Official 2025 Australian Grand Prix Thread ***SPOILERS***

[ajprice]

PRO5T said:

Red Bull is going to be the most interesting driver pairing for me…

Yeah, I think Lawson will do better than Perez did last year, but that's a low bar. How close to Verstappen he gets and whether it's close enough to get fighty will be interesting.

[HocusPocus]

Imagine..Lawson lunging to the apex shouting "my corner" over the radio with a lifted finger wave to Verstappen.

The resulting fight could be promoted by MBS in Saudi Arabia.

[Leithen]

1996 Monaco all over again.

Wet race, chaos, almost everyone retires, Hadjar wins!

[mk1coopers]

TheDeuce said:

The last season of the current era, the field is as tight as it's ever been too. Add in fascinating driver pairings at Ferrari and McLaren along with a new team mate for Mad Max.. This can only be excellent

Please don’t remind David Croft that he can preload Australia / Mad Max comments into his barrel of buffoonery for the weekend

[FourGears]

If it is a wet race it's hard to look past Max winning.

Lewis could be a dark (prancing) horse as well.

[Still Mulling]

HocusPocus said:

Imagine..Lawson lunging to the apex shouting "my corner" over the radio with a lifted finger wave to Verstappen.

The resulting fight could be promoted by MBS in Saudi Arabia.

On the McLaren's, this being Norris's season to shine is clear, but it feels like many forget that Piastri is only in season 2. With the pressure off him contractually, I think there's as much pressure on him to demonstrate consistency of performance now he has a couple of years under his belt. If Norris successfully rises to his own challenge, eyes will be on Oscar to keep up.

[BrettMRC]

Still Mulling said:

On the McLaren's, this being Norris's season to shine is clear, but it feels like many forget that Piastri is only in season 2. With the pressure off him contractually, I think there's as much pressure on him to demonstrate consistency of performance now he has a couple of years under his belt. If Norris successfully rises to his own challenge, eyes will be on Oscar to keep up.

I think Norris will do a Button, just about snatch the WDC after a few serious fumbles from the rest, (and himself).

[Wills2]

So much hope on the thread that I also share, if you take the logical/lazy view that everyone will have moved forward a bit then it'll be the same as last year, can a single driver make the difference I'm not so sure you have to have the car in the first place, perhaps a number 1 driver strategy at Mclaren could make it closer this year if the pecking order has stayed the same.

What I want is a season whereby we have lots of winners I think the last time that happened was 2012.

[Sandpit Steve]

Still Mulling said:

On the McLaren's, this being Norris's season to shine is clear, but it feels like many forget that Piastri is only in season 2. With the pressure off him contractually, I think there's as much pressure on him to demonstrate consistency of performance now he has a couple of years under his belt. If Norris successfully rises to his own challenge, eyes will be on Oscar to keep up.

Random Twitter rumour is that Oscar’s salary has gone from $5m/year to $20m/year on the new contract. He knows he’s now set for life, can do stuff like fly private if it’s more convenient, and ignore anything that isn’t to do with the racing or team commitments.

It’s a massive vote of confidence in him from the management, telling him that he’s done proving himself and he now needs to go out and win more Championships.

[Sandpit Steve]

Wills2 said:

So much hope on the thread that I also share, if you take the logical/lazy view that everyone will have moved forward a bit then it'll be the same as last year, can a single driver make the difference I'm not so sure you have to have the car in the first place, perhaps a number 1 driver strategy at Mclaren could make it closer this year if the pecking order has stayed the same.

What I want is a season whereby we have lots of winners I think the last time that happened was 2012.

There were seven different winning drivers last season, which was indeed the most since the eight of 2012.
There were also 8 winners in 2003, and 7 in 2008.
More than 8 winners has only happened twice, with 9 in 1975 and 11 in 1982.

[TheDeuce]

Sandpit Steve said:

Random Twitter rumour is that Oscar’s salary has gone from $5m/year to $20m/year on the new contract. He knows he’s now set for life, can do stuff like fly private if it’s more convenient, and ignore anything that isn’t to do with the racing or team commitments.

It’s a massive vote of confidence in him from the management, telling him that he’s done proving himself and he now needs to go out and win more Championships.

I'm not normally one to get over excited by a young drivers future potential. There's often misplaced optimism from those that are simply excited by any new driver.

But there's something about Piastri... I think the contrast to Lando helps because Piastri still has time to find more speed, if he does I'm convinced he's already a tougher and wiser racer than Lando. I think that's why I rate his future potential so highly.

If he got to the level of being able to fight for a title, I think he'd cope with the pressure of doing so. Maybe Lando can too, we're perhaps about to find out

[Sandpit Steve]

TheDeuce said:

Sandpit Steve said:

Random Twitter rumour is that Oscar’s salary has gone from $5m/year to $20m/year on the new contract. He knows he’s now set for life, can do stuff like fly private if it’s more convenient, and ignore anything that isn’t to do with the racing or team commitments.

It’s a massive vote of confidence in him from the management, telling him that he’s done proving himself and he now needs to go out and win more Championships.

I'm not normally one to get over excited by a young drivers future potential. There's often misplaced optimism from those that are simply excited by any new driver.

But there's something about Piastri... I think the contrast to Lando helps because Piastri still has time to find more speed, if he does I'm convinced he's already a tougher and wiser racer than Lando. I think that's why I rate his future potential so highly.

If he got to the level of being able to fight for a title, I think he'd cope with the pressure of doing so. Maybe Lando can too, we're perhaps about to find out

Yes, it was said of Piastri that he was up there with Vertappen and Hamilton, he won F2 by 60 points in 2021.

The same has also been said of Antonelli, but he didn’t have the best of seasons in F2 last year and managed to make a big mess of an F1 car in a practice session at Monza. He’ll definitely be one to watch this year, in what could be a winning car.

Which remains me, need to start the “Official F1 Support Races Thread 2025”.

[TheDeuce]

Sandpit Steve said:

Yes, it was said of Piastri that he was up there with Vertappen and Hamilton, he won F2 by 60 points in 2021.

The same has also been said of Antonelli, but he didn’t have the best of seasons in F2 last year and managed to make a big mess of an F1 car in a practice session at Monza. He’ll definitely be one to watch this year, in what could be a winning car.

Which remains me, need to start the “Official F1 Support Races Thread 2025”.

Indeed, and you do. Plenty of support action in Melbourne coming up...

[thegreenhell]

TheDeuce said:

I'm not normally one to get over excited by a young drivers future potential. There's often misplaced optimism from those that are simply excited by any new driver.

But there's something about Piastri... I think the contrast to Lando helps because Piastri still has time to find more speed, if he does I'm convinced he's already a tougher and wiser racer than Lando. I think that's why I rate his future potential so highly.

If he got to the level of being able to fight for a title, I think he'd cope with the pressure of doing so. Maybe Lando can too, we're perhaps about to find out

They say it's easier to make a fast car reliable than to a make reliable car fast. Is the same true of drivers? Can he find more speed?

[paulguitar]

Sandpit Steve said:

Yes, it was said of Piastri that he was up there with Vertappen and Hamilton, he won F2 by 60 points in 2021.

The same has also been said of Antonelli, but he didn’t have the best of seasons in F2 last year and managed to make a big mess of an F1 car in a practice session at Monza. He’ll definitely be one to watch this year, in what could be a winning car.

Which remains me, need to start the “Official F1 Support Races Thread 2025”.

Look at the contrast to the impact made by Hamilton in his rookie season against Piasri's start in F1. Lewis had to deal with a peak Alonso, the double WDC and vanquisher of Michael Schumacher. He showed up in F1 and was immediately on that level, and he ended up ahead at the end of the season. What's more, without some bizarre occurrences towards the end (in particular, being left out on tyres on the canvas in China and the unaccountable gearbox glitch in Brazil), he would have ended up ahead of Alonso by a huge margin.


I just don't see anything similar from Piastri. He came up against a still quite new Norris and was usually slower. I rate Osacr highly, but I don't see an all-time great Hamilton/Senna level of talent. I'm happy to be proven wrong if that's what happens.

[Hustle_]

We'd see much better race performances from new drivers if tyre thermal management wasn't such a big part of the game. This is something I really wish the sport could sort out.

[Wills2]

Sandpit Steve said:

Wills2 said:

So much hope on the thread that I also share, if you take the logical/lazy view that everyone will have moved forward a bit then it'll be the same as last year, can a single driver make the difference I'm not so sure you have to have the car in the first place, perhaps a number 1 driver strategy at Mclaren could make it closer this year if the pecking order has stayed the same.

What I want is a season whereby we have lots of winners I think the last time that happened was 2012.

There were seven different winning drivers last season, which was indeed the most since the eight of 2012.
There were also 8 winners in 2003, and 7 in 2008.
More than 8 winners has only happened twice, with 9 in 1975 and 11 in 1982.

I should have been clearer "lots of winners" in that the first 7 races of the 2012 season were won by different drivers which is a completely different dynamic to last year despite the on paper stats showing 7 vs 8 over the full season.

I picked 2012 due to that famous first run of races but I guess not everyone remembers it so should have been clearer.

[Sandpit Steve]

Wills2 said:

I should have been clearer "lots of winners" in that the first 7 races of the 2012 season were won by different drivers which is a completely different dynamic to last year despite the on paper stats showing 7 vs 8 over the full season.

I picked 2012 due to that famous first run of races but I guess not everyone remembers it so should have been clearer.

Yes that was an awesome year with so many different winners at the start of the season, and there was a lot of competition right down to the last race.

[Sandpit Steve]

paulguitar said:

Look at the contrast to the impact made by Hamilton in his rookie season against Piasri's start in F1. Lewis had to deal with a peak Alonso, the double WDC and vanquisher of Michael Schumacher. He showed up in F1 and was immediately on that level, and he ended up ahead at the end of the season. What's more, without some bizarre occurrences towards the end (in particular, being left out on tyres on the canvas in China and the unaccountable gearbox glitch in Brazil), he would have ended up ahead of Alonso by a huge margin.

I just don't see anything similar from Piastri. He came up against a still quite new Norris and was usually slower. I rate Osacr highly, but I don't see an all-time great Hamilton/Senna level of talent. I'm happy to be proven wrong if that's what happens.

Hustle_ said:

We'd see much better race performances from new drivers if tyre thermal management wasn't such a big part of the game. This is something I really wish the sport could sort out.

I’m not sure these two comments are unrelated.

The tyre management stuff is impossible to learn outside actually driving the car at an event or the very few official testing sessions, yet is a key part of maximising car performance.

In other words, I’m not sure we’ll ever see a rookie come up in the same way as Lewis did in 2007. Yes there’s a book to be written on why he was left out on the canvas in China, he’s already said as much. A very political season for the team, let’s say.

[TheDeuce]

thegreenhell said:

TheDeuce said:

I'm not normally one to get over excited by a young drivers future potential. There's often misplaced optimism from those that are simply excited by any new driver.

But there's something about Piastri... I think the contrast to Lando helps because Piastri still has time to find more speed, if he does I'm convinced he's already a tougher and wiser racer than Lando. I think that's why I rate his future potential so highly.

If he got to the level of being able to fight for a title, I think he'd cope with the pressure of doing so. Maybe Lando can too, we're perhaps about to find out

They say it's easier to make a fast car reliable than to a make reliable car fast. Is the same true of drivers? Can he find more speed?

I'm not sure if I think the same applies or not, in general...

But we're about to find out. If he doesn't at very least develop more reliable speed ths season then I guess we'd have to conclude he's as fast as he's ever going to be. Looking at his time in feeder series I'd say that it's likely he has more to give though - not that F2/3 always translates into F1 progress.