F1i's Top 5 Moments of 2017: Australia springs a surprise

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As the end of the year approaches, we take the opportunity to look back at five of the defining moments that tell the story of the 2017 Formula 1 world championship...

The first race of the year is always a defining moment of any season, and never more so than after the introduction of new technical regulations over the winter. It doesn't matter now much planning a team does, how many computer simulations they run, or how many test sessions they're able to conduct: until the cars finally roll out on track for the season opener, no one really knows what's going to happen.

As proof, take a look at Lewis Hamilton's face on the podium in Australia. There's no question that things haven't gone according to plan for Mercedes.

With Nico Rosberg safely tucked away in a Monaco retirement home, and the team's rivals clearly so far behind them in terms of on-track performance in recent years, victory really should have been an easy walk in the Albert Park for Hamilton. But despite being half a second ahead of the field in Friday practice and picking up pole on Saturday, he ended up finishing the race almost ten seconds behind Sebastian Vettel. Ferrari had somehow just beaten Mercedes in a straight fight.

Suddenly, this was looking like it was going to be a very bumpy season indeed for Hamilton and Mercedes. Certainly not the luxury cruise they had been expecting.

Read on: New faces at the back, and at the top

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.