2025 Australian GP: Post Race Analysis

Another Formula 1 season gets under way with the Australian GP. A wet track in the very first race was sure to have some drama, especially for the rookies who have never experienced F1 cars in the wet.

McLaren, as expected was the class of the field. They look to be a fair margin ahead of everyone else too. They had the race in control until weather caught both cars out while leading the race. Lando wins the race and Piastri was able to salvage 9th after being in the grass for about 60 seconds. Expect them to be much better in dry conditions.

Red Bull Racing have a piece of garbage for a car. In the hands of Verstappen there is some pace, but with any other driver it's not even the 4th best car. It's no surprise Verstappen was able to have a brilliant performance in the wet tricky conditions and even made a run at the win in the closing laps. Lawson was a full second off in qualifying and at times was 3 seconds off of Max in the wet. The car is so difficult to drive, Liam wasn't able to keep it out of the wall and took his first DNF.

Mercedes look to be the 2nd best car. George had a solid race though he was nowhere near the McLaren's or Verstappen. Kimi Antonelli scores an incredible 4th place finish after starting 16th and was without a doubt the best rookie of the day. However we must be realistic than he got exceptionally fortunate. 5 cars starting in front of him did not finish, and during the sequence of the SC after Alonso's wreck and the timing of going from slicks back to inters put Kimi into the points. Give him credit, but we shouldn't pretend that he drove himself up to 4th place. On a side note, what was with the penalty for an unsafe release that nobody saw? Then if it did happen, why would it be reversed later?

Williams appear to have some speed in their car. Albon also got a bit lucky, but he wasn't racing inside the points all day. Tough break for Sainz. He looked really really strong up until Q3 and then the weekend just fell apart. Looking forward to seeing just how good Williams is during the next few races.

Aston Martin look pretty slow again. Their short run of glory in 2023 is just a distant memory now. Stroll has looked pretty good in wet, changing conditions before and he did it again. If Alonso didn't crash out, he probably finishes outside the points, but he kept his car on track without any noticeable mistakes and it paid off in the end. A rare mistake by Alonso. It could be attributed to some gravel on the track, but others made it through just fine.

Sauber scored more points from Hulkenberg's 7th place finish than they did all of last year. Who wold have predicted that? Throughout testing they looked like to be at or near the bottom, but they appear to be a lot better than the Haas. Borteleto was having a pretty decent race until he spun out. Interestingly, as his car made it's first spin we could see his rear wheel falling off. I wonder if it was a mechanical failure that caused the spin.

Ferrari... oh Ferrari. It took just one damn race for the Lewis fans to feel the pain of Ferrari's brilliance. Charles was clearly the faster driver, but he continues to make mistakes. Hamilton predictably slow but doesn't make the big mistakes. No matter, the Ferrari pit wall continue to be the joke of Formula 1. Charles has water in his seat, it must be the water!

Alpine are likely around the same pace as Williams, both ahead of Aston Martin. Gasly did quite well until he went made a costly mistake by going off track which allowed both Ferrari's to get passed. Doohan was a victim of just how quickly these F1 cars spin out when you light up the rear tires in those conditions.

RB deserved at least a point with Yuki Tsunoda. A stonking lap in qualifying and he was holding his own in the race but the SC/dry to wet tire sequence crushed his race. Then there is Hadjar. Recording a DNS on your very first race because you crashed out on the formation lap. Ouch. That's brutal. I think everyone can understand his emotions afterwards. Class act by Anthony Hamilton to console him. Considering how many drivers lost control, I think we can cut the kid some slack.

Haas. Awfully slow but they both finished the race. It's quite a surprise how bad they are after being reasonably quick last season. Not only are the slow in qualifying, they don't have any race pace yet. Hopefully they can figure something out soon.

Driver of the Day: Max Verstappen. Any other driver duo in another team are reasonably close to each other. Kimi in his first race didn't look horrible compared to the experienced George Russell. Alonso is one of the all time greats and while Stroll sucks, he is still within a few tenths of a lap. The margin between Lawson and Verstappen was oceans apart. That Red Bull is so edgy to drive and only Max can figure it out. He finished the race putting pressure on Lando in what is likely to be a dominant car early this season. That's a very impressive performance. Honorable mention to Kimi. A rookie in very slippery conditions, made some passes, limited mistakes but had good pace and in the end got a bloody good result.

 

highlights or headlights?

 

Brundle made a very good point. We were seeing cars crashing during slow laps (Sainz and Hadjar) and it could happen again. A red flag did make sense. Though I would like to believe that the Safety Car would slow down a LOT when driving passed trucks and track workers. He went off line seen in the pictures, not sure why Lando didn't follow.