Ever since Melbourne’s Albert Park circuit changed Adelaide on the Components 1 calendar, it (for followers of a sure age) grew to become synonymous with ‘the beginning of a brand new season’ for over 20 years. Adelaide had held each single nearer between 1985 and 1995, earlier than the race moved south-east to the state of Victoria to occupy the entrance finish of the calendar.
There have been a couple of events when Albert Park couldn’t fulfill its duties because the opener. Melbourne was internet hosting the Commonwealth Video games in 2006, and its ‘demotion’ in 2010 got here by means of an obvious need to stage the race at a extra handy time for European audiences in ready for daylight saving time to return into impact.
Because the status of getting the opening race has fallen into the arms of the very best bidder, Australia hasn’t hosted the opener since 2019. COVID pressured the cancellation of the races in 2020 and 2021, whereas Bahrain then stumped up somewhat extra cash to safe the season-opening honours over the previous three years. As a result of timing of Ramadan in 2025, Bahrain and Saudi Arabia have moved their races additional again within the schedule – reinstating Australia because the opener.
To rejoice that truth, we’ve painstakingly relived each single season opener that Albert Park has ever hosted and picked our high 5. We’ve not repeated the very same circumstances because the races had been initially broadcast within the UK, in that we’ve not woken up at 4am to look at them. It’s 4am someplace, I suppose.
5. 1997 – Villeneuve nerfed by Irvine’s swerve, Frentzen denied by brake failure
Jacques Villeneuve on pole
Photograph by: Motorsport Photographs
If Jacques Villeneuve wished retribution for his oil tank’s premature leak, Eddie Irvine denied him the possibility of even making it past the primary nook with what one may charitably describe as an overambitious lunge. The Canadian, who had certified on pole almost two seconds clear of latest team-mate Heinz-Harald Frentzen, had left himself considerably uncovered into the primary nook with a begin that paled compared to the German’s fleet-of-foot begin. Frentzen thus took the lead, whereas Villeneuve needed to play with the vehicles behind.
Irvine’s lock-up edged Villeneuve into the gravel, in flip exhibiting a fast-starting Johnny Herbert into Albert Park’s kitty litter because the Sauber driver had regarded set to improve seventh on the grid into third. David Coulthard and Michael Schumacher trickled by means of the skirmish, as Frentzen hoped to transform his early benefit right into a first-time-out win for Williams.
His trigger was helped when Coulthard and Schumacher obtained held up behind Arrows’ Pedro Diniz, though the McLaren driver was a risk owing to his one-stop technique versus Frentzen’s two – and the additional cease finally began to harm him when a caught wheel extended his keep within the pitlane.
This allowed Coulthard to select up the lead from Schumacher, though Frentzen was bearing down on each – shifting as much as second when the Ferrari driver stopped. With the Scotsman now in Frentzen’s sights, he hoped to make use of his tyre benefit within the ultimate three laps earlier than a brake failure at Flip 1 put the Monchengladbach-born racer into the gravel – ceding the win to Coulthard.
4. 2002 – First-corner pile-up, Webber will get debut factors with Minardi
Paul Stoddart and Mark Webber rejoice in entrance of their house crowd
Photograph by: Motorsport Photographs
With out wishing to be a “good outdated days” service provider, there’s one thing reasonably refreshing in regards to the fallout between Rubens Barrichello and Ralf Schumacher after their first-corner conflict at Australia 2002. The youthful Schumacher, who got here off worse after Barrichello modified route a number of occasions (in a transfer that, in the present day, could be punished), which resulted within the Williams driver’s Flip 1 somersault, prompt that the Brazilian hadn’t completed it on function and that it was a racing incident. We’ll depart that anecdote there.
Both method, that collision led to nice swathes of the midfield both being put out on the spot amid the chain response or limping again to the pitlane with terminal harm. Eight vehicles had been claimed within the incident, together with Jenson Button, Giancarlo Fisichella and each Saubers.
Race director Charlie Whiting selected to throw a security automobile reasonably than a pink flag, denying these caught within the wreck an opportunity to run to their spare vehicles. David Coulthard had assumed the lead, whereas Michael Schumacher dispatched Juan Pablo Montoya and Jarno Trulli forward when each drivers individually misplaced management of their vehicles on oil, Trulli hitting the wall on the run to Flip 3 to finish convey Renault’s return as a works staff to an early finish.
Schumacher dispatched Coulthard when the Scotsman ran out of street behind the protection automobile at Flip 14, organising a duel over second between Montoya and Kimi Raikkonen. However that wasn’t the thrilling bit; Minardi rookie Mark Webber was within the hunt for the staff’s first factors since 1999 and held off Toyota’s Mika Salo to clinch fifth – the house hero obtained his personal particular look on the rostrum.
3. 2008 – Hamilton imperious, Ferrari suffers in attritional race
Lewis Hamilton, McLaren Mercedes MP4/23
Photograph by: Sutton Photographs
See 2002, however with a bit extra insanity past first-corner contretemps. This was the race that, arguably, laid the foundations for Lewis Hamilton’s title problem in his second F1 season, whereas Felipe Massa obtained off to the worst doable begin by means of his languid spin at Flip 2.
His was not the one first-lap blunder; Nelson Piquet Jr dumped Giancarlo Fisichella into the gravel on the first nook, then Mark Webber endured a four-way fracas with Sebastian Vettel, Jenson Button, and Anthony Davidson at Flip 3. Evidently, 37C climate was taking part in havoc with the drivers’ delicate psyches and with reliability, because the failures and crashes began to roll in.
Massa’s distress continued when he clashed with Coulthard and, three laps later, was put out to pasture with an engine failure. Kimi Raikkonen hardly fared significantly better within the different Ferrari; the reigning champion went into the gravel whereas trying to place a transfer on compatriot Heikki Kovalainen, and in addition suffered a slip in his pursuit of Timo Glock. The German, driving for Toyota, sustained his personal second of insanity by going off at Flip 11 to trigger heavy harm to his automobile.
However wait: there’s extra! Kovalainen pitted late on to lose second – after which misplaced a spot to Fernando Alonso by by chance urgent the pit limiter on monitor, Robert Kubica clashed with Kazuki Nakajima, Barrichello was disqualified, and Hamilton was completely serene in entrance. This was the primary time the Briton had shared the rostrum with Nico Rosberg – and it was definitely not the final.
2. 2003 – Profligate Montoya wastes sure victory, Coulthard advantages in outdated McLaren
Michael Schumacher, Ferrari F2002, runs large as he battles with Kimi Raikkonen, Group McLaren Mercedes MP4/17D
Photograph by: Steve Etherington / Motorsport Photographs
For the second yr in a row, Ferrari rocked as much as the Australian Grand Prix with the automobile from the earlier yr and took it to pole place. McLaren too was working a revised model of its 2002 equipment as its in-progress MP4-18 was proving to be a problematic design. Each groups opted for a vastly completely different strategy to the beginning in damp circumstances; Ferrari opted for the intermediates, whereas McLaren pulled Kimi Raikkonen in for dry tyres to separate its technique on the finish of the formation lap.
The Ferraris marched right into a devastating early lead because the Albert Park monitor floor remained greasy within the early phases, prompting Coulthard to comply with Raikkonen’s lead after the opening lap. The dry-shod Juan Pablo Montoya quickly got here into play as his Michelins began to fireside up; by comparability, the jump-starting Rubens Barrichello added one other indiscretion to his identify by spanking the wall at Flip 5…
After rookies Ralph Firman and Cristiano da Matta additionally crashed, the protection automobile emerged; Schumacher took the dry tyres and ceded the result in Montoya. When the Colombian made ultimately made his first cease, the early-stopping Raikkonen moved into the lead, albeit accosted by Schumacher (who ultimately put the Finn underneath scrutiny), Coulthard, and the recovering Montoya.
Raikkonen’s pitlane rushing penalty and Schumacher’s unfastened bargeboard helped Montoya shuffle again into the lead – with Coulthard giving chase because the Williams driver hoped to clinch his second F1 victory. He spectacularly wasted that chance with a spin at Flip 2, which gave Coulthard a primary alternative to slide previous for victory – Montoya was fortunate to not lose the runner-up spot, as Raikkonen was too far behind.
1. 1999 – Irvine shines amid blunders Down Beneath
Eddie Irvine, Ferrari wins his first Grand Prix
Photograph by: Sutton Photographs
For those who’ve not forked out the couple of kilos wanted to look at the race on F1 TV’s archive, what are you doing along with your life? Go and watch the 1999 Australian Grand Prix now, after which you’ll be able to come again and browse this bit – and, hopefully, agree.
When the earlier season’s two title protagonists stall on the grid, whereas one other two catch fireplace lengthy earlier than the lights exit, you recognize you’re in for a unstable affair. When the race did ultimately get going, it regarded just like the McLarens would dominate till each hit mechanical strife, main Eddie Irvine to his first win. That the Ferrari driver obtained there was extra all the way down to his endurance reasonably than his outright pace, however he at the very least made the chance that got here his method.
However that’s not all. Heinz-Harald Frentzen and Ralf Schumacher starred after their low season seat swap, as did Rubens Barrichello within the spare Stewart – even after a) his SF-3 spontaneously combusted on the grid and b) he served a stop-go penalty for passing the out-of-position Michael Schumacher underneath yellow flags.
For a dry race, the attrition price was additionally surprisingly excessive. Jarno Trulli and Damon Hill got here to blows on lap one, Jacques Villeneuve’s rear wing departed his BAR on Lakeside Drive, the 2 McLarens dropped their guts earlier than half-distance as Mercedes’ fragility plagued its early-season V10s, returning CART champ Alessandro Zanardi smeared his Williams into the wall, Trulli had one other conflict with Marc Gene, and nearly all of midfielders encountered reliability troubles to clear Arrows’ path to some extent with Pedro de la Rosa.
That Giancarlo Fisichella completed in a powerful fourth place was solely a mere footnote on a wild day down underneath.
Eddie Irvine, Ferrari F399, celebrates victory as Jordan and Williams mechanics applaud
Photograph by: Rainer W. Schlegelmilch / Motorsport Photographs
On this article
Jake Boxall-Legge
Components 1
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