State of chaos after first race may be sign of more to come

Imagine watching your football team scoring a goal in injury time to win 2-1 in a winner-takes-all finale. You go home (or to the pub) and enjoy the warm glow of success. The next morning you wake up to find out that six hours after the final whistle both your team's goals had been disallowed for offside, and you had in fact lost 1-0.

Ridiculous, of course. It is something that would never happen in football, or most other sports for that matter. But Formula One is not most other sports, and we head to Malaysia this weekend in a familiar state of chaos after just one round of 2014.

Red Bull's new boy, Daniel Ricciardo, thought he had pulled of a spectacular podium in front of his home fans in Australia. Against all the odds, Red Bull had snatched second after a terrible winter of testing. Turned out it was against all the advice and caution of the powers that be in the FIA ruling body.

Red Bull were disqualified because they were allegedly letting too much fuel flow into the engine. They had been given a fuel sensor by the FIA, which they had bypassed, thinking they knew better. There was concern over the sensor, but the other teams decided to get on with it and address the issue later with the FIA.

Red Bull were warned about the issue during the race weekend. They still feel they are right, having appealed over the decision. However, this whole sorry state raises two important issues.

The first is the speed of the decision. Why did it take until midnight for the stewards to make up their minds, given it had been an issue all weekend and Red Bull's position was well known.

Surely an instant disqualification would have saved Ricciardo the agony of celebrating his first podium, only to have the result removed in the dead of night. It would have had the added advantage of not annoying the whole of Australia.

Then there is the reaction of Red Bull. The team's owner, Dietrich Mateschitz, has threatened to take his toys and play somewhere else.

"The question is not so much about whether it makes economic sense, but more to do with the sporting value, political influence and the like," he told an Austrian newspaper. "Political influence?"

What does that really mean in relation to this issue? Not exactly the sporting values you might expect from a team owner. A veiled threat before the appeal most certainly. This is a man who is used not only to winning, but getting his own way in the sport.

In the end, the FIA must not be cowed by veiled threats. If any team can ride roughshod over the fuel rules, then there is not much hope for the regulations and for the new engine regime.

Talking of the engines, the roar of a lion has been replaced by the purr of a cat. This has upset many people, and will no doubt be something we will return to when it does not have to deal with the tantrums of Red Bull.

There is certainly not that ear-splitting, spine-chilling high-pitched roar we are used to, but at least the majority of cars made it to the finish in Melbourne, which was more than many were expecting.

It was a half decent race, too, although as predicted a Mercedes disappeared into the distance. Interestingly though, the Silver Arrow of Lewis Hamilton lasted only a few laps before expiring, so even the front runners cannot expect reliability just yet.

In Malaysia, with the extreme heat, expect more problems. But also expect the teams to improve as they get to grips with not only their cars, but the new tyres.

What we know after the first round is that McLaren are right back in the mix and have a new star in Denmark's Kevin Magnussen. Williams have awoken from their slumbers, but Ferrari have not after yet another slow start to the season. Red Bull, sensor or no sensor, have showed they are not as far off the pace as we might have thought.