2025 Australian Grand Prix - Melbourne, March 14 - 16

[TeamKoolGreen]

On Lawson.

Helmut Marko stated that Max struggled with tire degradation, particularly in the final sector of Albert Park, which impacted his qualifying performance, as they were at Norris' level until Curve 11, then their tires stopped working. This is the exact same thing that Lawson said on the radio after he went off on his push lap.

Max did a purple/purple/yellow on one of push laps from losing the car slightly. This is exactly what happened to Lawson's push lap too. Max never did 3 purples in the whole qualy session.

It is a bad omen for the cursed 2nd Red Bull car. But Lawson was solid on Sundays in his first few races, beating Tsunoda in his first four outings. So lets see what tomorrow brings. Lets see if he can move up the field. Tsunoda is better off at Racing Bulls. Sainz is better off at Willaims probably.

On Antonelli.

I was a bit skeptical but he had a solid FP3 and slotted in just behind Russell. The problem in qualy was, he went off slightly and damaged the bib. It was a strange one because he never went off any worse than the other cars, who had minimal damage. The damage was done and he was out.

[Greg Locock]

As of 1pm. Rain radar to 256 km seems to indicate a dry race, with some rain bursts. Rain tires will overheat in 20 laps, at a guess. Who will start on softs? Lowndes would.

[basti313]

As of 1pm. Rain radar to 256 km seems to indicate a dry race, with some rain bursts. Rain tires will overheat in 20 laps, at a guess. Who will start on softs? Lowndes would.

Currently a very wet track and still rain. My bet is they start behind the SC on heavy rains. I agree, it will be king to keep them alive and to get rid of them at the right time. I fear that skipping the inter is not an option as those trying it will loose too much time here.

[Greg Locock]

Channel 10 'commentary' resembles some sort of inane AI generated teenage chatter. They'd fail the Turing test.

As of 1.45pm 3 very light showers per hour.

[Greg Locock]

basti are you at the track? The inane witterers aren't showing us video of the track as it is. 100 km WSW I haven't even seen a puddle on the road. As of 2pm it looks like AP will hang around at 0.2mm per hour.

OK just got a decent shot of the pits. Hmm, very different to here.

[taperoo2k]

Oof that's a rough start to Hadjar's F1 career, Anthony Hamilton is a class act for comforting him in the paddock.

[Greg Locock]

mad max on mediums. rain coming.

[Luscion]

Ferrari messed it up, should have pitted Charles and Lewis when Max did

[gastonmazzacane]

Antonelli will be the joke of the season, mark my words. Not only he will be dead slow the whole year but will also crash a lot.

Well that must feel akward now

[erudite450]

I don't understand what Ferrari were thinking. Pitting was the most obvious thing. Even if the shower passed quickly, it was heavy enough that the slicks weren't going to work for at least 7 laps.

[SB15]

- Ferrari will not be happy with that given they've been historically strong here and they were looking fast in practice. I think they left time on the table in Q3, but not nearly enough to compete for pole.

The problem for Ferrari is that Leclerc didn´t get to do that final Q3 lap in which everybody improved a lot. Likely, he could have gone much faster because Ferrari, in all likelyhood, is not slower t than Toro Rosso and Williams. As for Hamilton, he´s right where he belongs or, actually, this will likely be his best qualifying of the season as Sainz and others will improve and Melbourne being his best track, historically

Antonelli will be the joke of the season, mark my words. Not only he will be dead slow the whole year but will also crash a lot.

Told you so bro! Finished P5 (Net P4 without Penalty)

Remember his name, Andrea Kimi Antonelli

[emp]

So quiet here! Amazing race, up until the last laps. Mclaren seems to have build an all rounder, Max is exceptional in the rain and the top10 is closer in the last year of this regulations.

[venkyhere]

From the 'body language' of the cars, McLaren looks vastly superior to anyone else.
Norris, with a low DF rear wing, wasn't even hitting the white line of the T10 kerb at high speed. That means even more pace is 'in pocket'. I don't think any other of the top5 time setters had this kind of margin. And the commentary said he wasn't using the kerb at all, on the final corner before the pit straight. It's looking ominous, like RB19 of 2023.

This was my instinct after FP1.

Then I went to this, after looking at FP2 long run 'data' :

Spent some time with long run data from F1-tempo, with one race pace lap each from the top four teams.
Made sure I selected laps where LEC was not stuck behind VER and where NOR was not stuck behind ANT.
.....
.....
Overall, contrary to my belief earlier from FP1, Ferrari are 'upto-speed' with McLaren and have emerged as the 'threat' for McLaren, they have similarly sharp front-end on their cars.
@dialtone & @JPBD1990 , I stand corrected.

Time to eat my 'data analysis' words ; and go back to what I felt after 'eyeballing' the body language of the cars.
Redbull (with Max driving), can 'build' from Friday to Sunday into a workable car that can match the pace of the McLarens, but the price to pay is tyre wear. The MCL39 is looking RB19-esque for McLaren, even if other cars 'add performance' over the entire season, the gap is simply too much. More than 1s per lap in race pace after 10-15 laps worth wear on tyres.

Antonelli will be the joke of the season, mark my words. Not only he will be dead slow the whole year but will also crash a lot.

Time to join me in the 'eating words' club.
Whilst other rookies put it in the wall, he is the only guy who brought the car intact without overdriving, and without underdriving as well. Means he can 'feel the grip' better than all of them. Full marks to Antonelli, very impressed.

[DGP123]

Feel a bit ‘meh’ after that. Was a dull race up until the Alonso SC. Macca are dominant. As Brundle said, looks like the season is between Lando & Oscar, with Max occasionally there. Might not be the exciting season everyone hoped, if not a Macca fan. As for Ferrari, a horror show on and off track.

[chrisc90]

Bit of a dull but exciting race today. Would have been interesting to see if Max could have kept Oscar behind for longer, but I don't think it would have been for many more laps. Strangely, the lap times come back to Max at the end of the 1st inters stint.

The McLaren is a massively dominant car, looking like, at this point, its going to take something special to reel them in.

Great race from Max, one of the very few drivers that kept it on track when the conditions got tricky. Shows the calibre of driver that he is. (aside from the lockup under the pressure from Oscar)

At the last safety car, Max was in 2 minds about whether slicks were the correct tyre, I think GP swayed his decision when he said everyone else had switched to slicks. Maybe if stayed on the inters than might have paid off, but would have been a big risk at the restart.

Got to feel a bit for Ferrari this weekend. Lewis and his engineer didn't seem to be in sync and the televised radio seemed very snappy from Lewis. (i think someone said Sky pulled all their radio - so if they have that video would be cool to link it here).

Hopefully a dry weekend will give us some better racing in terms of overtakes and pace of the cars.