Welcome to the Australian Grand Prix
Hamilton doesn’t feel he needs to prove himself
Lewis Hamilton says he does not feel any pressure to prove himself as he starts his Ferrari career at the season-opening Australian Grand Prix. In February 2024, Hamilton the most successful driver in the sports history, shocked the world by announcing he would leave Mercedes after twelve record-breaking seasons.
The Englishman won six of his drivers’ titles between 2014 and 2020, including breaking records for pole positions and race wins, but has won only two races since the start of the 2022 season, both in July last year. He said “I am under no assumptions it will be easy. I don’t feel the pressure. The outside pressure is non-existent for me. The pressure is from within and what I want to achieve.”
“I am not here to prove anything to anybody. I have done it time and time again. I know what it takes to do a good job and that’s what I want to deliver, for myself, and my family, for this team that I really believe deserve success.” In the press conference, Hamilton appeared to continue with a relaxed positive appearance which has been a key characteristic since he joined Ferrari.
Looking ahead to the new season, Hamilton said “looks like it is going to be close” between Ferrari, McLaren, Red Bull and Mercedes. But admitted that he still had work to do to optimise his performance and was still getting to grips with the team and car. He says it different to the cars he has driven in his career.
He says, “The sooner you can perform to a higher level, the better, but inevitably there is a transition period and a foundation that needs to be built. Relationships, trust with everyone.”
Speaking about his new teammate Charles Leclerc, Hamilton praised his work ethic which he says was similar to his. Leclerc ‘Mr Ferrari’, Hamilton added “has been really cool to work alongside him.”
Leclerc rejected that label, saying “Ferrari is bigger than any drivers. And that has always been the case. That’s what makes Ferrari so special. There is support of the team and not one specific driver.”
“Lewis is coming as a legend of the sport so there is a lot more attention on him than me at the moment but I am completely fine with it. I completely understand that. It’s normal it is that way. It is fine for me.”
McLaren favourites, but rivals “short-sighted”
Lando Norris acknowledges that McLaren starts the season as favourites but says the view among his rivals is “short-sighted”. Both George Russell and four-time champion Max Verstappen believe their rivals start the season based on testing with a pace advantage.
Asked if he thought that McLaren were favourites going into the Australian Grand Prix this weekend, Norris said: “I feel like we are now. I know there’s a lot of expectation and it’s what everyone says. I’m quite surprised so many people are so short-sighted, especially people you wouldn’t expect to be, making so many conclusions before you even start the season.”
“Everyone just wants to play that game of looking like the underdog and playing it down.” McLaren won the constructors’ championship in 2024, their first team title in twenty-six years, as Norris finished second behind Verstappen in the drivers’ standings. After winning the last race in Abu Dhabi Norris said that “(this) year would be the teams year.”
The Englishman believes the status as favourites was the consequence of one race-distance run he did on the second day of testing, which suggested they would have won the Bahrain Grand Prix by half a second had it been held a fortnight ago. Norris believes status as favourites was the consequence of one race-distance run he did on the second day of testing.
While he accepted McLaren are in the top four, he believes it’s uncertain where Ferrari, Red Bull and Mercedes are with the team expecting them to be up there. Norris flirted with a title battle with Verstappen last season but ultimately fell short. The advantage the Red Bull driver built up in a dominant first five races was too big to close.
He added, “I learned a lot of things last year. I clearly wasn’t quite ready to deliver on everything that we needed to deliver on from a racing point of view. That’s just because racing against Max is a unique situation and you don’t get to experience it in any other way of life until you really get to that point.”
“Had it been a battle against different drivers, I don’t know if it would have been the same. It definitely probably wouldn’t have been as hard.” Norris believes what he has learned in terms of fighting Verstappen and putting it on the edge as well as being able to fight all season.
He said that he would not only be fighting the Dutchman, but also the two Ferraris and Mercedes as well as teammate Oscar Piastri, but didn’t mention Verstappen’s teammate Liam Lawson.
Piastri signs two two-year extension to 2028
Oscar Piastri has signed a two-year contract extension with McLaren which will see him stay at the team until 2028. In 2023, following his debut season he signed a three-year deal which was due to end in 2026.
The news came on Wednesday morning in Melbourne, and will see him partner Lando Norris until 2027 when the Englishman’s contract ends. Piastri said, “It’s a great feeling knowing that I’m part of McLaren’s long-term vision. The team had the belief in me when we signed in 2022, and the journey we’ve gone on over the past two seasons to help return McLaren to the very top of the sport has been incredible.”
Adding “There are so many talented and special people working at MTC who have helped me to become a race winner very early in my career. Therefore, I’m very proud to be continuing to represent this legendary team for many years to come. I’m excited to fight for the big prizes as a McLaren driver and after last year’s fantastic achievements, it has made me even hungrier to stay at the sharp end.”
Piastri last year took his first two Grands Prix wins following his debut win in the sprint in Lusail in 2023. The Melbournian goes into this season as one of eight drivers who are expected to be in the championship fight, with McLaren believed to have the strongest car.
In the hours after his new deal was confirmed at an event for McLaren partner Airwallex, Piastri said it was a “very easy decision” for him to sign the extended term.
Although he did play down the teams status as favourites and the suggestion the fight for the drivers’ crown could purely be between himself and Norris. Piastri. Said, “I think that’s a bit far-fetched [to think McLaren will be far ahead of everyone else], yes. It’s going to be a really tight season, we had a good test in Bahrain.”
“But you never know what everyone else is hiding and who’s got what until we get to this weekend. I’m expecting it to be just as tight as it was at the end of last season but hopefully, we can be in the mix from round one.”
CEO Zak Brown says his team have the best driver pairing on the grid. He said, “It’s fantastic to confirm Oscar’s extension with McLaren. Not only is he an incredibly talented driver, but his work ethic and cultural fit within the team made it a no-brainer to extend his time in Papaya.”
Lawson admits difficult to beat Verstappen early on
Liam Lawson believes it would be tough to expect him to beat Max Verstappen immediately on joining Red Bull, and instead will use a “big opportunity” to exploit his team-mate’s knowledge and experience to boost his own skills.
Lawson was brought in to replace Sergio Perez who struggled last season to get a handle on last year’s car, and despite Yuki Tsunoda having more experience. The New Zealander anticipates that he’ll immediately be compared to Verstappen by those inside and outside the championship.
Looking ahead to his first race for Red Bull, Lawson said that his plan for the year was to tap into Verstappen’s feedback and data, and attempt to learn from that to start matching the four-time champion. He told reporters, “It’s just a big opportunity to have somebody like Max [to learn from]; when he came into the sport [he] was already very, very fast; in 10 years he’s won four world championships, and he’s very experienced.”
“I think that’s more of an opportunity than anything for me coming in here in effectively my first time starting a season, doing a full season – to have him as a team-mate to learn off is massively valuable. I think I just need to look at it that way and take advantage of that more than anything.”
Lawson admitted that drivers have their own best interests at heart and its not realistic for him to come in and be matching Verstappen. He says rather that he uses the four-time champion to develop as quickly as possible and get towards the goal of winning.
Talking Points Melbourne
Albert Park in Melbourne hosts the opening race of one of the most anticipated season’s in a long time as the 75th Formula One season begins. Following one of the most dramatic and closest finishes to a season a new year looks to pick up where we left off in Abu Dhabi, if testing is to be believed.
All eyes are on Lewis Hamilton, this weekend, as he takes on his first race for F1’s most successful team, Ferrari. Can he follow in Kimi Raikkonen and Fernando Alonso’s footsteps and take a win on his Ferrari debut seventeen and fourteen years after he made his debut here scoring a podium in 2007?
2007 was one of the greatest and most controversial seasons ever with Raikkonen beating Hamilton and Alonso to the title by a point. Other drivers to watch are the six rookies who are part of new driver pairings at eight teams, excluding Aston Martin and McLaren.
Oscar Piastri will be looking to be the first Australian to win and score a podium down under, though Daniel Ricciardo finished on the podium in 2014 he was disqualified for a technical infringement. McLaren goes into the season as the favourites as we’ve said, but Norris dismissed that McLaren is seen as favourites and said he’s surprised people are making “conclusions before we’ve even started the season.”
Max Verstappen could be on the back foot, but you can never rule him out of contention, and it will be fascinating to see how his new teammate Liam Lawson fares.
Oliver Bearman replaces Kevin Magnussen at Haas, having impressed during three race starts last year, including stepping in for Carlos Sainz at Ferrari in Saudi Arabia. Liam Lawson is Verstappen’s new partner at Red Bull, after competing in 11 races for their junior team in 2023 and 2024.
Formula 2 champion Gabriel Bortoleto, joins Sauber while the man he beat to the title, Isack Hadjar, is with Racing Bulls, who were known as RB last season.
Russell doesn’t expect to be faster
George Russell says that he doesn’t expect to be faster than his rookie teammate Kimi Antonelli. The Englishman going into his sixth season says while he doesn’t feel faster than he did in 2018, that his experience has given him the edge.
Speaking to the media ahead of the season opener, Russell was asked by Motorsport.com if he feels he needs to be well ahead of his Italian team-mate now that he is alongside a rookie instead of seven-time champion Lewis Hamilton. He explained: “No, not at all. Kimi’s an exceptional driver, and I’ve said this before, I don’t feel any faster today than when I was eighteen years old, but I’m far more experienced.”
“In a qualifying situation, if I have traffic on an out lap, I know how to deal with that. If my tyres are cold, if my tyres are hot, I know how to react to those circumstances. I know how to deal with the pressures of this sport as well. But in terms of outright pace, I don’t think I’m any faster today than I was 9 years ago now. You saw it with [Ollie] Bearman last year. Bearman did an amazing job when he jumped in. [Franco] Colapinto did a great job.”
Russell was part of the last big wave of drivers which entered the sport six years ago, which also included Charles Leclerc, Lando Norris and Alex Albon. The 2025 wave sees Bearman, Antonelli, Gabriel Bortoletto, Jack Doohan and Isack Hadjar enter the sport for their first full season.
Bearman’s debut last season when he raced three times and largely impressed many has raised expectations for all the rookies in the same ways as five years ago, and even Lewis Hamilton in 2007.
Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff has echoed Russell’s comments, confirming that he doesn’t expect the British driver to be “crushing” Antonelli. Adding “I said to George: ‘We don’t expect you to just be crushing Kimi all the time’.”
“We wouldn’t have hired Kimi if we thought that would be the case. So, I believe in terms of speed, Kimi is going to be right up there with George. There’s a lot to learn in terms of long-running the tyres, and the development is going to be steep.”
Domenicali has signed a new five-year
F1 CEO Stefano Domenicali has signed a new five-year contract with Liberty Media until the end of the 2029 season. The former Ferrari team principal and Lamborghini chief executive has held the role since 2021.
The deal was announced just days before the season-opening Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne. F1 statement said “Stefano has been instrumental in driving the business to new levels of success and becoming the global sport it is today.”
Domenicali said: “I am honoured to continue to lead this incredible sport, which I love and has been part of my life since my childhood. Together, with all the relevant F1 stakeholders, we will continue to serve the best interest of our fans, as they are the heartbeat of everything we do.
Domenicali spent six years at Ferrari between 2008 and 2014 and is the last team principal under whom the team won a world title – the constructors’ championship in 2008.
You can join us for coverage of this weekend’s Australian Grand Prix with reports and analysis on our website and in This Grand Prix, on Sunday evening. FP1 starts Friday 12:30 EDT / 01:30 GMT, Qualifying Saturday 16:00 / 05:00 and the race Sunday 15:00 / 04:00