Like any sane university student, I got up at 4am on Sunday morning to catch the Australian Grand Prix. In case you missed the chaos, fancy a recap or are just so excited by F1’s return that you want to consume all possible media, here are my takeaways.
McLaren are fast – we all expected it to some extent, they are the reigning constructors champions after all, but perhaps we had not expected quite the extent to which they were above everyone else. A front row lockout looked entirely possible, if not likely, during practice and was all but confirmed once the first qualifying runs took place, and all was finally revealed.
Rain, the ultimate leveller, would bring Verstappen into the fight; from third on the grid, he caught out Piastri from the line and was up to second place immediately. McLaren looked consistently stronger afterwards however, with Piastri having the pace to retake the place. Yet, a series of crashes by rookies, safety cars, and Piastri shunting his car into the gravel opened the place back up and he put a fight to Norris until the Brit clinched it at the line. From the pace shown by McLaren, it feels like Norris’ championship to lose at this early stage, but Verstappen will take confidence from Sunday. With updates and a few McLaren wobbles, he is very much in the hunt for a record-equalling fifth consecutive World championship.
The other stand out point was the variety of fortunes the rookies faced. Hadjar crashed out on the formation lap and did not start, while Jack Doohan was out on lap one of his home Grand prix. Saubers’ Bortoleto and RedBull’s Liam Lawson got slightly further, 47 laps, before touching the wall. Kimi Antonelli, meanwhile, finished fourth, was relegated to fifth and then promoted back up to fourth again on a stunning debut for a strong looking Mercedes outfit. The Silver Arrows are currently tied with McLaren in the constructors because of Piastri’s cross country adventure. Antonelli’s is the strongest debut since Magnussun finished second in 2014, and Hamilton third in 2007. He’ll hope his career turns out more like the latter than the former.
Speaking of Hamilton, it was a weekend to forget for the Scuderia. From looking strong in the practice sessions, Ferrari were on the back foot from qualifying onwards, starting P7 and P8 on the grid. For a brief moment, they held a 1-2 after they stayed out on hard tires while the other front runners dove into the pits for intermediates when the rain came. It is confusing to work out what weather projections Ferrari strategists were looking at, but after a few laps, when it became evident the rain was not disappearing, they accepted their mistake, pitting both drivers. They thus lost track position, falling to the outskirts of the top 10, eventually finishing eighth and tenth.
Hamilton talked about this weekend being about getting used to the car, and his new race engineer. Meanwhile, Niko Hulkenberg jumped straight into his new Sauber car and picked up where he left off at Haas, scoring points. Six points in fact, two more than Sauber’s entire total last year in one race, consolidating Hulkenbergs position as one of the best midfield drivers on the grid. Leclerc meanwhile looked invisible, finishing in a distant eighth. Sauber getting out of the blocks ahead of Ferrari in the Constructors’ Championship? I doubt that was on anyone’s 2025 bingo card.
Given Ferrari entered this year being talked about as genuine contenders, and the bizarreness of Sunday’s race, we may just have to wait for the contenders to truly emerge. Formula One is off to Shanghai for the Chinese Grand Prix this weekend.
Photo Credits: “2024-08-25 Motorsport, Formel 1, Großer Preis der Niederlande 2024 STP 3968 by Stepro (Lando Norris)” by Steffen Prößdorf is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.