Lewis Hamilton says he is impressed with how hard his new team mate Charles Leclerc works behind the scenes.
Leclerc is heading into his eighth season in Formula 1 and seventh as a Ferrari driver. Hamilton, who is 13 years older than his latest team mate, said Leclerc’s work ethic is his strongest quality as a driver.
“Naturally, you don’t know what happens behind closed doors,” said Hamilton. “I think every driver works really hard, but everyone has a different method in how they achieve their ultimate performance.
“It’s been really interesting to see. It’s not too dissimilar to mine, and you just see a hard-working kid just getting on with it.”
Hamilton, who has joined his new team from Mercedes, sees Leclerc as “very, very, very much ‘Mr Ferrari’.”
The seven-times world champion’s arrival has brought more attention upon what is already F1’s most historic and famous team. However Hamilton said he isn’t feeling under more pressure to succeed.
“I don’t really approach this role with pressure,” he said. “I think over the years, the pressure I put on myself has always been ten times higher than any other pressure that could be put upon me.
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“I haven’t joined this team and been made to feel any pressure. I have an expectation for myself: I know what I can bring, I know what I can deliver, and I know what it’s going to take. It’s just about getting my head down and working away.”
This weekend will be the first time Hamilton has competed in a grand prix without a Mercedes power unit. He said there are many changes he is still getting used to after 12 seasons at the same team.
“I come with a very open mind into this weekend,” he said. “It’s about getting into a good rhythm.
“I’m still learning this new car, that’s quite a lot different from what I’ve driven my whole career, in the sense of the Mercedes power coming to the Ferrari power, it’s something quite new – different vibration, different feel, different way of working.
“The whole team works completely differently. I was just sitting, looking at last year’s race traces and it’s upside-down compared to the previous ones, what I’ve been used to. I don’t understand it all.
“You’re looking at things from a different perspective and that makes it exciting and challenging. This is definitely the most exciting period of my life. I’m really enjoying it, and I’m so excited to get in the car tomorrow.”
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Jack Doohan says he is paying no attention to rumours he won’t complete his first full season in Formula 1.
Red Bull motorsport consultant Helmut Marko named him the weakest rookie on the F1 grid this year and suggested his Alpine team will drop him before the end of the year.
Speaking to Red Bull-owned television channel Servus TV, Marko was invited to grade drivers who are starting their first full seasons this year. Marko, who is responsible for Red Bull’s junior team, rated Doohan the lowest, labelling him a “C driver.”
“I don’t think he’ll complete the full season,” Marko added.
Doohan moved up to Alpine’s race team at the final round of last season, having previously been their reserve driver. However the team’s consultant Flavio Briatore moved quickly to hire Williams’ Franco Colapinto and is thought to prefer him for Doohan’s seat.
“I haven’t been thinking about any of that,” said Doohan in today’s press conference ahead of his home race in Melbourne. “There’s no point thinking about rumours or commenting on them.
“I have a contract for at least this year, if not more. So I look forward to many home grands prix.”
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He pointed out Colapinto is one of four reserve drivers Alpine has appointed for the upcoming season. The team announced Kush Maini as its latest reserve just two days ago, joining Colapinto, Paul Aron and Ryo Hirakawa.
“I have to perform each and every time I’m in the car,” said Doohan. “I have one guy chasing my seat, but we actually have four now, if you didn’t realise, we have four reserves.
“It’s not just Franco who probably wants my seat and if not, Pierre [Gasly]’s as well. And I wanted their seats while I was reserve driver the last two years.
“So I’m going to enjoy, to be honest, every race as if it’s my last, because I want to enjoy each and every moment I’m in the car.”
Marko rated Andrea Kimi Antonelli and Oliver Bearman as ‘A’ and Gabriel Bortoleto as ‘B’, noting the latter won fewer Formula 2 races than Red Bull’s junior driver Isack Hadjar last year.
“He’s a very intelligent driver, won the Formula 3 championship but with only one victory. He always stays out of trouble in the races.
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“Similarly, in Formula 2, he only has two wins. Hadjar has four wins. So, he brings the car to the finish line, his strategy and tyre management is good, but I don’t think he’ll have that absolute final speed.”
Bortoleto beat Hadjar to the title by 22.5 points but Marko said “our simulation guy calculated that he lost 80 points through no fault of his own due to technical defects and the like.”
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Lando Norris has admitted McLaren are heading into the new season in a competitive position, but does not believe they have increased their advantage over the winter.
Several of McLaren’s rivals have named them as pre-season favourites after they posted a series of impressive lap times over long runs in testing two weeks ago. Norris conceded the reigning constructors’ champions “have a good car to start the season” but doesn’t believe they have pulled further ahead of the pack.
“I don’t think in any way we’re superior to any of our main competitors,” he said. “There’s obviously been a lot of chat of that and a lot of things said over the past couple of weeks but I really don’t think we’re any further ahead of competitors than we were last season, or that people think we are.”
McLaren had the second-fastest car on average in terms of single-lap pace last year, but was only narrowly beaten by Red Bull. They set the quickest lap time at eight of the dozen rounds which comprised the second half of last year.
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Norris, who won the final race of last season, expects a close fight from the start of this year. “It’s going to be a tough weekend for us and we’re going to be fighting everyone,” he said.
“But I think we’re in a good position to start off in a strong way and in a confident way. That’s what we want to be and that’s how we want to start the season.”
Mercedes’ George Russell believes McLaren are “absolutely dominant” at the moment while Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc also said their rivals had the upper hand in testing.
New Red Bull driver Liam Lawson doubts they have the pace to challenge McLaren this weekend. “From where we saw McLaren in testing, we are not quick enough to fight them, we feel,” he said.
“But obviously you don’t fully know until you drive on a circuit and obviously Bahrain’s very different to here, so we’ll have a clear indication after tomorrow of more or less where we are competitive compared to the others.
“I do believe we’ve improved the car, obviously for me it’s a big improvement and it’s something that for me is good to drive. But obviously Max [Verstappen] has a very good idea of exactly where we were over the last couple of years to where we are now. ”
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George Russell is convinced McLaren will start the new Formula 1 season as the team to beat following their performance in pre-season testing.
The Mercedes driver is hoping his car will prove less prone to severe swings in performance over the upcoming season.
“The car’s feeling good,” he told the official F1 channel. “I think last year, even though we finished in the lowest [position] that we have done in the last three years, we won the [highest] number of races.
“I have confidence that this car is going to be slightly more consistent, not quite as peaky. So we might not see those mega highs like we saw in Vegas, and just sort of wiping the floor with everybody, but then hopefully we’re not going to see those lows as well that we saw at a few races.
“But we can’t kid ourselves. We know McLaren are without doubt the favourites right now. They look absolutely dominant and I’m sure they’re going to be the ones to beat.”
However McLaren driver Oscar Piastri was reluctant to raise expectations he could become Australia’s first home F1 race winner this weekend.
“I know what you want me to say, and everyone’s headline can be that, but we’ll see,” he said during an FIA press conference.
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“No one really knows what to expect. Testing went pretty well, but you don’t know where everybody stands.
“We’re pretty happy with how our test went, but as we’ve said, Melbourne is a completely different track to Bahrain. The weather is going to be different to Bahrain and different every hour, by the look of it.
“So it’s going to be an interesting weekend for sure, but I think hopefully we’re expecting to be somewhere up the front. Whether that’s right at the pointy end, we’ll wait until Saturday.”
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Max Verstappen said pre-season testing has left him unsure whether Red Bull have fixed the problems they encountered with last year’s car.
Although Verstappen won two of the last four grands prix and clinched the drivers’ championship, he went 10 rounds without a victory at one stage as the team found it increasingly difficult to achieve a good handling balance with their car.
He said the new car felt “more drive-able” during pre-season testing in Bahrain two weeks ago “but Bahrain is very different to what we have here.”
“So it’s a bit difficult to say if things have been fully fixed or not. I guess we just have to be patient and see how much we can regain.”
He feels the team is in “positive shape” after the winter. “Testing isn’t many days [but] we found, already, a few areas that we can work on and that’s what we’ll continue to do.”
However he does not expect Red Bull to start the season as the team to beat. “I know that we are not the quickest at the moment,” he said during today’s FIA press conference.
“But again, it’s a very long season. If you would have asked that question here last year and then at the end of the season again, it looked completely different. So a lot of things can always change quite quickly in Formula 1.”
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Verstappen took his fourth out of a record-equalling eight consecutive pole positions in this race last year. However he retired early on in the race with a braking fault.
He heads into the new season with a chance to become the second F1 driver in history to win five consecutive world championships. However he isn’t entertaining the possibility this could be a harder title to win.
“It’s actually way more relaxing to just go into it, trust the people around you, and go from there,” he said. “Work hard on and off-track, try to address things that you don’t like in a car or whatever, and always try to do the best on track yourself. Try to minimise mistakes and keep scoring points.”
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Williams set the fastest time of any team in pre-season testing but Alexander Albon believes the contest for quickest car in the midfield is between them and Alpine.
Albon downplayed more optimistic assessments of Williams’ performance after his new team mate Carlos Sainz Jnr set the quickest time of anyone in Bahrain two weeks ago.
“We had a good test,” Albon told the official F1 channel. “Obviously the results are as they are, but we know that’s testing.
“I’m sure we were running a little bit more ‘performant’ in terms of fuel loads and engine modes than maybe some other teams. The fight’s in the midfield for us.”
Williams endured a difficult start to last season when their car was initially over the minimum weight limit. But Albon said the team has done well with their new FW47 chassis.
“The car feels like it’s in a good place in terms of [being] on-weight, parts and everything else,” he said. “I think the team have done a fantastic job.”
The team’s target is to lead the midfield group behind likely front-runners McLaren, Ferrari, Red Bull and Mercedes, said Albon. “We have to be realistic, I think Alpine are looking very strong as well. Maybe a little bit stronger.”
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However, with little to separate the midfield runners, Albon expects the competitive picture “will change from race to race.”
“Some tracks will benefit us, some tracks will benefit them. RB [Racing Bulls] look strong as well. Haas, you never know where they’re going to be. I’m obviously talking about the midfield battle here.
“Whatever it is, it’s very tight. I think between the spread, it’s a tenth [of a second] and a half between all of us, so it’s close.”
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Nico Hulkenberg expects a difficult start to his first race back at Sauber after driving the team’s new C45 chassis in pre-season testing.
Sauber finished at the bottom of the championship standings last year. Hulkenberg, who last drove for the team in 2013 and has returned to them from Haas, sayid they “need to wait and see” where they will stand in the pecking order this year.
“In Bahrain the car felt challenging to drive,” he told the official F1 channel. “I think we’ve identified a few problems, it wasn’t optimal there.
“Obviously we’ll give it our best shot here but I think it’s very hard to predict and to tell but I expect a challenging weekend.”
The team’s fastest lap time over three days of testing at the Bahrain International Circuit was the slowest in the field, though all 10 new cars for 2025 were covered by just 1.7 seconds. Sauber will become Audi’s works team next year and has made it clear it is prioritising work on its 2026 car.
Nonetheless Hulkenberg is upbeat about returning to racing in Melbourne this weekend. “Of course starting a new season things are always exciting and it’s always a good and happy feeling,” he said.
“I’m not the biggest fan of winter periods when there’s no racing and there’s too much downtime. You can get some crazy and funny ideas so I’m very happy that the season will start and all the noise around you stops and you focus on the racing and what’s important and what matters.”
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Sauber has also confirmed former Red Bull sporting director Jonathan Wheatley will take over as its new team principal next month. Hulkenberg has already spoken to Wheatley ahead of his arrival.
“Everyone is looking forward for him to get going,” said Hulkenberg. “I think he will be a good addition to have at the team.
“Obviously he comes with a huge wealth of experience and from one of the teams that has been pretty dominant in the last decade. I’m sure he can contribute a lot, short-term, mid-term and long-term. So I look forward to that.
“I’ve known him obviously from the paddock for many years but we’ve never worked closely together. I look forward to start that too.”
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Max Verstappen is prepared for the first round of the new Formula 1 season to be wet as forecasts for the Australian Grand Prix show a high chance of rain.
“The weather seems like it’s a bit all over the place every single day,” said the Red Bull driver in Melbourne. “We’re going to experience quite a bit of heat and then a bit of rain, probably.”
Forecasts indicate changeable conditions throughout F1’s three days of on-track action at Albert Park.
Some cloud cover is expected during Friday’s two practice sessions, with ambient temperatures of up to 27C. Saturday will be significantly warmer, however, hitting a peak of 35C. As qualifying will begin at 4pm, conditions are likely to be cooling by then.
Although Sunday will remain warm, forecasts indicate a strong chance of showers and potentially also thunderstorms during the day. The total rainfall could be as much as 20mm.
Melbourne is hosting F1’s season opener for the first time since 2019, following the cancellation of the 2020 race due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Verstappen, who made his debut at this race 10 years ago, is pleased the opening race has returned to Australia.
“I’m happy that it’s the first race again,” he said. “I prefer arriving here and just having the first race. It’s also how I started in Formula 1, then for a couple of years it went to another grand prix.”
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“The track itself as well is very fast,” he added. “Of course a few years ago they changed the layout of the track and I think that makes it a bit more exciting also to race on.”
However the reigning world champion remains doubtful about his car’s pace following pre-season testing. “I think we all expected a little bit more from it,” he said.
“But in a way I’m just very happy to be here because then we can finally see where we’re at because otherwise you just keep on thinking about it and it makes no sense anyway. You have to start at some point and hopefully it’s not too bad.”
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The Formula 1 season-opener returns to Australia for the first time since the Covid-19 pandemic five years ago.
Four teams ended last season vying for victory, but has any of them leapt ahead over the winter? We’ll get our first answers this weekend.
Piastri’s hopes at home
The Australian Grand Prix has been held as a round of the world championship 38 times, but it has never been won by a local driver. That could change this weekend, as Melburnian Oscar Piastri is expected to be among the front-runners.
He’s driving for the reigning constructors’ champions McLaren, who won the final race of last season, making this Australia’s best chance in years of greeting its first ever home winner. If he pulls it off, Piastri will also become the first driver to win the season-opening race on home ground since Nelson Piquet in 1986.
Doohan’s (almost) debut
There are two home drivers on the grid for the opening race, and although Jack Doohan hails from the Gold Coast some 1,300 kilometres away, he is sure to get just as warm a reception. His chances of winning are not as fancied, however, as Alpine finished a distant sixth in the championship last year.
Doohan will start the season – but will he see it out?
This was due to be Doohan’s first race until Alpine decided to drop Esteban Ocon one round early at the end of last year. But despite that early start, Doohan’s future is already the subject of speculation, after Alpine consultant Flavio Briatore moved quickly to bring Franco Colapinto into the team and heaped praise on the driver who started nine rounds for Williams last season.
Doohan’s team principal Oliver Oakes hit out at the rumours surrounding Doohan, saying it was “not fair.” Jamie Campbell-Walter, part of Colapinto’s management team, recently took to social media to complain “haters who think they help Franco” were “doing him more harm than good.”
“Insults to the team, to Jack and sometimes to other supporters of Alpine. Franco and all of us who support him are fans of the whole team, Pierre [Gasly] and Jack. Conduct yourselves with passion but not abuse and arrogance. Franco’s time will come but not like this, you will achieve the opposite.”
Whether Doohan can produce the goods on track to make questions over his future an irrelevance remains to be seen. But as Ocon’s outstanding second place in Brazil last year showed, no result is good enough to save a driver if Briatore wants him out.
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Has anyone leapt ahead?
Pre-season testing indicated there is still little to separate the top four teams. Inevitably, all have been eager to manage expectations, above all Red Bull, who are putting it about that they are three-tenths of a second down on McLaren.
Last year’s cars were so closely matched that their performance swung noticeably from track to track. That is likely to be the case again this year, and the team which sets the pace on Melbourne’s parkland course may not be the ones to beat a week later around the very different track drivers will find in Shanghai.
The widely-held expectation is that in the fourth season of largely unchanged technical rules, teams will be even closer together. But if anyone has found something special over the winter, qualifying on Saturday is likely to be the first time we see it.
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New start for last winner
Although he set the fastest time in pre-season testing for the second year in a row, Carlos Sainz Jnr knows he is unlikely to repeat his victory in this race from 12 months ago. But exactly what kind of season he can expect following his move to Williams will begin to come clear at the track where he rebounded from his appendectomy in style in 2024.
Verstappen’s ban threat
Magnussen picked up a ban last year, Verstappen could too
Max Verstappen has picked up penalty points in four of the last five rounds. If he keeps that up he will be in trouble soon, as he is only four points away from an automatic ban.
He isn’t due to drop any penalty points from his superlicence until the halfway point in the season. Red Bull motorsport consultant Helmut Marko has advised him to “start being careful” but Verstappen seems to have no intention of doing so.
Another DRS fest?
Since the Australian Grand Prix promoters reconfigured the Albert Park track ahead of the 2022 race, and later added a fourth DRS zone, overtaking has become significantly easier. So much so that drivers know if a rival gets within range they are likely to lose position.
This was the situation which led to a controversial incident in the closing stages of last year’s race. George Russell crashed heavily while chasing Fernando Alonso, after the Aston Martin driver braked unusually early for a corner, accelerated, then braked again, leading to a sudden reduction in the gap between the two cars.
The stewards handed Alonso a stiff penalty which is likely to deter repeat offenders. But will F1 make Melbourne’s DRS zones less generous?
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FIA under pressure
Formula 1 drivers remain at odds with the FIA over its determination to fine anyone caught swearing. For now the governing body’s concern appears to focus on drivers’ official media duties only, not what they say in the cars.
However FIA president Mohammed Ben Sulayem’s approach to running the federation has been publicly challenged on the eve of the new season. David Richards, the chair of Motorsport UK, has warned they are prepared to take legal action after he and others were barred from a meeting for refusing to sign what they called a ‘gagging order’. Watch this one closely.
A new star?
F1’s most anticipated newcomer since Verstappen
Half-a-dozen drivers will start their first full F1 seasons this weekend. But one of them stands out for the speed with which he ascended to a potentially very competitive car.
Andrea Kimi Antonelli, aged just 18, will make his debut for Mercedes this weekend in the seat formerly occupied by Lewis Hamilton. The comparisons are irresistible: Hamilton made an immediate impact on his debut at the same track 18 years ago.
Mercedes have hurried the karting prodigy through the junior racing categories, skipping Formula 3 and spending just one season in Formula 2. But he’s benefited from a huge amount of F1 testing. Now let’s see what he can do.
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Curtain-raiser back where it belongs
Five years since F1 last tried – unsuccessfully – to start its season in Melbourne, the championship is back for the curtain-raising race once more. Albert Park offers a superb setting for a race, and the early autumn sunlight provides a beautiful backdrop.
It may make inconvenient viewing hours for many F1 fans, but getting up early for a first glimpse of the cars being driven in anger is all part of the appeal, isn’t it?
Are you going to the Australian Grand Prix?
If you’re heading to Australia for this weekend’s race, we want to hear from you:
Who do you think will be the team to beat in the Australian Grand Prix Grand Prix? Have your say below.
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Join us on RaceFans Live throughout every session of the Australian Grand Prix weekend. Look out for the live page on the site during every session and follow all the action with your fellow RaceFans.
Here’s how to watch the 2025 Australian Grand Prix live in the UK and USA:
2025 Australian Grand Prix live session times
Event
Date
Start Time
End Time
Time Zone
Channels
Australian Grand Prix: First practice
Friday 14th March
1:30am
2:30am
Europe: London
UK: Sky Sports F1, US: ESPNEWS
Australian Grand Prix: Second practice
Friday 14th March
5:00am
6:00am
Europe: London
UK: Sky Sports F1, US: ESPN2
Formula 3: Melbourne race one
Saturday 15th March
12:15am
Europe: London
UK: Sky Sports F1, US: ESPN+
Australian Grand Prix: Third practice
Saturday 15th March
1:30am
2:30am
Europe: London
UK: Sky Sports F1, US: ESPN3
Formula 2: Melbourne race one
Saturday 15th March
3:15am
Europe: London
UK: Sky Sports F1, US: ESPN+
Australian Grand Prix: Qualifying
Saturday 15th March
5:00am
Europe: London
UK: Sky Sports F1, US: ESPNU
Formula 3: Melbourne race two
Saturday 15th March
10:00pm
Europe: London
UK: Sky Sports F1, US: ESPN+
Formula 2: Melbourne race two
Sunday 16th March
12:30am
Europe: London
UK: Sky Sports F1, US: ESPN+
Australian Grand Prix: Race
Sunday 16th March
4:00am
Europe: London
UK: Sky Sports F1, US: ESPNEWS
Having problems using the time zone converter? Please give feedback here
Viewers in Britain can watch Channel 4’s highlights of the race weekend at the following times:
Event
Date
Time
Channel
Qualifying highlights
Saturday 15th March
10:30am
Channel 4
Grand prix highlights
Sunday 16th March
1:00pm
Channel 4
Find the local session times and other support race information for the 2025 Australian Grand Prix here:
Find times for every F1 session this year and all the 2025 race dates with the RaceFans Google Calendar.
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