The first race of the season was a whitewash for McLaren and the team predicted that their advantage would be all the more pronounced at Interlagos, a circuit that requires a car that handles well and it seems like this could be the case following their dominance at Silverstone testing over the last 2 weeks.

In Australia Bridgestone had the upper hand in the tyre war with cars shod with the Japanese rubber hardly marking their tyres in the race where the Goodyear teams were suffering from serious blistering within 10 laps of a pit stop. In response to this the Akron, Ohio tyre manufacturer have produced a new tyre they believe is the equal of the Bridgestone.

A lap of Interlagos

From the steep, downhill first chicane to the flat-out kinks at the end of the lap, Interlagos is a blast. Tight hairpins; fast, off-camber turns; two long straights and a bumpy surface mean this is a challenge for drivers and engineers alike. The weather plays a vital factor, as the afternoon downpour often coincides with the race - remember the atrocious conditions of 2 years ago? With two realistic overtaking opportunities, expect the action to be non-stop from green flag to chequer.

Circuit length: 2.687 miles / 4.325 km Race length: 71 laps (190.777 miles / 307.075 km)

What happened last year?

The Field

Winfield Williams-Mecachrome Goodyear
Williams had a poor Australian Grand Prix by their own standards but were not downhearted from their relative lack of pace. After the race Patrick Head commented that at least they were "Best of the rest" and that, for the moment at least, they will have to settle for that. Whilst the Mecachrome is still a better engine than most on the grid, it is apparent that it is not as developed as it would have been if Renault still had a works F1 presence and next to the Mercedes engine it looks weak. I would expect them to finish behind the McLarens but ahead of the other runners with Jacques Villeneuve taking the spoils in qualifying but Heinz-Harald Frentzen ending up ahead in the race.

Marlboro Scuderia Ferrari Goodyear
Ferrari didn't have a terrible race in Australia as until the retirement of Michael Schumacher, they looked to be settling into the 3rd place position quite well. Sadly a 5 lap run is not enough to decide how badly Schumacher would have suffered from tyre wear, but his team mate Eddie Irvine seemed not to wear his Goodyears too badly en route to his 4th place finish. Interlagos has not treated the Scuderia well over recent seasons as their notorius lack of reliability is exacerbated by the bumps at the Brazilian track. Schumacher will more than likely out-qualify and out-race Irvine and I would expect him to be chasing the Williams pair hard for a podium finish with Irvine finishing in the points.

Mild Seven Benetton-Playlife Bridgestone
Melbourne was rather lack lustre race for Benetton with Giancarlo Fisichella dropping out of the race and Alex Wurz not managing to get up to speed at any point over the weekend. Until his retirement Fisichella was one of the faster runners on the track and was clearly being held up by Jacques Villeneuve, showing that the Benetton-Playlife and Bridgestone rubber is one of the fastest combinations around. Wurz is again racing at a circuit that is new to him and it usually takes a driver a couple of trips to Interlagos to get the best from himself so don't expect much from the Austrian here. Giancarlo will be a different propect and expect him to be close behind Schumacher and the Williams drivers.

West McLaren-Mercedes Bridgestone
What can I say? Anything other than total domination by the new-age Silver Arrows will be a surprise. Such is their advantage that a repeat of Melbourne, where they lapped everyone else at least one, could easily be on the cards. The only thing to think about is which driver will come out on top. Following from the end of last season and the last race, I would think that Mika Hakkinen will take pole with David Coulthard close behind. In the race on the other hand, if the McLaren drivers are running 1-2 again, expect it to be Coulthard leading as with the banning of team orders I think his lost points will be "given back" by the team as soon as possible.

Benson & Hedges Jordan-Mugen Honda Goodyear
Jordan are another team whose opening Grand Prix of the 1998 season was more than a little inconclusive. Whilst they were still one of the top runners outside the Big Four, they weren't making any inroads into the teams above as was expected. With both drivers within 7 thousandths of a second of each other in qualifying I believe that they had extracted the maximum from the J198 and the Mugen Honda engine. This indicates that to get the increase in performance, the team need to work on fixing the understeer that has plagued the car so far. In Brazil expect Damon Hill to out-qualify and out-race Ralf Schumacher as the Englishman always goes well at Interlagos. The team may grab a point if they're lucky but there are so many cars ahead of them that this seems unlikely.

Gauloises Blondes Prost-Peugeot Bridgestone
Alain Prost's team did exactly what they said they hoped they would do in Australia, namely get a car to the finish. While Olivier Panis finished the race 1 lap down and dead last, Jarno Trulli retired on lap 27 after the gearbox on his AP02 decided to call it a day. Although they've cured the worst of the reliability problems the team are now hampered by the lack of development they have been able to carry out on the car leaving them mired in the midfield rather than fighting with the Big Four teams. Based on testing and the Australian Grand Prix I would expect to see Jarno Trulli beat his more experienced team mate, Olivier Panis.

Red Bull Sauber-Petronas Goodyear
Depending on how you look at the Australian Grand Prix Sauber had a good Grand Prix or a terrible race. The difference between Johnny Herbert and Jean Alesi looked more like they were in different teams than just different cars with Herbert qualifying 7 places and almost 2 seconds faster. To make matters worse, while Herbert finished the race in 6th after battling hard for the entire race, Alesi motored around with cars he should have beaten and retired with a blown engine 17 laps from the end. Jean has been testing at Maranello over the last 2 weeks to get to grips with the C17 and thinks he finally has an idea of how to get the best from it. In Brazil he should be closer but while I expect Herbert to qualify and race in the top 6, I would expect Alesi to be just inside the top 10.

Danka Arrows-TWR Bridgestone
Arrows, like Prost and Stewart, are having huge problems because of the innovative approach they have taken to their 1998 challenger but, in some ways, the innovations have had the desired approach. Whilst the qualifying performances of neither driver were that good, in the race Mika Salo was mixing it with Jordan, Prost and Benetton and turning some pretty fast laps until his gearbox failed. Pedro Diniz also retired (hydraulics) but was significantly slower than his new team mate as he had been throughout the weekend. Salo will be the faster of the two drivers over the weekend, but unless they've made a huge leap in reliability they won't have the chance to get anywhere near the front.

Stewart-Ford Bridgestone
Another team who are paying the price of innovation. Both the engine and the gearbox are prone to give up the ghost at any time between starting the car and arriving in the pits after a run and because of this neither driver has had a chance to test properly and get to grips with their pukka '98 machines. If the car stays together I suspect that it will be competitive but as this seems unlikely at the moment who can tell? From past performances I would expect both drivers to be about equal with Rubens Barrichello just edging out Jan Magnussen in qualifying and the race.

Tyrrell-Ford Goodyear
Like at Sauber, Tyrrell almost appear to be running two different teams, one for Japanese charger Toranasuke Takagi and the other for Brazilian journeyman Ricardo Rosset. Although Rosset has said he needs time to ease himself back into the top flight of World motorsport, he needs to step up a gear if he is to prove that he deserves his seat in F1. Takagi on the other hand proved to be the revelation of Melbourne, qualifying his Tyrrell a superb 13th. Due to Tora's second lap incident we have yet to see how well it runs in race conditions, but don't be surprised to see at least one of the black, white and silver cars in the top 10. How will the intra team battle go? Well, if Rosset gets close to Takagi I will be surprised and if he beats him I will be truly shocked.

Minardi-Ford Bridgestone
As usual I can't think of much to say about Minardi. Teenager and F1 newcomer Esteban Tuero acquitted himself well in Australia showing a greater level of maturity than many expected. Shinji Nakano, on the other hand, proved nothing beyond providing more evidence that he is out of his depth in F1. Little can be expected of the most underfunded team in F1 and unless they sort out their reliability problems, little will be delivered. Expect them to bring up the rear and Tuero to beat Nakano at every turn.

Enjoy the race...