Any doubts F1 fans might have had following the incredible debut year of McLaren Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton last season were quickly dispelled even before the start of the 18-event 2008 season-opener at Melbourne, Australia. That's because Hamilton took the pole position and led every lap of the event, except for those few laps he pitted to take on fuel. (Photo - Hamilton leads the pack in Oz).
Other than that "excitement", the winner of the race was never in doubt. Nick Heidfeld in a BMW and Nico Rosberg in a Williams-Toyota took second and third; a great season start, especially for Williams-Toyota.
The 3.3-mile race track in Melbourne, Australia, spends most of its life as a public road, so changing surfaces, from concrete to blacktop to everything in-between, add up to only a small part of what the drivers had working against them in the first Formula 1 race of the season.
Taking on this course is a difficult job even on the best of days and conditions. Add 100 degree air temperature, over 120 degrees on the track surface, humidity of only 15% and steady winds, and there was little joy among the drivers in the Land of Oz. None of this was to stand in the way of the still-remarkable Hamilton. He's only 23, but in his rookie season last year, he was almost frighteningly good, winning four events and being on the podium at races' end for almost every meeting of that season. (Photo - Fernando Alonso represents in his favorite Renault colors).
Leading into this new season, during testing in Spain, it was widely reported that many Spanish fans who
had come to see the testing screamed invectives and insults at Hamilton. Unfortunately, as Hamilton is the only Black man in F1, he's said that he is fairly inured to that kind of treatment. But considering the huge number of problems which surrounded his McLaren team last year, it's kind of a wonder that he not only stayed with the team, but also bravely decided to keep living his dream in spite of what a few racist Spanish spectators might have felt; indeed, possibly because of them.
To say that anyone's first year in F1 would be difficult is a great understatement. Hamilton, who "signed" an agreement with McLaren principal Ron Dennis when Hamilton was only 11 years old, made his dream come true and entered F1 last year as the "second" driver on the two-car McLaren Mercedes F1 team, traditionally one of the best in the sport. With Hamilton #2, his teammate was two-time F1 defending champion Fernando Alonso, who had left the Renault team where he'd won his two titles, for what he thought would be a better fit for him and his career at McLaren. (Photo - Champ Car's four-time champion Sebastien Bourdais in his first F1 race finished a very impressive seventh, gaining his STR-Ferrari team 2 points).
The opposite was true. It was Hamilton, not Alonso, who quickly got the worldwide media attention, whose victories, coolness under pressure and amazing driving skills and maturity, especially with the media, made his team owner proud and gave the fans something very special; the best rookie who'd ever sat in an F1 cockpit.
By the close of the 2007 season, Alsono was not speaking with either teammate Hamilton, or their boss, Ron Dennis. Alonso went back to his Renault team as fast as he could pack his bags and walk out the door of the McLaren Mercedes shop. And no one warned him to "not let the door hit you in the ass on" his way out. No love lost there.
As well as Hamilton withstood the pressure, overwrought drama and in-fighting during his first year with McLaren, the team also got slapped with an enormous financial penalty of $100 million dollars and loss of all their team points for its involvement in an "industrial espionage" case which found confidential Ferrari team information in the hands of a high-ranking McLaren team member. Ferrari was therefore handed the title for their 204 points; out of the sport's eleven teams, McLaren wound up in the last position with 0 points. Ferrari driver Kimi Raikkonen won the 2007 World Championship of Driving title with 110 points; Hamilton and his teammate Alsono tied for second with 109 points apiece won during the season. (Honda's Rubens Barrichello was disqualified from the event because he exited the pits when a 'red' light was showing at the end of pit row, meaning it was unsafe to leave; Below, Lewis Hamilton on the podium, a place he's growing very familiar with on his way to ... really, who knows how great he'll be?).
But for a "rookie mistake:" made by Hamilton at the season-closing Brazilian Grand Prix, he probably would have won the driving title outright. But while entering the pits near the event's end, Hamilton stuck his car into a gravel run-off area and ended the race in seventh place; Ferrari's Raikkonen won the race and the champion's title.
In this season's Melbourne opener, it was to be a cakewalk for Hamilton and nothing but problems for Alonso. Alonso is now paired with Nelsinho Piquet, son of the great F1 driver of the 1970s, Nelson Piquet, and Hamilton's new partner is Heikki Kovalainen, and there's no disputing who is the #1 driver on both the Renault and McLaren Mercedes teams for this 2008 season. (Photo - After Saturday practice, Lewis Hamilton, center, pals around with teammate Heikki Kovalainen and Petronas-BMW's Robert Kubica; Hamilton won Sunday's race, Kovalainen placed fifth and Kubica, a remarkable second-year Polish driver, took ninth).
Back to Melbourne: Of the 3.3-mile track length, F1 cars are "wide open" on nearly 70% of the course,
making it both one of the longest and one of the fastest tracks in the sport. Speeds of 290 kmh (about 180 mph) are common on several long, straight stretches. A few of the many changes in the cars this season allow the driver more control over their cars; for instance, this year the cars no longer have traction control, making the race start more difficult and critical than ever.
With new teams and new drivers, the 2008 season looks to be at least as exciting as last year's. Following the opener in Oz, the "F1 circus" moves to Malaysia, then to Bahrain. Later in the season, a new wrinkle: A street race in Singapore, at night, the first night race in F1 history.
(Photos Below - Ferrari's Felipe Massa; Renault's Nelsinho Piquet; Toyotas of Jarno Trulli and Timo Glock).
RESULTS OF THE FORMULA 1 AUSTRALIAN GRAND PRIX MARCH 16, 2008
1 Lewis Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes
2 Nick Heidfeld BMW
3 Nico Rosberg Williams-Toyota
4 Fernando Alonso Renault
5 Heikki Kovalainen McLaren-Mercedes
6 Kazuki Nakajima Williams-Toyota
7 Sebastien Bourdais STR-Ferrari 
8 Kimi Räikkönen Ferrari
Ret Robert Kubica BMW
Ret Timo Glock Toyota
Ret Takuma Sato Super Aguri-Honda
Ret Nelsinho Piquet Renault
Ret Felipe Massa Ferrari
Ret David Coulthard Red Bull-Renault
Ret Jarno Trulli Toyota
Ret Adrian Sutil Force India-Ferrari
Ret Mark Webber Red Bull-Renault
Ret Jenson Button Honda
Ret Anthony Davidson Super Aguri-Honda
Ret Sebastian Vettel STR-Ferrari
Ret Giancarlo Fisichella Force India-Ferrari
DSQ Rubens Barrichello Honda
2008 FIA Formula One World Championship
Australian 16/03/2008 Lewis Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes
Malaysian 23/03/2008
Bahrain 06/04/2008
Spanish 27/04/2008
Turkish 11/05/2008
Monaco 25/05/2008
Canadian 08/06/2008
French 22/06/2008
British 06/07/2008
German 20/07/2008
Hungarian 03/08/2008
European 24/08/2008
Belgian 07/09/2008
Italian 14/09/2008
Singapore 28/09/2008
Japanese 12/10/2008 
Chinese 19/10/2008
Brazilian 02/11/2008
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