The 2025 FIA Formula One World Championship got underway in dramatic fashion on Melbourne’s Albert Park Circuit on 16th March, with the unusually wet conditions proving challenging for both the grid’s rookies and the more seasoned drivers.
Monaco’s Charles Leclerc, driving for Scuderia Ferrari alongside his new teammate, the British seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton, had looked promising in the practice sessions, but that didn’t translate during the three rounds of qualifying.
Leclerc ultimately started on the fourth row in seventh, with Hamilton in eighth. A statement from Ferrari noted that their placement ahead of the race “didn’t live up to expectations”, while Leclerc lamented, “We just didn’t have the pace [during qualifying].”
A frenzied start
The drama began even before the lights went out at the Australian Grand Prix on Sunday 16th March. As the drivers set off on a damp formation lap, led by McLaren’s Lando Norris in pole position, followed by his Australian teammate Oscar Piastri and Red Bull’s Max Verstappen, Racing Bulls’ rookie Isack Hadjar lost control of his car at Turn 2, forcing an aborted start.
The race resumed 15 minutes later, and Leclerc made a strong getaway, advancing two places, while Hamilton maintained eighth. Further back, chaos ensued as Alpine’s Jack Doohan, another newcomer to the grid, crashed into the barriers at Turn 5. Leclerc’s former teammate Carlos Sainz, who moved to Williams for this season, also spun out, ending his run prematurely.
The safety car neutralised the race for seven laps before activity could fully resume. The race continued until Lap 33 with the order largely unchanged, until Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso crashed out, triggering yet another safety car.
Hamilton was the first to switch to hard slick tyres ahead of the rest of the field, who followed suit on Lap 34, but Ferrari’s reactivity stalled. The rain started coming down again on Lap 45 and almost all of the remaining drivers dived into the pits. Leclerc, who had spun out but stayed in competition during that fateful lap, and Hamilton stayed out until Lap 48, hoping that the rain would ease off—it didn’t—and thus failed to capitalise on what could have been a real opportunity to gain key positions.
When they returned, both had fallen back and rejoined in ninth and 10th. At the green flag on Lap 52, Leclerc rushed past Hamilton. Both overtook Alpine’s Pierre Gasly, advancing to eighth and ninth as the end came into sight.
Then P9, which had looked to be in the bag for Hamilton, was snatched away by Piastri, who had suffered his own issues during his home race, leaving the two Ferraris in P8 and 10th.
Hamilton shared his frustrations post-race, saying, “I’m grateful to finish, at least I got one point. Overall, not what I was hoping for, but there was so much to get accustomed to, to get used to, with all the switch settings and changes that they [the team] were throwing at you [over the radio]. Then just the balance of the car… It was really very, very tricky—really, really tricky today. I think we can improve that in the next race, hopefully, and get the car in a sweeter spot. I think there’s a lot more potential in the car than what we were able to extract today.”
Leclerc admitted it had been a “tough race”, adding, “We weren’t the fastest out there, but in such weather conditions, there was a chance of scoring some big points, which we didn’t capitalise on today. I lost a few positions after the spin at Turn 11. In the end, it wasn’t that bad with the safety car that came out later on, but then we stopped a lap too late to switch to inters, losing positions again. There are two things we have to look into. The first is easy—it was my mistake. The second is something we will sort out as a team, looking into our decisions and making sure we make the right call if the situation comes up again. It’s a continuous process of improvement. We are disappointed, but it’s good to know we’ll be back in the car in just a few days in China to give it another go.”
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Photo source: Scuderia Ferrari Media Centre