🌊Tidying up all the odds and ends following race day in Melbourne and the start of the new season, mahbx.com F1 Editor Luke Smith brings you his paddock notebook.

- Sebastian Vettel’s charge to victory in Sunda🍷y’s Australian Grand Prix marked his 100th career podium finish in his 199th start. It was Vettel’s 48th F1 win, putting him three off Alain Pros♏t for third place in the all-time list.

- The double-podium finish marks Ferrari’s bes♏t start to a season since 2010, when Fernando Alonso and Felipe Massa claimed a one-two finish in Bahrain.

- Mercedes lagged to its worst st🧸art to a season since 2013 as Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas only amassed a combined 22 points. While Hamilton took second place, Bottas could only recover to P8 fol🍒lowing his grid penalty that meant he started 15th.

- Bottas was frustrated by🌸 the lack of overtaking opportunities, with the difficul൩ty of following cars ahead being a sticking point for all drivers on Sunday, even with the additional DRS zone between Turn 12 and Turn 13.

- Daniel Ricciardo may have missed out on becoming the first Australian to finish his home F1 race on the podium, but his run to P4 matched his bes💯t result at Albert Park from 2016. Teammate Max Verstappen had a difficult day, ultimately finishing P6 as the team’s decision to start on Supersoft tyre failed to pay off.

- Re𝄹d Bull ultimately followed the rest of the field with a one-stop strategy, switching to the Soft tyre to complete ℱthe second half of the race.

- Vettel’s r🥀ace winning strategy was to start on Ultrasofts, pit under the Virtual Safety Car on Lap 26, and complete the remaining 32 laps on the Soft tyre. Charles Leclerc was the top finisher on a two-stop strategy, taking advantage of the Safety Car🐲 to fit a set of Ultrasofts on Lap 27.

- Fernando Alonso recorded both his and McLaren’s best result since the 2016 United States Grand Prix by finishing fifth, fending off Verstappen thro🌟ugh the closing stages of the race. Teammate Stoffel Vandoorne finished P9.

- Renault picked up a double points finish with Nico Hulkenbe꧅rg in P7 and Carlos Sainz Jr. in P10. Sainz got to the finish despite feeling nauseous through the closing stages of the race after taking a drink from his bottle.

- The points-paying positions were filled out by five teams,𓂃 al♍l of whom placed both cars in the top 10.

- Force India had a difficult day as Sergio Perez and Esteban Ocon ailed to P11 and P12 respectively, marking its first race without points si🦄nce Monaco last year.

- Sergey Sirotkin’s F1 debut ended after jus♕t three laps when a loose sandwich bag blew onto the track and into the right-rear brake duct of his Williams car, drawing the 𒊎curtain on a difficult weekend.

- ✱Brendon Hartley was the last classified finisher in P15, ending the race one lap down on Vettel. Hartley pitted at the end of the opening lap after flat-spotting his tyres. Teammate Pierre Gasly retired after 13 laps due to an MGU-H failure on his Honda power unit. Honda will investigate the issue.

- Haas’ double DNF was the result of a crossthreaded wheel nut at൲ both Romain Grosjean and Ke♐vin Magnussen’s pit stops, scuppering the chances of the team’s best-ever result. The drivers had been running fourth and fifth before the issues.

- The team was fined €10,000 for releasing its cars onto the track in an unsafe m🥀anner. (€5,000 for each car). Team principal Günther Steiner cancelled his press call after the race.

- Marcus Ericsson retired after four laps due to a hydraul♕ic issue on his Sauber C37 car.

- Daniel Ricc💃iardo posted the fastest lap of ꦕthe race of 1:25.945 on Lap 54.

- The fastest pit stop was completed by Bren🍌don Hartley and Toro Rosso on Lap 1, clocking in at 22.213 seconds from pit entry to pit exit. Kimi Raikkonen was second ahead of L✨ewis Hamilton in P3.

- The Aust🐓ralian Grand Prix Cor🌳poration reported an early four-day attendance figure of 295,000, putting it around the same level as last year’s race.

- Today’s race 🦹marked the first to use ‘grid kids’ that accompanied each driver ahead of the race, plus some ‘future stars’ - young karters who were at the front of the grid for the national anthem.

- A♈ tribute was paid to the lat🐼e Ron Walker in the lead up to lights out. Walker headed up the AGPC for more than 20 years, and passed away at the end of January at the age of 78.

- Among the ‘talent’ invited to the ra💮ce were a number of digital influencers - those prolific 🎃on social media and other platforms such as YouTube - marking a shift from Liberty Media as it looks to take F1 to an expanded audience.