On the streets of Albert Park, near the glorious stretch of St Kilda sand, under the watchful eye of the ever growing skyscape of Melbourne, there are fans sitting on their favourite spot at the corner of turn two, complete with flags, branded caps and various replicas of shirts and jackets. They stare down at the empty track in front of them as small chatter barely manages to fill the air. The leading cars of the two Mercedes come past a few seconds between each other, then a long wait as the track becomes empty and silent once more. Thirty seconds later the Ferrari of Sebastian Vettel comes round, then Felipe Massa’s Williams a further seven or so seconds later. Silence once more. Much later, the remaining two Saubers, one McLaren and two Force India’s come round interspersed by various distances.

F1 is a sport I love and I will always follow, however this was possibly the worst way to start a new season in modern times. The amount of cars that started the race – 15, was not good, at all. Manor turned up but didn’t run their cars, Bottas had a back injury ruling out the second Williams, both Kvyat and Kevin Magnussen broke down on the way to the grid. Compare this to last year where we had a full grid of 22 cars. As the pinnacle of motorsport, this was not a good way to start the new season.

To make matters worse – Romain Grosjean and Pastor Maldonado both retired on the first lap and Kimi Raikkonen and Max Verstappen retired later in the race, leaving a race that felt empty. Part of the reason why last year’s championship was great was because of the many midfield battles when there was no real battle for the win, which, let’s not kid ourselves, didn’t happen a few times last season albeit with some very notable exceptions like Bahrain. With less cars starting, the entertainment suffers.

Lewis Hamilton had Nico Rosberg by and large covered from the first lap, and it was disappointing to see Rosberg not being able to make a challenge. The gap fluctuated but that was from Hamilton trying to find the limits of his tyres or getting stuck in traffic. I was very surprised at how Rosberg almost looked like he was conceding the title already by what he said on the podium. ‘It was a world champions’ drive’, not exactly something you would like to hear from somebody who’s supposed to be fighting tooth and nail. It was left to the Saubers and Toro Rossos to save the day, and to be fair they had a decent battle. Marcus Ericsson and Felipe Nasr had a great day in the much improved Sauber, thanks to the much improved Ferrari engine, and Carlos Sainz Jr had a good day in his car. Saying this, I would like to reserve judgement until a race where we have a full grid of cars and really test these new kids out. Daniel Ricciardo couldn’t provide any excitement for his home fans as Red Bull continued their catastrophic decline, and Jenson Button dragged his McLaren to the finish line. Force India also struck lucky with both their cars finishing in the points despite Perez’s adventure into the side of Button. Vettel fans must have had a great day as he finished third, and the signs are pointing upwards for Ferrari and their new charismatic and likeable team leader Arrivebene.

Judging by the fans reaction on Reddit and Twitter, this was not a popular race. I was the first one to say that I don’t mind Mercedes being so far in front so long as there is a battle for the lead and that there are plenty of battles behind them. But for this, we need more cars on track and Rosberg needs to up his game, because without a battle, and a team 30 seconds ahead of a sparsely populated competition, F1 will find itself with plenty of criticism from fans watching on TV and at the track.

I could not help but think of the injustice that the Melbourne crowd experienced. I had spoken and gotten to know some of the fans at the track last year – they were not impressed by the reduced noise from the engines, and I’m sure having such an empty track and nothing to really watch at this year’s Grand Prix will have left such a bad taste in their mouths. Crowd numbers will go down and with races like Germany going missing this season, you really have to fear for the future of this sport if this becomes the norm. For the sake of F1, the circumstances leading up to the race and the reasons why so many cars didn’t take part cannot be repeated and must remain an exception.

Hopefully Malaysia will be a cracking race. For the rest of 2015, I have confidence that we will see great fights between Massa, Bottas, Vettel and Raikkonen, and battles between the Sauber, Force India and Toro Rosso drivers. Hopefully the Honda powered McLaren will find some pace, and hopefully other tracks will help the battle upfront become the titanic duel it was last season.