Sebastian Vettel and Ferrari: Where did it all go right?

After the season-opening Grand Prix in Australia, fans and pundits were already proclaiming the 2015 season to be the dullest ever.

Eurosport's F1 analyst Will Gray even wrote these doom-laded words: "Mercedes were even more dominant than expected, and by all accounts they were not even trying all that hard… The gap between Mercedes and their closest opposition now is bigger than it was at the end of last year… If their advantage is genuine it will take months to close it down and that’s assuming Mercedes stands still, which they clearly won’t."

Two weeks later, Sebastian Vettel turned that view on its head as he stormed to a memorable victory in the Malaysian Grand Prix.

In Melbourne, Lewis Hamilton's Mercedes had seemed a full second a lap quicker than the rest of the field - but the gap was never so big throughout the weekend at Sepang. Though either Hamilton or Nico Rosberg topped one of the practice and qualifying sessions, only in one of those - FP3 - did the Mercedes duo clinch the top two spots with a healthy advantage over the field.

Qualifying, however, threw up a very different picture: though reigning champion Hamilton claimed pole position, he did so by just seven hundredths of a second - and behind him wasn't Rosberg, but the Ferrari of Vettel.

And that pace proved no one-lap phenomenon, either: by choosing not to pit when the pace car came out after an early crash, Vettel inherited Hamilton's lead, and kept the British superstar at bay with ease thereafter.

[BLOG: Sebastian Vettel is back]

After the opening race of the season, one of the biggest names in the sport bemoaned Mercedes' dominance in no uncertain terms:

"They are the favourites, they had a huge advantage last year and I think they did a good job increasing that advantage this year. On today's evidence we're set for a two-horse race at every Grand Prix this year.

"Take nothing away from Mercedes, they've done a super job, they've got a great car, they've got a fantastic engine, and they've got two very good drivers. But the problem is the gap is just so big you end up with three-tier racing and I don't think that's healthy for Formula One."

The man who made that statement? None other than Sebastian Vettel himself - and after being stuck in an uncompetitive Red Bull car last year (when Mercedes won 16 of the 19 races) the comments were no doubt born out of fear and frustration of suffering the same fate.

Ferrari's protestations after Australia that they were working hard to fix the problems were clearly more than the normal hot exhaust that blows through F1: their pace on Sunday was real, competitive, championship-challenging.

And nobody summed it up better than Hamilton:

"Huge congratulations to Ferrari and Sebastian... I gave it everything I could but their pace was excellent. We knew that Ferrari had made a step but didn't know how big."

Ferrari team principal Maurizio Arrivabene: "Of course the team is super happy. I have to say I was super happy too. I promised two races (wins), now we make one. Sometimes it's an advantage and sometimes it's a disadvantage to win so early but I'm very happy."

Technical director James Allison: "After the difficulties of last year, the amount of effort that has gone in to turn this team around... is just extraordinary. You can't find the words to explain how good this feels. This sport is mainly misery and every now and again you get an incredible rush that makes all the misery worthwhile and it sets you up and makes you just feel utterly fantastic…

"The confidence we had from our tyres on Friday meant we knew we didn't have to dive into the pits and that allowed us to get track position and then stretch our legs. It made the race easier, but I think we would have made a very good race of it in any situation."

Lewis Hamilton was clearly heard on the pit radio outraged that the team had put him on the hard tyre rather than the medium 'option' tyre for his final stint, as he attempted to chase down Vettel. With a cool head after the race, he tempered his language - but the message remained clear:

"I was struggling with the balance today and never really felt comfortable with the car. There was so much understeer that tyre management was really hard. When I went to the option it was much better, so I thought we'd use it again at the end and was surprised we went with the prime.

"But I made the best I could with it and ultimately I'm sure the team made the call for the right reasons. There was a bit of confusion on the radio at one point where I wasn't quite sure what we were doing on the strategy but I'm not sure if pitting with Seb would have made the difference anyway.

"They were as fast if not faster than us today and once I had that gap to make up it was just a step too far. I'm now looking forward to the next race and fighting to get back to the front again.

Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff: " We were beaten fair and square by Ferrari and Sebastian, who did a fantastic job, and I'm not sure we could have matched their long run pace at any point. They took a well-deserved win… It's the wake-up call we needed… It is going to make us work harder and concentrate even more.

"It's easy to be clever after the race, looking at things we could have done better and there are certainly plenty of points that could have been optimized. But we take these decisions together as a team and this is the moment to stay calm, do our analysis and learn what we can improve for next time. It was a complicated race for the team to read — and for the drivers, too…

"It's easy to be clever after the race looking at things we could have done better and there are certainly plenty of points that could have been optimised. But we take these decisions together as a team and this is the moment to stay calm, do our analysis and learn what we can improve for next time. It was a complicated race for the team to read - and for the drivers, too, from the cockpit.

"We had some interesting radio discussions and both guys did a great job to deliver the double podium at the finish. But I think we can also take a step back and look at the sport today. Always it seems that when people are making the most noise about changing the rules, Formula One delivers. It was the case in Bahrain last year and we saw it again today. It wasn't a perfect day for Mercedes but it was a good one for Formula One.

Toto Wolff is spot on: a bad day for Mercedes was a great day for F1. Even Nico Rosberg himself admitted after Australia that he'd like to have some stronger competition from the rest of the field.

Well, congratulations Nico. 10 points behind your team-mate and seven behind Vettel, you just provided the ultimate example of why it's important to be careful what you wish for.