Australian racing fans will have plenty to occupy themselves when the Formula 1 circus comes to Melbourne over the coming days, as Melbourne’s Oscar Piastri prepares to tackle the Albert Park track for the first time while Max Verstappen seeks to continue his seemingly unstoppable run to a third world title.
The Red Bull star’s car has so far been on the streets ahead of his competition in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia, and looks set to once again dominate what is being dubbed Melbourne’s fastest-ever Grand Prix.
However, the oldest and most experienced driver on the grid is a dark horse who takes the checkered flag because his team has proven to be a huge surprise package.
Daily Mail Australia has broken down everything you need to know before the action kicks off on Friday.
When does work start?
Reigning world champion Max Verstappen lifts the winner’s trophy at the first race of the season in Bahrain – and he has very short odds of doing the same in Melbourne on Sunday
The cars will take to the circuit when the first practice session begins from 12.30pm to 1.30pm (AEDT) on Friday. This is followed by a second practice from 4pm to 5pm.
F1 action kicks off on Saturday with the third practice session from 12:30pm to 1.30pm, with qualifying starting at 4pm and ending at 5pm.
Last year’s Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc took pole from Max Verstappen in second and Red Bull teammate Sergio Perez third as the course suffered some drama when Fernando Alonso crashed and forced a red-flag action.
But the wild horse’s chances of starting on the grid’s front row appear to be far-reaching this year, even though it was the closest Red Bull team came to qualifying at the season’s first race in Bahrain.
How do I watch practice, qualifying and the race?
Enough Australians to fill the MCG a few times will turn out for their GP at home over the weekend (pictured, AFL stars Callum Wilkie and Jye Caldwell pose with their F1 car at Melbourne’s iconic stadium)
GP is available on both free and pay TV channels.
Channel 10 coverage begins at 11:30 AM (EST) on Friday, and telecasts begin at 10 AM on Saturday and 8:30 AM on Sunday. It’s also available on the broadcaster’s streaming service, 10 Play.
The race will also be televised on Fox Sports and streaming service Kayo.
His McLaren is one of the worst cars in the field, but that didn’t stop Oscar Piastri from qualifying eighth in Saudi Arabia, a sign that his talent could not be weakened by bad machines.
What should I watch out for this year?
In three words: piastri, piastri, piastri.
Australia’s last F1 world champion, Alan Jones, was so impressed with the 21-year-old that he believed he could win the title – and he’s not alone, with many other respected F1 referees showering the Aussie with praise.
His McLaren may be one of the worst in the field, but Piastri set a great example of his talent when he managed to qualify eighth on the grid for the second race of the year in Saudi Arabia.
He hasn’t ridden the Albert Park circuit in a Formula 1 car yet, and even if he qualifies well, the British team struggles badly with race pace and suffers from reliability issues, so just finishing in the points would be a huge win.
On the other end of the scale you have Team Red Bull. Their car is so powerful, Lewis Hamilton declared it the fastest he had ever seen after Perez and Verstappen claimed a 1-2 victory in Saudi Arabia two weeks ago.
Many experts believe reliability problems or breakdowns are the only things standing in their way as they seek to replicate that result in Melbourne.
Fernando Alonso stunned the field with third-place finishes in the first two races of the year in his stunningly fast Aston Martin – posing the biggest threat to Red Bull in Melbourne
However, in the event of an accident or a mechanical attack on Christian Horner’s drivers, the Ferraris of Leclerc and Carlos Sainz are in no better position to benefit as they have been for much of last year – that falls to Fernando Alonso and his amazing Aston Martin.
The oldest driver in the field is in the most surprising of cars in the field, with green machine qualifying and race pace leaving the rest of the circuit in shock as they made an amazing leap in performance over the off-season.
The Spaniard finished third in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia, leaving him behind Verstappen and Perez in the drivers’ standings with Sainz ten points behind him.
What happened last year?
The 2022 Grand Prix was the Charles Leclerc show from start to finish as the wild horse star dominated qualifying and the race to extend his Driver’s Championship to 34
Leclerc dominated the 2021 Grand Prix, leading all 58 laps to finish 20 seconds clear of Perez after Verstappen had to retire with a mechanical problem on lap 39 while running second.
George Russell’s Mercedes were third with teammate Hamilton fourth, but their cars were miles off their pace in an ominous sign of what was to come for them for the rest of the season.
Leclerc’s win put him 34 points ahead of Verstappen for the driver’s title, but the race was the high point of the season for the Italian team, crushed by Red Bull, and their own reliability problems and strategic decisions scratched for the rest of the campaign.
Carlos Sainz had a horror race after struggling in qualifying, dropping from ninth on the grid to 14th from the start before losing control and putting his car into the gravel just on the second lap.
Circle
Piastri (the race pictured in Saudi Arabia) and the rest of the field will have an additional DRS area at their disposal this year, making for the fastest race ever in Melbourne.
Albert Park – which hosted the Aussie GP for the first time in 1996 – is 5.278km long, with the full race distance being just over 306km over 58 laps.
Leclerc set the lap record at 1.20.260 last year after the circuit’s return, with the widening of turn six and the removal of the chicane at turns nine and ten contributing to the lightning speed.
This year’s running should be faster thanks to the addition of a fourth DRS zone, with the change leading many to predict it will be the fastest race ever on the track.
