Notes on the F1 Australian Grand Prix

We have some things to discuss...

First of all, what a race! So much action. So much drama. So much heartbreak. So much joy.

Personally, I think the stand-out drives came from Lando Norris, Max Verstappen, Kimi Antonelli and Nico Hulkenberg.

The Australian Grand Prix also created a few new records and some major talking points, so let’s get into it!

Lando Norris

I think it is clear to see that both Lando and McLaren have been putting in the work over the winter break. Long gone are the days of Russia 2021 and bad strategy calls. Communication between Lando and his engineer was excellent - so calm and mature. The team also judged the rain situation well and pulled off an incredible double-stack pit stop as if they do it every weekend. The only flaw in Lando’s entire weekend was a brief excursion off the track in the wet on slicks that was quickly recovered. All in all, it was a well-deserved win for Lando and the team.

Max Verstappen

Red Bull was one of the great unknowns coming into this weekend and Max proved that he is going nowhere. An overall great qualifying for him led to a feisty start off the grid and a truly competitive drive. The pressure he was putting Lando under at the end of the race had us all on the edge of our seats and although he didn’t quite pull off an overtake for the win in the end, he still finished the race with a big smile on his face and seemingly energy for more. McLaren might have the best package this year but Max proved that we should never underestimate him.

Kimi Antonelli

What a debut for the Bologna boy! As an 18-year-old replacing one of the greatest Formula 1 drivers of all time in one of the top teams, the pressure was certainly on Kimi to perform and that is exactly what he did. With some of the overtakes he pulled off, you would never have thought this was his first race weekend in the car, it felt like he was really in harmony with it. The main blip in Kimi’s weekend was qualifying but hopefully, he will have some confidence going into next weekend after the way he was driving on Sunday. Kimi is now the second youngest all-time F1 point scorer and he gained more positions than anyone else in the race. He is also the first driver to finish in the top 4 after starting outside of the top 15 on their rookie debut since Jean Alesi at the French GP in 1989. The future looks very bright for this kid!

Nico Hulkenberg

Nico Hulkenberg had a relatively anonymous race from a TV standpoint. However, I think his drive to take Sauber to P7 is not one that should go unrecognised. I also think Sauber deserves a lot of credit for the way they executed the race. Not long ago, this same team was consistently having pit stop problems and was only able to score 4 points in the whole 2024 season. This one drive from Nico Hulkenberg already has the team at 6 points in 2025. All of this also happened with new senior team members and two new drivers which could have easily led to teething problems. Instead, they turned it into triumph!

McLaren Papaya Rules

I have seen a lot of criticism online for McLaren for telling Oscar to hold position even though it was the first race of the season, however, this situation has been blown out of proportion and was not shown accurately on TV screens. The TV feed often shows delayed radio messages. McLaren only told Oscar to hold position while both McLaren cars cleared the backmarkers. As soon as they had passed Liam Lawson, they were free to race again. However, the TV feed showed the ‘hold position’ radio message from McLaren after both drivers had already cleared Liam Lawson, leading to a lot of confusion and backlash. Oscar was free to race Lando and was catching him, this was only stopped by Oscar dipping a tyre in the gravel which increased the gap between him and Lando and allowed Lando to gain control again. This isn’t to criticise Oscar either, it was an easy mistake that many made across the weekend, however, this team call has been made by many before and will continue to be made in the future so I think with all the facts, the backlash for this situation is underserved.

Williams & Alex Albon

I think it would be unfair if I didn’t acknowledge the excellent efforts from Williams this weekend. Both drivers were performing brilliantly all weekend and the team in general seems like an excellent environment to be in. It was extremely unfortunate that Carlos Sainz started the race with a DNF, but I think it says a lot about him that he stayed and helped the team with strategy for Alex Albon, ultimately leading to pitting Alex at the perfect time and being able to achieve a P5. With that result, Alex has already scored more points than the did in the whole of the 2024 season! Alex also deserves praise for his concise and controlled drive that allowed him to be competitive in extremely difficult conditions and against better cars than his own. Aside from the DNF for Carlos, the team should be able to go away feeling very positive and hopeful for what is to come.

Ferrari

Unfortunately for Ferrari, this is another case of the pit wall being out of sync with their drivers. What started as an extremely promising race for both Hamilton and Leclerc led to Sauber scoring more points than Ferrari by the end of the race. It all fell apart at the pit stops and sadly, this is starting to become a tale as old as time with the team. They had all the ingredients to be extremely competitive and possibly even have a double podium yet they weren’t able to pull through when it mattered most. Let’s hope they can build on their relationships within the next week to get it right next weekend. It will also be interesting to see if the influence of Lewis Hamilton will get Ferrari to seriously consider the issues that Charles Leclerc has been raising for a while now as they are evidently still ongoing.

Sprint Race Incoming

Just when we thought the rookies may have used up all their bad luck, along comes the first sprint race of the year. It is safe to say that the Australian Grand Prix was chaos for our 2025 rookies. Isack Hadjar had a promising qualifying but spun and crashed on the formation lap. Ollie Bearman had a disastrous Friday and Saturday leading to multiple new car parts and a pitlane start on Sunday. Liam Lawson qualified well out of position and didn’t have much race pace before he crashed too. Jack Doohan had the pressure of Flavio weighing on him the whole weekend and then crashed early on as well. Kimi Antonelli did have a superstar race, however, he also qualified out of position and had to do a lot of work to undo that. Bortoleto had a smooth race until the pitstop where he received a penalty for an unsafe release and then crashed before he could serve that penalty. This doesn't mean that driver error was the root of all of these issues and I do think every rookie on the grid this year deserves their seat. The most unfortunate part of it all is that they will only have one practice session before having to qualify for the sprint race in China next weekend. Talk about throwing them in the deep end…

I’m sure I have missed hundreds of other things worth noting but if I were to comment on everything from the first race of the season with extremely changeable conditions, plenty of chaos and six DNFs then you might be here all week, so I’ll leave it there for now.

Overall, the visit to the land down under was an absolute spectacle and I can’t wait to see what Shanghai has in store for us next weekend!

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