One of the major talking points throughout the weekend was, of course, the Pirelli tyres. They did not degrade as rapidly as everyone had been predicting - and, if you think about it, that in itself made their performance unpredictable! And yet there were still degradation issues, with different wear rates for different teams, even different drivers within the same team, as well as different strategies, different compound choices for people on the same strategy, and also issues with generating heat into the rubber.

If that was not enough variety to bode well for the rest of the season, I don’t know what is. And here are three more points for anyone else who thought the Pirelli tyres turned out to be a damp squib. Firstly, Melbourne is not a high-wear circuit. Secondly, there were no safety cars - a rarity for Melbourne - which would have added a further complication. Thirdly, it just so happened that the two fastest men up front, Vettel and Lewis Hamilton, were also the ones making fewer stops.

The likes of Fernando Alonso and Mark Webber who made an extra stop started the race behind, and fell further behind thanks to their additional tyre change - and yet Alonso was rapidly catching Vitaly Petrov towards the end. You can almost be certain that there will be occasions this year when in fact the slower cars make fewer stops and are leading towards the end, but are being caught by faster cars who have made more stops, and you have a genuine tortoise and hare scenario in the final stint.

Of the other two key initiatives for 2011, KERS did not prove to be much of a power boost to increase overtaking, but we knew that from 2009 anyway. But Red Bull breathed new intrigue on the KERS front by not using it at all on Saturday and Sunday. Needless to say, Vettel was hardly disadvantaged by that. Suddenly this raises an interesting possibility. Might some teams turn off KERS at some events? Might we see more KERS cars versus non-KERS cars action than we had originally expected?

And then of course there was the adjustable rear wing, or in F1 acronym-speak, the Drag Reduction System or DRS. It did not create an overtaking bonanza, and that was probably a good thing. The front straight leading into turn 1 was also the wrong place for the DRS zone anyway; the run to turn 3 or turn 13 would have been much better. Plus even if the DRS doesn’t lead to a pass, it may create opportunities for the following corner. So the jury remains out on the effectiveness of the system.

For all of these changes though, there was a rather neat continuity of how the season had finished in Abu Dhabi last year. There was Hamilton wringing the maximum out of his McLaren, Webber proving a disappointment, Petrov starring, and Alonso unable to finish ahead of the Russian! And, of course, there was Vettel being untouchable up front. With the confidence that comes from having the number 1 on his car, he was simply in a different plane in both qualifying and the race here in Australia.

In the race, it wasn’t quite just a matter of leading from the front and staying there; he made an assertive move on Jenson Button that was crucial to staying ahead of Hamilton during the first pit sequence, but admittedly Jenson’s race was compromised and he did not put up much of a fight. It will be interesting to see how Vettel reacts in a genuine battle this year, to see if he has improved in that regard. For regardless of his dominance in Melbourne, the signs are that he won’t always have it that easy.

For his team-mate Webber, though, a struggling 5th place was not a good way to start the season. What’s worse, as a confidence driver his self-belief will have been badly dented after the gap to Vettel in Q3 and his haplessness in the race. But in this regard I have read an excellent piece by Peter Windsor in the past week. For all his failings in trying to get USF1 up and running, Windsor remains one of the best F1 analysts and observers of driving technique going around.

Windsor says that Webber’s technique relies on precision in braking points and steering inputs, and then reacting when the car gets loose. Vettel, however, is better able to pre-empt changes in grip, which makes him more able to be at one with the car and dance with the car through a corner. That allows him to push the limits which is telling at a low-grip track like Melbourne. In the hundredths that Webber loses whilst reacting to something unexpected, Vettel has already dealt with the same problem and moved on.

This is a great description of the kind of genius that sets the likes of Vettel, Hamilton and Alonso apart. That additional deftness of touch explains the gap that Vettel had over Webber and also Mark’s level of tyre wear. Mark can console himself with the thought that at other tracks where precision is key - sweeping tracks like Sepang, Silverstone and Spa, or technical tracks like Monaco, the Hungaroring and Interlagos - he will be back. Except that he won’t ever have a gap over Vettel like Sebastian had on him here.

But arguably the bigger story than Red Bull’s inherent pace is who their primary challenger is, and how strong that challenge might be. As it turned out, there was not much publicocrap in Martin Whitmarsh’s promise that a simpler exhaust system on the McLaren would improve their testing pace by a second. The MP4-26 appears to have dodged a bullet and the team has started the season on something of an equal footing with its rivals rather than some way behind.

The fact that McLaren’s new parts were untried means that there’s scope for improvement which in turn means that Red Bull will need to be wary. Especially since it’s exactly when Hamilton gets a sniff like this that he brings out his best. He was sensational in Q3 to get onto the front row, and without his loose floor in the race he would have put even more pressure on Vettel than he already did. All of a sudden, he has zoomed into title contention when a fortnight ago everyone had written McLaren off.

When it mattered, Button once again conceded a deficit to Hamilton. It will be interesting to see whether he can bring himself onto level terms with Lewis, but one suspects that he won’t. Whilst Button might be gentler on his tyres this season, that’s only part of the story. When it comes down to adjusting to falling grip levels in a race scenario Hamilton will have the edge, and if the Pirellis are also tricky to warm up, Jenson’s troubles in the Brawn in 2009 suggests that Hamilton will qualify better as well.

Jenson’s race was of course scuppered by falling behind Petrov and Felipe Massa at the start, and then his botched move on Massa which saw him earn a drive-through penalty. What he should have done was redress immediately and let Massa back past. As far as escape-road passes go, this one was relatively clear-cut. By hesitating unnecessarily, it allowed the Ferraris to blindside him by swapping places, and then seal his fate by pitting which meant that Jenson would have to incur the drive-through.

It was just about the only bright moment in what was otherwise an underwhelming weekend for Ferrari, the team that had been expected to provide Red Bull with its stiffest opposition. Their cars clearly had difficulty with bringing their tyres up to temperature which meant grid positions no better than 5th and 8th, which could be seen as the downside of being gentle on the rubber. But then both Alonso and Massa both had to make three stops in the race.

Given what Sergio Perez managed to one-stop in his Sauber, did Ferrari simply blink far too early? Or was their inability to gel with the Pirellis an aberration given the unique characteristics of the Melbourne track? One has to reserve judgment at this point, and Alonso’s calm reaction post-race is the right attitude. He knows that 12 points for 4th was a decent return, especially after he made a poor start and snookered himself going into turn 1, and one mediocre round on a distinctive track is no cause for panic just yet.

But for Massa the desperation levels might rise sooner rather than later if the current state of play remains. Getting the Bridgestones up to operating temperature last year proved to be his Achilles heel - the last thing he needs is for the situation to be repeated with the Pirellis. And while the switch with Alonso was a great bit of on-their-feet thinking by the Ferrari pit wall, what did it say about Felipe’s position within the team? Number two status now seems to be permanently entrenched.

There was little doubt where the two feelgood stories of the weekend came from though. One was Petrov’s maiden podium. First things first, I too am heartily sick of the “where would Kubica have finished?” questions. Robert’s not here, we all wish him well in his recovery, but it has to be time to move on. Such speculation pays Vitaly’s brilliant qualifying and race performance no credit whatsoever, and it presupposes the gap that existed between Kubica and Petrov last year.

Whilst Kubica at full health is undoubtedly special and no-one says that Petrov is in the same league, what the speculation overlooks is that the Petrov of Abu Dhabi and Melbourne is a different man to the crashaholic we saw for most of last season, and it also ignores the possibility that Petrov may well have stepped up a gear, seeing an opportunity to assert himself within Renault. If that is the case, then maybe he’s, say, only two tenths off Kubica’s best, i.e. Robert would not have done that much better.

Vitaly must also now be seen as a man to watch at starts, given the blistering getaway that set up his race. What made the Russian’s performance all the better was the degree to which Nick Heidfeld struggled. Sure, the German was baulked on his final lap in Q1, and he sustained damage early which hampered his race, but seeing his unfancied team-mate put in such a scene-stealing effort surely wasn’t in the script. He was the one installed in Kubica’s place as the lead driver, and he will have to start acting like it.

The other fairytale did not have a happy ending after Sauber’s disqualification robbed Perez of his sensational 7th place and also took away Kamui Kobayashi’s points for 8th. The Mexican rookie’s ability to do a 35 lap stint on soft tyres was simply staggering. We know from last year that Sauber have worked out how to be easy on tyres, and we can only hope that this feat of endurance was due to that, and not due to the fact that the Pirellis are actually more durable than we imagined and Perez stumbled on the secret.

Nevertheless, that the young newcomer had the maturity to make it work was utterly impressive, and it overshadowed an equally mature showing from Kobayashi. Kamui started this critical season in fine style, getting into Q3 and, after a steady race, missing out on midfield honours only because he made two stops to Perez’s one. And, whether or not Sauber’s illegal rear wing made a performance difference, ultimately there’s little sympathy on that front. The rules are the rules, and the other teams complied.

Their removal post-race elevated Massa up to 7th and Sebastien Buemi to 8th, fulfilling Toro Rosso’s pre-season promise. Actually, the Swiss driver had already done so by making it into Q3 at Michael Schumacher’s expense, thereby out-qualifying Jaime Alguersuari for the first time in six races. Buemi’s efforts also confirmed Toro Rosso’s place alongside Sauber - and perhaps Williams when reliable - as the midfield runners jostling for the lower points and the odd lucky podium.

Buemi’s ran a fairly standard two-stop strategy, but he was hit by his team-mate at the start and he couldn’t contain Massa on fresher tyres at the end. For Alguersuari that was one of two incidents in the first three corners, as he also took out Schumacher which meant an unscheduled stop for a new nosecone, which in turn consigned him to a lonely race. Despite his promising end to last season, Jaime needs to watch out because Buemi is a man on a mission this year and he can’t afford too many anonymous outings.

Sauber’s loss was Force India’s gain, with both Paul di Resta and Adrian Sutil ending up in the points, the German ahead. Di Resta did a very respectable job on debut, making an excellent start from 14th to 10th, but twice he ran ahead of Sutil during the race and twice he had to give best to his team-mate. For Sutil it was a good recovery after his spectacular spin and save in Q2, but there was no disguising the fact that Force India is where the pundits expected - right in the middle-of-nowhere part of midfield.

From that point of view, these three points by default could prove priceless. HRT finished ahead of Virgin last year simply because of better reliability and some fortunate results at the start of the season. That lesson was clearly lost on Williams, which had the messiest weekend of the midfield teams. Pastor Maldonado struggled and looked like being a candidate for Q1 elimination, and in the race even dropped behind Heikki Kovalainen’s Lotus before he became the first retirement of the season.

But it was Rubens Barrichello who provided the most notable embarrassments, starting with his lazy spin into the gravel trap on his out-lap in Q2. He went over the same gravel trap on the first lap of the race, before beginning an almighty charge up the field, showing what car speed was at his disposal. Within a lap he was past Jarno Trulli and the Virgins. Another lap later he was ahead of Maldonado and Kovalainen. He then overtook Perez, brilliantly using the lapped Schumacher as distraction, before he stopped.

Rubens’ pace on new tyres was such that he effectively Heidfeld, both Force Indias, Buemi and even the penalised Button in the pits, before taking care of Kobayashi on the track. A 6th or 7th place finish was then in the offing before he took out Nico Rosberg. It looked bad enough as it was, lunging in from so far back, but what made it worse was his subsequent excuse that he wasn’t really attempting a manoeuvre, but rather Rosberg was braking unexpectedly early.

Not only did it sound like another classic from Barrichello’s deep well of excuses, but it was the Brazilian’s third mistake at the same corner during qualifying and the race, and it was hard to believe that here was a man who had participated in over 300 Grands Prix! What’s more, it wasted the speed of his Williams FW33 which was clearly very good, and it was more than enough to earn the veteran the "Reject of the Race" award. If only Barrichello and Maldonado can finish they will score quite a few points this year.

Barrichello’s moment of brain fade also took out the only Mercedes that was in the hunt for points. After their speed in the final Barcelona test, Mercedes found themselves in a similar situation to Ferrari, mystified by their inability to get up to speed and confident that Australia would be an exception rather than the norm. From 7th on the grid Rosberg was never looking at better than a 6th place finish, while Schumacher’s Q2 exit set him up to be hit by Alguersuari on the first lap. We all wait to see what Malaysia will hold.

Another team left bemused by events in Melbourne, and believing that they have more inherent pace than they were able to show, was Lotus. Last year in Australia the green machines were about two seconds slower than the rest, and half a second faster than the quickest Virgin. This year it was ... the same. As was the story for much of 2010, only one car made the finish, and this time it was Trulli getting to the flag. Should we still be considering Lotus, Virgin and HRT as a race within a race?

Well, for starters all three teams don’t want us to see them that way. They all promised a major step and want to be judged against the established teams. And in Lotus’ case, they also struggled with generating tyre temperature and come the sunnier conditions on race day, Kovalainen seemed to be more comfortably keeping up with the likes of Perez and Alguersuari, having made yet another barnstorming start. It’s possible that they really are closer to the midfield than they appeared.

For Virgin, on the other hand, the portents are not so good. Timo Glock rang everything out of his car, and to get to around half a second of Trulli was a miracle. Newcomer Jerome D’Ambrosio also extended himself to get within the 107% qualifying cut-off, even though he was a full second off Glock. Add in practice and race pace, and you get the feeling that there’s not much more to come from the MVR-02, which is really just an update of last year’s VR01, whereas Lotus has loads of room for improvement.

And then, bless their souls, there was HRT, delivering a level of unpreparedness that rivalled the most amateurish antics of Andrea Moda and Mastercard Lola, and making their efforts last season look positively professional. Here was Vitantonio Liuzzi doing one installation lap on Friday and only lasting four corners in Saturday free practice. And then there was Narain Karthikeyan tooling around on an installation lap just as others are setting hot laps in the dying moments of free practice 3.

Clearly, the F111s were a long way short of ready, and predictably neither car made the 107% mark, becoming the first cars to DNQ since Alex Yoong in Germany in 2002. On one hand, you could criticise them by saying that they had a whole off-season to prepare, unlike last year when Jose Ramon Carabante bought the team at the eleventh hour. And you could say that in the world of F1 these days, there’s no room for anything short of the utmost professionalism.

But do we just accept today’s professional standards for what they are? Arguably, we have lost a lot of the romanticism of say the 1970s and 1980s, from the perspective of which HRT’s race to be ready for qualifying was a triumph of the spirit. And consider this: Liuzzi was only two seconds off D’Ambrosio, running last year’s prehistoric front wing. With this year’s front end and a properly prepared car, there’s enough to suggest that HRT will give Virgin a run for their money. They deserve some grace for the time being.