MOTORSPORT: Stage set for epic Australian F1 Grand Prix

Despite Max Verstappen and his Red Bull Racing outfit’s continued dominance of Formula 1, anticipation remains sky-high heading into this weekend’s Australian Grand Prix at Melbourne’s Albert Park.

Solid early form from the opening two races in the Middle East shows that, relative to last season, Ferrari and McLaren are closing the gap to the dominant Red Bull team, despite the reigning champions registering a pair of one-two results to date.

Verstappen’s form is unprecedented in the sport’s history – his winning streak could potentially extend to a record-equalling 10 this weekend, the same number he strung together up to Singapore last season.

This year is the first time in the Dutchman’s career he has won the opening two races of a season, with his Saudi Arabian success providing him with the 100th podium of his career, seventh on the all-time list and only three podium visits behind Kimi Raikkonen’s final tally.

Also, the triple world champion has now gone two full seasons without a retirement, with his most recent DNF coming at Albert Park in 2022, when he stopped late with an engine fire.

Elsewhere, all eyes will be on the Ferrari camp, with Carlos Sainz continuing his recovery from an emergency appendectomy during the last Grand Prix weekend.

Should the Spaniard be unavailable, all eyes will be on Brit Oliver Bearman, who impressed last time out in Saudi Arabia, finishing seventh on debut.

Focus will also centre on Lewis Hamilton in his last start Down Under aboard a Mercedes before switching to the Prancing Horse for 2025.

The seven-times champion has been twice victorious at Albert Park in 2008 and 2015, although the Mercedes has battled in high-speed corners in the early races this season.

Local fans will be in for a treat, with Oscar Piastri joined on the grid by Daniel Ricciardo, the first time two Australians have lined up at Albert Park since Ricciardo raced alongside Mark Webber in 2013.

Piastri is coming into the weekend on a high, sitting fifth in the standings after a fourth-place finish last time out, while Ricciardo will be under the spotlight after a difficult start to the season has seen the West Australian register a best finish to date of 13th.

One major change for fans trackside will be a lack of post-race track invasion on Sunday afternoon, after the 2023 event concluded with fans rushing onto the circuit with cars still travelling at speed.

F1 action kicks off tomorrow with a pair of one-hour-long practice sessions, a further Saturday practice prior to qualifying, with Sunday’s 58-lap race set to launch at 3:00pm AEDT.

F1’s primary support categories, Formula 2 and Formula 3, will return to Albert Park after both classes put on a spectacular debut performance last year.

While Jack Doohan has moved on from F2 to take on full-time back-up duties at Alpine, F3 features a pair of Aussies once again, with local honours set to be upheld by Christian Mansell and Tommy Smith.

Mansell, in particular, will be one to watch, after claiming second in the feature race from the season-opening event in Bahrain.

The Repco Supercars Championship returns, although without its traditional pit structure on the main straight, which means that the category’s four races will be pure sprints to the chequered flag without stops.

Interestingly, the first two races will be contested over 20 laps on the soft-compound tyre, with tyre conservation set to come to the forefront on the abrasive track surface.

After the opening event for the year in Bathurst, Red Bull Ampol Racing teammates Will Brown and Broc Feeney top the standings with one win apiece.

Elsewhere, the Porsche Carrera Cup kicks off its season around Albert Park lake, while plenty of on-track sideshows will entertain the crowd, including Doohan family demonstrations with Jack behind the wheel of a 2000 Benetton B200 F1 machine and five-times world champion Mick aboard a Honda RCV213.

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