team.
I don't think the season is judged by the first race and it is clear Ferrari will have their hands full with Williams and Red Bull this year. I just think P3 in the opening race is worth celebrating. It is sort of a milestone to put it this way. Good start of a new era.

It is clear there will be many races, where Vettel won't be on the podium. And can win a race this year only if Mercedes trip over themselves, which can happen though - happen thrice last year with Ricciardo capitalizing.

However, I also would not write Renault off so quickly.