The departure from the paddock was supposed to be at 1730 but ended up being two hours later. It had been a chaotic race, full of events which called for a long debriefing. The choice of tyres, damage to the cars, the tactics of the other teams, the strategy to adopt – there were many things that the Scuderia Ferrari had to go over after the Australian GP in Melbourne. After this, Michael popped by to congratulate the head of Mercedes Sport, Norbert Haug, for the victory. But once out of the paddock, the five-time world champion immediately took off on holiday with his wife Corinna, ahead of the next race in Malaysia.

At the start the Ferrari driver felt very comfortable. ‘There should be races like this too’, he reflected. ‘Naturally, it wasn’t the result that we wanted, but we mustn’t forget that last year a lot of things went for us. We knew very well that things could not always continue like this, and we continually made this clear. This race was a bit chaotic too. For example, it was difficult to predict what the weather would do, and so it was hard to weigh up if and when to do things. Our choice of tyre, for example, can seem like a mistake in hindsight, but in our opinion it was too wet at the start to go with dry tyres. Also, we couldn’t change them straight away because on the opposite side of the track from the starting grid, and in the finishing staight, it was still raining. And then there was my mistake in hitting the kerb and damaging the car – which happened before the half way point of the race. All in all, I can say I am very satisfied with fourth spot. The season is a long one and the championship struggle is not over after only one race.’

The good news which we can draw from this race is that our old car is still very much competitive. If the conditions had been normal, theoretically we could even have won. So, we go into the next with confidence. But, for me it is still too early to have a complete picture of the potential of the other teams. After a race like this, its hard to gauge the strengths of each team. I still think that for this we have to wait until Malaysia. Last year, after Australia, everyone spoke about how strong Ferrari were and suddenly in Malaysia it was all so different. So, I prefer to wait until the next race before passing judgement.’