The 2025 season started in thrilling trend as Lando Norris beat Max Verstappen to win an incident-packed Australian Grand Prix.
In the meantime, Lewis Hamilton completed tenth in his first race for Ferrari.
Changeable circumstances led to a sequence of crashes, three security automobiles and an aborted begin.
BBC Sport F1 correspondent Andrew Benson solutions your questions after the race in Melbourne.
Will McLaren enable Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri to race? They at all times say the drivers are free to race, nevertheless each time they get close to on observe, drivers are informed to carry positions. Will this rob us of the one championship battle if the McLaren is so dominant? – Martin
There is a easy reply to this query – sure. McLaren’s philosophy is that the drivers are free to race, with the caveat that the group’s pursuits at all times come first.
What which means is that the drivers have guidelines – Norris and Piastri can compete however they can not danger one another’s automobiles.
That is what explains the order, halfway by way of the Australian Grand Prix, for the automobiles to carry station till that they had cleared some lapped visitors and the group had a greater understanding of the incoming moist climate.
Workforce principal Andrea Stella stated: “In the course of the race at some stage we needed to go comparatively quickly by way of some backmarkers whereas the automobiles had been shut collectively and the circumstances on observe had been nonetheless a bit of tough with intermediate tyres that had been working down a bit when it comes to their rubber, and on the identical time receiving some updates on the climate forecast.
“That led us to shut, for a brief interval, the interior racing till we had readability as to the climate prediction, what this meant for the way we must always use the tyres, and till we had closed the matter of overtaking the backmarkers. As soon as this was accomplished, we re-opened the racing.”
It was clear from the tone of Piastri’s reply that he was not that comfortable about being informed to carry station – at that stage he had closed to inside a second of Norris and was difficult for the lead, claiming he was faster.
As soon as the drivers had been allowed to race once more, although, Norris prolonged the hole, after which Piastri made a mistake at Flip Six making an attempt to maintain up.
That means Norris had beforehand been managing his tempo to include the wear and tear on his intermediates. And Piastri admitted his tyres had been too far passed by then to problem.
The general philosophy was defined by Norris after qualifying.
“There are clearly guidelines we can not cross,” he stated. “Each automobiles should at all times keep within the race, however we’re each rivals. That is clear.
“We each need to battle for a win and victories. However there are boundaries across the automotive – just a bit more room right here and there. We’re free to race, free to attempt to win races.
“However what received us the constructors’ final yr was how we helped each other and the way we saved issues clear.”
How lengthy do you are expecting it’s going to take Lewis Hamilton to seek out his toes at Ferrari, as in to at the least match Charles Leclerc, if he does? – Oliver
Since Hamilton joined Ferrari, he has constantly referred to the training course of he must undergo earlier than he can carry out at his optimum.
Over the race weekend in Australia, the phrase that saved recurring was “constructing” – a reference to the buildup of data he requires earlier than he can extract the perfect from himself inside the context of Ferrari’s automotive and group.
This entails the behaviour of the automotive on observe, the operations of the automotive’s techniques – two issues which might be interlinked – and his communications with the group, each within the automotive and out of it.
By way of the weekend in Melbourne, there have been apparent indicators that these weren’t but at their most fluent.
Hamilton stated: “I’ve discovered an enormous quantity this weekend. There’s rather a lot to remove from it. And, yeah, I’ve bought some modifications I’ve bought to make for subsequent week, and I will see the way it goes.”
How lengthy will this course of take? Effectively, because the saying goes, how lengthy is a chunk of string?
The query incorporates an assumption, although. Hamilton will definitely imagine he can “at the least match Charles Leclerc”. In reality, he’ll imagine he can beat him on steadiness over a season. After all he’ll.
However Leclerc is richly proficient, and presumably the quickest driver over one lap in F1.
Good as Hamilton clearly is, that is no straightforward problem.
What’s mistaken with the second Pink Bull seat? No-one has carried out properly in it for some time now. It is prefer it’s cursed – Niko
Max Verstappen is a genius-level driver who’s clearly an all-time nice. Anybody who bought into the second Pink Bull would know they confronted the battle of their lives to come back out on prime in opposition to the Dutchman – and that features the opposite recognised top-level drivers in F1 in the intervening time.
And inside that actuality lies the inherent contradiction of the method Pink Bull are taking to their second seat.
They do not desire a driver who can problem Verstappen. They need somebody who can present sufficient assist to get within the combine together with his rivals and take factors off them, easing Verstappen’s path to the drivers’ title and the group’s to the constructors’ championship.
The issue is that they preserve choosing second-string drivers to do a job that solely drivers of a better high quality are capable of do.
In a tightly-packed subject, having a driver who’s at greatest 0.3 seconds a lap off Verstappen goes to imply somebody qualifies near the again of the group of the highest 4 groups, and due to this fact is never going to be of a lot assist.
For this season, they may have had Carlos Sainz – a driver who truly very marginally out-qualified Verstappen once they had been team-mates at Toro Rosso again in 2015.
However they rejected him on the idea of the potential rigidity it will trigger of their group. As an alternative, they picked Sergio Perez – a call that baffled many individuals in F1.
It backfired on them when the Mexican had a second poor season, and so they needed to pay him off. Now they’ve picked Liam Lawson, a rookie with solely 11 races’ expertise and of as-yet-unproven high quality.
Thrown in on the deep finish in Melbourne, Lawson struggled, to say the least.
The state of affairs is exacerbated as a result of the automotive is developed following Verstappen’s suggestions.
He desires a really sharp entrance finish, and has the flexibility to deal with the unfastened rear this inevitably creates. However solely drivers of the very highest stage of expertise might deal with these traits, and solely drivers with the very highest stage of psychological power might deal with racing Verstappen.
Lewis Hamilton fought for the title in his rookie season. Is that also potential for the best driver in the best automotive or have occasions, processes and automobiles moved on since then? – Doug
There is no such thing as a query that shifting to a brand new group presents a driver with a sequence of challenges that make his life harder – as defined above.
Hamilton, after all, famously fought for the title in his debut season with McLaren in 2007, however that was after meticulous preparation and 1000’s of kilometres of testing, which made him what’s broadly considered the perfect ready rookie in historical past.
It has been some time since a driver has instantly contended for the championship after switching groups, however then all of the title battles in recent times have been between groups whose drivers have been with them for a while.
The final time a driver new to a group fought for the title was 2010, when Fernando Alonso not solely received his first race for Ferrari, however took the title battle to the wire. Had it not been for an infamously catastrophic technique error on the ultimate race of the season in Abu Dhabi, he would have been champion.
Jenson Button was additionally on the fringes of the title battle that season, after shifting from Brawn to McLaren.
It is exhausting to type conclusions from that, although, as a result of it is so way back. F1 automobiles have change into considerably extra complicated since then, and drivers have much less time when it comes to pre-season testing to arrange.
Having stated that, maybe one ought to take into account one other yr of Alonso’s profession.
In 2023, he joined Aston Martin from Alpine, and he was excellent from the beginning. He was Verstappen’s largest challenger for the primary a part of the season, took six podiums within the first eight races, got here near profitable in Monaco, and was excellent all yr, even because the group fell from competitiveness.
So, it is exhausting to argue in opposition to the concept that if a driver is sweet sufficient – and Hamilton clearly is – it’s potential.
Aston Martin have invested some huge cash in individuals, services and assets. Does cash assure success in F1? – Anil
Cash is required to achieve F1, but it surely doesn’t assure success.
The instance at all times held up on this topic is Toyota’s F1 programme, which ran from 2002-9.
It’s broadly regarded to have had the largest finances ever, however the group did not win a single race.
There have been a bunch of causes for this – and by no means having a real top-level driver was actually one in every of them.
However most would agree the elemental challenge was that company Toyota was too concerned within the group, with too many layers and strictures of administration, depriving it of the dexterity and fleet-footedness required of any F1 group working on the highest stage.
At its coronary heart, F1 success is about discovering the best individuals, placing them in the best locations, and empowering them to provide the perfect of themselves. An method completely demonstrated by McLaren’s rise from backmarkers to world champions within the final couple of years.
As Alonso stated in Australia, Aston Martin now have all that’s required for fulfillment.
They’ve a state-of-the-art new manufacturing facility – together with a driver-in-the-loop simulator, and a wind tunnel that has simply change into operational – and have signed Adrian Newey, the game’s best ever designer, to steer an expensively assembled technical group.
However now they should put all that collectively and show they will compete with groups which were on the entrance for years.
“The bundle is accomplished now,” Alonso stated. “We’ll want time. This isn’t soccer. Soccer could be very straightforward – you’re taking the perfect pitch, the perfect supervisor, the perfect gamers and ultimately you win possibly the subsequent match.
“In F1, you possibly can have the perfect services, the perfect individuals, however you continue to want time to place the components collectively and win, and we’ve so many examples in F1 historical past.”
