Australian Grand Prix
Venue: Albert Park, Melbourne Dates: 14 March-16 March Race begin: 04:00 GMT on Sunday, 16 March
Protection: Dwell radio commentary of observe and qualifying on BBC 5 Sports activities Further, race stay on BBC Radio 5 Dwell. Dwell textual content updates on the BBC Sport web site and app
After a three-month break, the 2025 Method 1 season is sort of upon us.
The Australian Grand Prix this weekend is the primary of 24 races between now and Abu Dhabi in December.
There are many speaking factors with Lewis Hamilton making ready for his Ferrari debut, Max Verstappen chasing a fifth consecutive drivers’ title and McLaren hoping to take care of the tempo that introduced them the constructors’ championship in 2024.
BBC Sport F1 correspondent Andrew Benson solutions your questions earlier than the season will get beneath means in Melbourne.
What’s the pragmatic expectation at Ferrari this 12 months? Fernando Alonso, Sebastian Vettel and Charles Leclerc have all did not win them a championship thus far. Is an excessive amount of anticipated from Lewis Hamilton? – Kenneth
Hamilton has been clear – he’s going to Ferrari to win an eighth world title.
When a driver of that stage goes to such a storied group, it is apparent what the goal is. So, questions on whether or not an excessive amount of is predicted of him miss the purpose – he and Ferrari anticipate that of themselves.
The impression of such an achievement can be large.
Hamilton’s transfer to Ferrari has already dramatically elevated curiosity in F1 within the run-up to this season. Think about what the response can be to the game’s most celebrated driver breaking the one remaining all-time document whereas driving for its most iconic group.
Will he do it? That is determined by two issues. Whether or not the Ferrari automobile is as much as it, and whether or not Hamilton can beat his team-mate, Charles Leclerc.
As for comparisons with Alonso and Vettel, neither managed to win the title they and Ferrari so craved.
Alonso was plain unfortunate – he ought to have received in 2010 and 2012. He was excellent in each years, particularly in 2012.
Had it not been for a catastrophic technique determination in Abu Dhabi in 2010, and two separate assaults from two completely different Lotus drivers at first of two completely different grands prix in 2012, he would have been champion.
Vettel’s state of affairs was extra complicated – arguably he and Ferrari threw away possibilities in each 2017 and 2018 by way of a mix of driver errors and group fallibility. Many individuals consider Alonso would have received at the very least a kind of titles had he stayed at Ferrari.
However that was then. The assumption is that that is about nearly as good a time as Hamilton may go to Ferrari.
In Frederic Vasseur, they’ve a group boss who has given the group a extra worldwide outlook, and may be very matter-of-fact and targeted on practicality. He appears to be having a great impact and shifting them in the best path.
Nobody is aware of what’s going to occur. However it’s certain goes to be entertaining discovering out, nevertheless it ends.
Is that this a crucial season for George Russell, particularly given the chance that Max Verstappen would possibly go away Crimson Bull sooner or later? – David
Each season is crucial in F1 – persons are all the time searching for indicators of weak spot. However the stakes are fairly excessive for Russell this 12 months, and that is virtually unbiased of Max Verstappen.
Russell is out of contract on the finish of the 12 months, and his new team-mate is an 18-year-old rookie, Andrea Kimi Antonelli. From the viewpoint of his popularity inside the sport, Russell has to return out on high.
If he would not, although, that doesn’t essentially imply his Mercedes profession is over. However it could imply Antonelli had marked himself out as a possible future nice.
If Verstappen isn’t out there, Toto Wolff will stick along with his present driver line-up into 2026 – Russell has come out of three seasons with Lewis Hamilton and nearly received bragging rights. He has earned his standing as considered one of F1’s very high drivers.
The strain can also be on Antonelli, although his uncooked expertise is believed to be immense. If he’s comfortably overwhelmed by Russell, he will not be round lengthy. Such is the way in which of issues in F1.
It is a powerful world, and solely the strongest survive.
Evaluating the apparently pleasant relationship between Max Verstappen and Lando Norris with the continued fallout of the Verstappen-Russell spat, does that present that Verstappen would not actually worry Norris, however he does worry Russell? – Joe
Should you requested that query to Max Verstappen himself, I do know precisely what he would say. He fears nobody.
Verstappen is totally assured that if he’s given a automobile by which it’s potential to win the title, he’ll win it. Does not matter who the opponent is.
How he will get on with somebody out of the automobile has no bearing in any way on his behaviour in it – you solely have to have a look at final 12 months’s Mexico Metropolis Grand Prix and to see that.
He’s as ruthless as they arrive, and anybody who will get in his means will get the identical therapy.
How they reply to him off the observe is a special query. However Verstappen would not care about that both. Pleasant, or not. Makes no distinction to him. He’ll race them simply has exhausting.
Do you suppose the battle between F1 and the FIA would possibly escalate? The place will it lead? – Sam
There was for a while widespread concern inside Method 1 concerning the actions of Mohammed Ben Sulayem, the president of governing physique the FIA, and nothing over the winter has modified that.
Ben Sulayem has been embroiled in a sequence of controversies since he took workplace in December 2021, and his latest actions in , and codifying a way by which have simply added to an extended listing of actions perceived to be problematic by many inside the sport.
In the mean time, although, there isn’t a open battle between F1 and the FIA, nor between the groups and the FIA.
Nevertheless, everybody within the sport may be very conscious of the rising disquiet inside the FIA itself – the most recent side of which was revealed by BBC Sport final week in its report on a lot of world motorsport council members being , a dispute that might but see .
With an FIA presidential election looming on the finish of the 12 months, the game’s bosses are holding an in depth eye on occasions. However until Ben Sulayem does one thing that straight impacts F1 enterprise, it’s unlikely F1 itself will take any motion.
However with the drivers sad, and the FIA going through and who is aware of what else coming down the road, this story isn’t going wherever any time quickly.
Because the FIA has now launched an additional necessary pit cease for Monaco, do you suppose that introducing this throughout all of the grand prix would enhance the racing as there can be much less tyre saving? – Andrew
The concept of introducing has been given a guardedly heat response thus far.
The hope is that this may add additional pleasure to the race and scale back its tendency to turn out to be a procession.
Lewis Hamilton stated he believed it was his thought initially, and added: “Monaco must be at the very least a two-stop. The one-stop was by no means actually nice.
“That (two stops) will not repair all of it. We’ll nonetheless see a few of the problems with not overtaking and stuff, however I believe it would make it extra thrilling.”
Some, although, have puzzled whether or not this was a response to a very unhealthy occasion final 12 months, which was itself attributable to a particular set of circumstances.
Final 12 months, there was a first-lap crash that led to a purple flag. So all of the front-runners fitted a set of tyres to get them to the tip of the race, and deliberate to not cease once more. That led to Charles Leclerc main the race at a pedestrian tempo and nothing occurring.
But it surely’s not like that yearly. Whatever the problem in overtaking, Monaco has seen a sequence of attention-grabbing races in recent times, some influenced by climate, and others by issues skilled by one driver or one other.
The necessary two-stop has been arrived at as a essential evil – introducing a component of artificiality to ameliorate a particular downside.
On the whole, introducing that stage of gimmickry isn’t one thing on which the powers that be in F1 are eager.
