Will 2012 be a repeat of the 2011 Grand Prix season when Sebastian Vettel easily clinched the drivers’ championship for the second year in a row?

Or could McLaren or Ferrari up their game for one of their drivers to light up the F1 world and stop the excellent Vettel from dominating 2012 as he has in other years recently?

Two questions that were waiting to be partly answered at the first Grand Prix of the year, and for neutral race fans around the world it came as some relief perhaps that it was McLaren’s Jenson Button who took the chequered flag in Melbourne.

But Vettel was second, and it’s an ominous sign perhaps that 2012 could well be a repeat of 2011 with Button the only driver likely to cause Vettel any sleepless nights in the months ahead as he strives for three championships in a row.

Lewis Hamilton might be disappointed in his third position. Having recently bought a Monaco property and moved from Switzerland reports in the mainstream media and on social media like twitter, facebook and various sport and travel blog articles had indicated he is happier now in his personal life than last year, and this could reflect in his performances.

If Australia is anything to go by Hamilton will struggle to win many Grand Prix this year, even the Monaco Grand Prix which he now views as his home one, as Button didn’t just win but dominated the whole race from the first corner, which he beat Hamilton to.

And Vettel with his Red Bull team could be in for a nervous few first races as well having seen Button’s performance, and they might count themselves lucky it wasn’t a McLaren one-two as Vettel only overtook Hamilton due to some bad luck for Hamilton while the safety car was on the circuit.

A new question might be will any other teams be able to compete with Red Bull and McLaren in the constructors’ championship. After all Mark Webber in the other Red Bull came fourth. Williams driver Pastor Maldonado looked like he would come sixth but crashed just before the end of the race.

Ferrari perhaps? On the Australian performance it doesn’t look like they will do much better than leading the rest of the others, and there seems little likelihood of them winning any races this year, with perhaps a handful of podium places the best they can hope for.

The Ferrari team and drivers had trained hard in the winter. They spent time on the island of Lanzarote in preperation for the season ahead, but it seemed to make little difference compared to last year.

Lanzarote is well known as an island that athletes visit during the northern European winter. Although part of Europe it’s not far from Africa and the Lanzarote weather makes it ideal for winter training.

Next weekend it’s the turn of Malaysia to host the F1 teams and then there’s a three week break before China, in which time the teams will be able to analyse what they need to do to make an impact on 2012.

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