MELBOURNE (AP) – Seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton racing a Ferrari for the first time. Reigning world champion Max Verstappen arriving without a lot of mileage in his Red Bull. Lando Norris helping McLaren set a benchmark with his pace in testing.
Formula 1 (F1) is expecting a hyper-competitive milestone 75th anniversary season in 2025, and it starts this weekend with the Australian Grand Prix. There’s no shortage of unknowns in terms of the pecking order, and the weather.
Most of the headlines ahead of tomorrow’s Australian GP have revolved around Hamilton’s move to Ferrari from Mercedes.
The normally relaxed pre-event news conference at Albert Park was overflowing with journalists and photographers on Thursday to hear from a rejuvenated Hamilton about how much he’s enjoying the prancing horse-ride.
The 40-year-old British driver is going into his 19th season in F1 but has had a different outlook since his first day in January at the Scuderia’s Maranello HQ, where he’s teammates with Charles Leclerc.
“I don’t really approach this role with pressure,” Hamilton said. “I think over the years, the pressure I put on myself has always been 10 times higher than any other pressure that could be put upon me. I haven’t joined this team and been made to feel any pressure.
“I have an expectation for myself – I know what I can bring. I know what I can deliver. And I know what it’s going to take.”
MCLAREN’S PACE
Norris has been trying to downplay his long-run pace that impressed the paddock during pre-season testing in Bahrain last month and made McLaren an early-season favourite.
“I know there’s a lot of expectation,” Norris said. “It was just my one race run I did that kind of just made everyone believe this quite heavily. It was a good race run, but it was also in the most perfect conditions.”
He tried to temper expectations by saying McLaren teammate Oscar Piastri’s run the following day “was a lot slower”. “Not because he drove worse,” Norris explained, “but simply because the conditions on the final day were considerably slower”. There’s no denying, though, that McLaren is confident going into the opening race of the season, even if they’re not quite sure of their ultimate pace.
“No one really knows what to expect,” said Piastri, who is aiming to become the first Aussie to win the Australian F1 Grand Prix.
“Testing went pretty well, but you don’t know where everybody stands. I think we’re pretty happy with how our test went, but Melbourne is a completely different track to Bahrain.
Weather is going to be different to Bahrain and different every hour, by the look of it.”
FRIDAY PRACTICE
Ferrari took the contest to long-time rival McLaren in the second practice as Leclerc closed out the session on top, just over one-tenth of a second ahead of Piastri and Norris.
Leclerc and Norris traded fastest times throughout the late afternoon run, with their pace witnessed by 125,548 people at the leafy inner-city Albert Park circuit, a record yesterday crowd for the Australian Grand Prix.
Hamilton had a much stronger second session for Ferrari, with the seven-time world champion finishing fifth, just over fourth-tenths behind teammate Leclerc.
“There’s still balance work to do overnight, and we’re missing a bit of pace, but that’s expected,” Hamilton said. “It’s about building step by step, maximising what we have, and continuing to push forward.”
Red Bull’s second team, Racing Bulls, shaded the main squad, with Yuki Tsunoda and Isack Hadjar showing surprising speed to end the session in fourth and sixth.
World champion Max Verstappen could do no better than seventh, almost a half-second behind in the second session.
“Today, the grip wasn’t great, and we were struggling on all four tires, particularly in sector one and in the final sector,” Verstappen said of his Red Bull car. “It feels like we are not up there at the moment, but we will work to find more pace.”
Haas rookie Oliver Bearman didn’t enter the second practice after his crash in the
morning session.
