As predicted, Lewis Hamilton in particular, and Mercedes in general, dominated the season-opening Australian Grand Prix last Sunday.

It was pretty much a walk in the park for the defending champion, whose only challenge – using the word very loosely – came from team-mate Nico Rosberg. Everyone expected a one-horse race, and that’s precisely what we got.

However, what was less predictable was the sour grapes spouted by Red Bull pretty much while the chequered flag was still fluttering.

Having watched his own cars trundle round the track like they were powered by elastic bands, team boss Christian Horner called on the sport’s governing body to make changes to the rules to end Mercedes’ dominance.

“The FIA have the facts and they could quite easily come up with some form of equalisation, otherwise I fear the interest will wane,” he said.

It would have been easier to take Horner’s comments seriously if he didn’t happen to run a team that won no less than four consecutive constructor’s titles between 2010 and 2013.

Where was his call for rule change when Sebastian Vettel was crowned world champion year after year after year? He was pretty happy with there being an all-conquering car on the circuit when it had his logo on the side.

It’s hardly Mercedes’ fault that Renault has provided Red Bull with an engine that appears to have been lifted out of a second-hand Clio. Instead of whining, Horner would be better off flying to France and asking them why the engines in his cars are made out of blancmange.

However, while Horner’s credibility on this issue is highly questionable, if not downright non-existent, his point about interest in the sport waning is actually very valid. His comments were echoed by Bernie Ecclestone, and he knows a thing or two about marketing.

The reality is that considering that Melbourne was little more than a Mercedes-led procession, how many people will now think twice before tuning in to watch the remaining 19 races? Is it really worth making special plans to watch the Malaysian Grand Prix next weekend just to find out how much Hamilton wins by?

As I said, the point Horner was making was a good one and the sport needs to have a deep long hard look at itself to see what can be done to break the cycle of one team dominating the rest, pretty much every season.

But in no way, shape or form should any rule changes happen mid-season. Moving the goalposts like that would be grossly unfair on a team that has, entirely through its own brilliance, clawed its way to the top of the sport.

Meanwhile it was reported that McLaren driver Fernando Alonso last week got into the team’s simulator as he prepares to return to racing following his pre-season crash.

No offence to McLaren but I couldn’t help smirking at the very idea, because simulators, by their very nature, should be based on reality, should they not?

On that basis, if this simulator is worth its salt, there were only two possible outcomes to Alonso’s practice session. In the best case scenario he would have sat there desperately pressing the throttle while watching the entire field lap him in full HD.

Or, alternatively, he would have found himself leaping out of the thing after a couple of minutes when it started to shake, stutter and billow smoke…

Brendan to laugh last

I have to confess to be slightly excited about today’s clash between Liverpool and Manchester United.

Even as a neutral this has always been one of those games you look forward to. And this time it really feels like there is something tangible at stake.

Fair enough, it’s no title decider. It may be a few years before we see these two teams fighting it out in first and second place.

But today’s game should go a long way towards deciding which of them makes it into next season’s Champion’s League, and that is a rather juicy prize to add to an already spicy encounter.

Liverpool are on a roll at the moment, the form team not only in England but also, bizarrely enough, in Europe as a whole. If they had found this form just a few weeks earlier in the season there is a good chance they would be providing Chelsea with the challenge Manchester City seem incapable of sustaining.

Is it worth making special plans to watch the Malaysian Grand Prix next weekend just to find out how much Hamilton wins by?

Not all their wins have been utterly convincing, it has to be said, but the important thing is they are grinding out results even when they don’t play particularly well.

United, on the other hand, remain entirely unconvincing under Louis van Gaal. It just shows how bad they have been this season that a number of fans I have spoken to got all excited about their first-half performance against Tottenham Hotspur last week.

Yes, it was decent. But Spurs played their part by deciding not to defend at all in the first 45 minutes. Still, there is the chance, of course, that last Sunday really was the turning point for United and they will certainly go into this game with more self-belief.

If this afternoon’s encounter needed any more added spice, then that comes from the reverse fixture at Old Trafford earlier in the season. United won that game 3-0 but I don’t think anybody really knows how that happened. It was one of the most one-sided games I have seen, but the side that dominated was the one that lost.

All told, considering the stakes and the formbook, I am sticking my money on Liverpool today. It might not be a big victory or even a very convincing one, but I think Brendan Rogers will have the last laugh in this particular duel.

Fifa kicks Zifa while it’s down

One of Fifa’s most important functions, at least the last time I checked, is to help, nurture and guide organisations that fall under its jurisdiction.

So how’s this for helping.

Zimbabwe’s FA – the beautifully named Zifa – are in financial meltdown with debts of over $4 million (€3.7m).

A small part of that debt is money they owe to their former coach Jose Claudinei Georgini, who has been trying to get them to cough up for years.

Now that Zifa has again failed to pay the Brazilian, who was only in charge for a few months in 2008, Fifa has jumped into action and banned Zimbabwe from the 2018 World Cup.

Well, that will help.

Zifa is already on its knees. So bad is the situation that they recently had to auction off assets from their training centre to settle a legal dispute with a former employee.

Probably the only faint hope they had of easing the financial pressure was the World Cup qualifiers starting in October, which should generate some much-needed revenue.

So Fifa quickly stomped on that little dream.

I understand that Zifa is in a mess, but has Fifa noticed just how big a mess the entire country is in?

Surely they should be trying everything possible to help one of the ‘Fifa family’ in its hour of need rather than kicking it while it’s down.

I can only imagine Sepp Blatter has enough African vote sown up so he doesn’t need Zifa’s backing for re-election…

sportscolumnist@timesofmalta.com
Twitter: @maltablade