Formula One - Australian Grand Prix - Wet and Wild in the land down under!

In a weekend full of new faces on the grid, which team, and more importantly, which drivers could survive the conditions to lay the foundations for a good 2025 season?

QUALIFYING

Qualifying one saw Formula 1 rookie Ollie Bearman lose the gearbox before being able to complete his first timed lap for Haas. Meanwhile, Lawson appeared to be improving enough to make it into the top fifteen, but a moment at turn nine, followed by an off-track excursion at the penultimate corner secured his place in the bottom five.

Out in Q1: Antonelli, Hulkenberg, Lawson, Ocon, Bearman

Photo: Steve Tee

Qualifying two was uneventful until the final moments when Lewis Hamilton spun coming out of turn eleven triggering a yellow flag on many drivers’ final laps. Despite the spin, he secured a spot in the top ten, advancing to the pole shootout.

Out in Q2: Hadjar, Alonso, Stroll, Doohan, Bortoleto

The first qualifying three session of the season saw a tense battle between reigning champion Max Verstappen and the two McLaren drivers Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri, in the car that many expect to be the best performing in the 2025 season. Verstappen topped the times with two purple sectors after the first runs but the top three were separated by just eighty-four thousandths of a second.

Top 10: Norris, Piastri, Verstappen, Russell, Tsunoda, Albon, Leclerc, Hamilton, Gasly, Sainz

Photo: Kym Illman

RACE

Before the race began, it was announced that there would be pitlane starts for Liam Lawson and Ollie Bearman. Lawson’s for breaking parc ferme regulations, and Bearman due to falling outside the 107% rule as he was unable to set a qualifying lap.

As the grid pulled away for the formation lap we saw F1 rookie Isack Hadjar in his first race for Racing Bulls spin in turn two whilst trying to warm up his intermediate tyres in the wet conditions. With the car in the wall and suffering significant suspension and rear-body damage the driver was forced to retire before his first race had even begun. The start procedure was cancelled and all cars would have to remain on the grid until a new formation lap could be started.

The second formation lap was thankfully uneventful, and as the lights went out the two McLarens managed to hold their front-row lockout into turn one despite the impressive start from Verstappen. Verstappen's attack forced Piastri onto a tight line in turn one, allowing Verstappen to pull a move reminiscent of his overtake on Rosberg at Brazil 2016, and went around the outside of Piastri in the wet turn two. Yuki Tsunoda also had an impressive start and managed to hold his somewhat miraculous fifth position. 

Photo: James Sutton

Lap one, however would not be clean as Jack Doohan suffered a snap of oversteer whilst between turn five and six which wrecked his Alpine and brought a premature end to another of this season's rookie races. The safety car was immediately called but unfortunately would not stop further incidents as Carlos Sainz spun into the wall at the final corner, claiming over-torque caused the spin, but this was never confirmed.

On lap eight the race was restarted as multiple cars found themselves under investigation for safety car infringements. On lap eleven we saw cars already seeking out the wettest sections of the track surface to try and keep their intermediate tyres in their optimal working window for temperatures, this is normally a sign that the track is drying and this would be confirmed on lap twelve when the FIA enabled DRS for all drivers.

On lap sixteen a short period of drizzle was reported by Ted Kravitz, who was reporting from the pit lane at the time. Just a lap later this drizzle caused Verstappen to make a mistake in turn eleven which would see him forfeit his second place back to Oscar Piastri. On lap nineteen, all cars under investigation for safety car infringements were informed that there would be no further investigation. Alonso, Tsunoda, Hamilton and Albon were all under investigation for leaving more than a ten car-length distance under safety car but the FIA acknowledged that the conditions were acting as a mitigating factor for increased safety car distances due to visibility.

The following fourteen laps saw little change with no notable overtakes until Fernando Alonso found himself in the wall coming out of turn six and into turn seven. There was extensive damage to all four corners of the car as it hit both the inside and outside walls, thankfully no-one else was involved but the incident would bring out the second iteration of the safety car. Finally it was time for slick tyres as everyone in the field apart from the two Haas drivers came into the pit lane under the safety car conditions.

We went green on slick tyres on lap forty-two and the two McLarens, both on hard tyres, managed to get an incredible fire up on their tyres and pull away from Verstappen who was on the medium compound. However, just two laps later the rain would come again, just as Bortoleto was given a five-second penalty for an unsafe release, both the leading McLarens found themselves off track at turn twelve. Norris was able to gather his car and came straight into the pitlane for new intermediate tyres but Piastri found himself stuck in the wet grass on the outside of the penultimate corner. 

Photo: Zak Mauger

On lap forty-six Verstappen and Red Bull finally made the call to pit for new intermediate tyres, the decision would prove to be a good one as on lap forty-seven Red Bull rookie Liam Lawson found himself copying Isack Hadjar’s formation lap crash as he hit the wall in turn two following a spin on slick tyres. At the same time Gabriel Bortoleto suffered a suspected suspension failure that caused him to spin, the suspicion was confirmed as whilst he was spinning his rear left suspension completely failed, blowing bits of carbon fibre onto the track at the penultimate corner and leaving his Kick Sauber stranded in the grass. These incidents would cause the safety car to be deployed.

On lap fifty-two the race restarted for the final time as all the drivers were now on new intermediates, even though the rain had stopped. Gasly had a moment whilst in the top ten on lap fifty-four which saw both Leclerc and Hamilton get past him on the run towards turn three. Piastri got past the Frenchman just one lap later and found his way back into the top ten after having to slowly reverse his way out of the grass on lap forty-four.

On the final lap Andrea Kimi Antonelli moved ahead of Alex Albon for fourth before being handed a five-second penalty for an unsafe pit release. Across the line it was Lando Norris who continued his winning form from the end of the 2024 season, as he began his challenge for the World Drivers Championship, Verstappen was second across the line with Russell in third. Antonelli crossed the line in fourth and after a successful appeal against his five second penalty, eventually maintained his position ahead of Alex Albon in fifth, Williams’ best result since Spa 2021. The rest of the top ten were Stroll, Hulkenberg, Leclerc, Piastri and Hamilton.

Photo: Glenn Dunbar

This result would mark the first time that Max Verstappen has not led the World Drivers Championship since the Spanish Grand Prix in 2022. Lando Norris and McLaren now lead both the Drivers and Constructors World Championships, although Mercedes are on equal points in the constructors after the successful appeal for Antonelli’s penalty. This opening round was full of thrills and spills (especially for the rookie drivers), and will hopefully serve as an appropriate opening round for what is expected to be a tightly fought final season for the current regulation period.

THE CHINESE GRAND PRIX

Looking forward to the Chinese Grand Prix weekend, and the first sprint round of the season offers McLaren the first big chance to stamp their early authority on the championship. However, with the new FIA technical regulations on rear-wing flexibility (or mini-DRS) being moved ahead from Spain with just three days notice it is yet to be seen which teams will be impacted the most with such short notice for changes to be made to their rear wings. Such a drastic change is always more difficult in final regulation seasons as the teams tend to run a far stricter development pathway to allow enough R&D time for the new regulation set.