With first Grand Prix, McLaren gives a serious warning to Verstappen

Crashes, rain showers, and Lando Norris who eventually kept just Max Verstappen behind him in the fight for victory. The Grand Prix of Australia was a spectacular opening of the Formula 1 season 2025 on Sunday.

But can you say with a glance at the race, over a slippery course through a city park in Melbourne, what the pecking order will look like this year? Yes and no.

The chaotic race and the treacherous circumstances with which the twenty drivers were confronted, make it difficult to read something about the final ranking. In it, Norris (McLaren) and Verstappen (Red Bull) were placed on the podium of George Russell (Mercedes), while the Ferraris only became eighth (Charles Leclerc) and tenth (Lewis Hamilton).

Trap

Even before the start it had rained, making the circuit full of treacherous traps for the drivers. Peeing, bacon -slippery white lines on the public roads that had been transformed into a racing circuit: if a driver made one steering error, or if he went too hard on the gas, then a crash could hardly be prevented.

Whatever happened. The French debutant Isack Hadjar finished after one bend in the warm -up round in the wall, and walked back to the pits, crying. Once the race had started, Jack Doohan, Carlos Sainz, Fernando Alonso, Gabriel Bortoleto and Liam Lawson (Max Verstappen's new teammate) also had to struggle with a crash.

The fact that the circuit initially dried up and then rained completely wet again caused even more tumult. Drivers changed from rain tires to dry weather tires and back – some at the right time, others on the wrong. Multiple drivers are rising from the track but were able to continue their way, including Norris' teammate Oscar Piastri.

The Australian rode in third place in the opening phase behind Verstappen and Norris. He climbed to second place when Verstappen made a rare mistake and almost drove into the gravel bin. When he then started walking in on Norris, Piastri seemed to have a chance to win a victory for his own audience. But at some point a fuss broke while Piastri on slicks Reed. He slid into the grass and fell far back.

In short, it was a race in which pure drivers qualities were more important than the performance of the cars. Eventually there was only 0.895 seconds at the finish between Norris and Verstappen. A result for which the world champion had signed in advance. After all, he recently said that he had no chance of winning the victory in Australia.

In practice it looked better for Verstappen than expected. After a difficult training day on Friday, his Red Bull RB21 worked a lot better on Saturday. The car was no longer as fickle as during the test sessions in Bahrain at the beginning of March, and listened to what Verstappen wanted him to do with his steering wheel, brake and accelerator pedal. Only the RB21 was just a little grip defeat: Norris and Piastri defeated him over one fast round in qualifying. They started the race first and second, Verstappen in third.

Ominous

Nevertheless, the Grand Prix of Australia also contained one major ominous element for Verstappen. Namely: how Norris and Piastri with playful ease drove away from him in the phase in which all drivers tried to stretch the lifespan of the rain tires on which they had started. After the start, Norris, Verstappen and Piastri were hardly inferior to each other in pace. But when the track dried up and the ultra -soft rubber of the rain tires got it difficult, Verstappen lost at least a second on the McLarens every round.

That phase of the race looked the most on a normal, dry competition. Tire wear – or rather: limiting it as much as possible while you keep driving fast lap times – is crucial in this. And based on Melbourne, the new McLaren MCL39 enables its drivers to keep that aspect under control.

In a week the next race will be on the program, the Grand Prix of China in Shanghai. The chance of rain is still almost zero.

To share





Mail the editors