Were you paying close attention to the events of the 2024 Australian Grand Prix? How much do you know about Albert Park circuit? Test yourself with our quick quiz.
What year did the Australian Grand Prix move from its previous home in Adelaide to its current home in Melbourne’s Albert Park Circuit?
a. 1991
b. 1995
c. 1996
d. 1998
2. Who holds the current fastest lap record for Albert Park?
a. Max Verstappen
b. Lewis Hamilton
c. Charles Leclerc
d. Sergio Perez
3. During the 2023 Australian Grand Prix, how many red flags were there?
a. 1
b. 2
c. 3
d. 4
4. How many laps were there in the 2024 Australian Grand Prix?
a. 57
b. 58
c. 59
d. 60
5. Which team achieved the quickest pitstop – 2.1 seconds – during the 2024 Australian Grand Prix?
a. Red Bull
b. Ferrari
c. McLaren
d. Mercedes
6. Which driver was absent from the 2024 Australian Grand Prix?
a. Zhou Guanyu
b. Valtteri Bottas
c. Kevin Magnussen
d. Logan Sargeant
7. What was the winning podium for the 2024 Australian Grand Prix?
a. Carlos Sainz 1st, Lando Norris 2nd, Charles Leclerc 3rd
b. Carlos Sainz 1st, Sergio Perez 2nd, Lando Norris 3rd
c. Carlos Sainz 1st, Oscar Piastri 2nd, Sergio Perez 3rd
d. Carlos Sainz 1st, Charles Leclerc 2nd, Lando Norris 3rd
8. Which driver is in second place in the Drivers’ Championship following the 2024 Australian Grand Prix?
a. Sergio Perez
b. Carlos Sainz
c. Charles Leclerc
d. Lando Norris
9. Following the 2024 Australian Grand Prix, which team are currently on 26 points and are fourth in the Constructors’ Championship?
a. McLaren
b. Mercedes
c. Aston Martin
d. Ferrari
10. Which team holds the most race wins in Australia?
a. Ferrari
b. Red Bull
c. Mercedes
d. McLaren
Time to find out how many points you scored. See the answers below.
The Australian Grand Prix has been a staple on the calendar since 1928, with Melbourne hosting since 1996 at the Albert Park Circuit. Before this, the race was held in Adelaide. In previous seasons, Australia was traditionally the first race on the calendar, meaning that it has seen the start of many great careers, and simultaneously the beginning of the end for others. Sir Lewis Hamilton, Fernando Alonso, and Kimi Raikkonen are among those who debuted at this Grand Prix.
The track itself is rather technical. At 5.3 kilometres, the track fuses existing roads with a car park to create a truly dynamic circuit. Despite the fact that most of the circuit is constructed approximately six weeks ahead of the race and takes nearly 300,000 hours to construct, some parts, such as the pit and paddock buildings, are permanent. It utilises a combination of both medium and high-speed corners. The organisers prioritise overtaking, thus changed the layout before the 2021 season, reducing the number of corners to 14 and altering many of those that remain.
Being the home race of McLaren driver Oscar Piastri and RB’s Daniel Ricciardo, you can expect to see more of them in media channels as they will be doing more media than they typically would for a grand prix weekend. Honourary Aussie, Valtteri Bottas, will most likely also get more attention this weekend. Will this be the first year an Australian driver stands on the podium at Albert Park?
Supporting the F1 race, the Formula 2 and Formula 3 championships are also racing in Melbourne, meaning that there is even more racing action for fans to watch.
For the area, the grand prix is a huge event. It injects a surge of tourism into the region, boosting the local economy each year. However, it costs taxpayers in Victoria, the territory where Melbourne is located, about 50 million Australian dollars – a controversial point of the race. Albert Park itself is a popular destination throughout the year, with activities including walking trails and sports facilities. The grand prix only heightens this. Usually around 400,000 fans attend the race weekend in total, with more than 100,000 on race day alone.
Contacted until 2035 with extensions available, this is a race to get excited about as we will see it on the calendar for the foreseeable future.
As the sun shone bright, the spirits were high in Melbourne as the drivers and teams arrived at Albert Park Circuit. Smiles were all around; Daniel Ricciardo returned to the paddock and Oscar Piastri would finally race at his first home grand prix.
There was a variety of cars in the top three for all of the practice sessions. In FP1, it was a Red Bull sandwich with Lewis Hamilton placed between Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez.
In FP2, it was a wet session where Fernando Alonso came out on top ahead of Leclerc and Verstappen. And in the final practice session, Verstappen was top once again, followed by Alonso and a surprise appearance from Ocon.
Source: formulaspy.com
It was an intense qualifying session where at the start it looked like it would be straightforward by the start of the session but by Q3, it could have been anyone’s game.
Perez was out in Q1 after he locked up at Turn 3, beaching his car in the gravel. The session was over quickly for him. Sargeant brought out the yellow flag when he went off track before that incident and was unable to set a fast enough time. It wasn’t to be for Piastri who was out in Q1 of his home GP; both Alfa Romeos failed to escape elimination too.
Out in Q1: Piastri, Zhou, Sargeant, Bottas, Perez
Source: Planetf1.com
The front runners made their mark quite comfortably, Hulkenberg also impressing. Also caught out in Turn 3 like Perez, but able to continue on, was Norris. Unfortunately, the brit just didn’t have the pace to see him make top 10. Ocon missed out Q3 to Albon by 0.007s, the Thai driver was having a good weekend in Australia.
Out in Q2: Ocon, Tsunoda, Norris, Magnussen, De Vries
On provisional pole sat Verstappen, ahead of Hamilton and Alonso in the top 10 shootout. Verstappen reported gearshift problems which might have given other teams hope; but it didn’t seem to be a real issue for the Dutchman as his final flying lap saw him improve and seal the deal, taking his first pole position in Australia. Russell would end up joining him on the front row ahead of Hamilton and Alonso.
Verstappen took his second race win of the season after a start which saw him drop to third behind both Mercedes. He got passed Hamilton, built up a large lead and managed to keep his lead even after it was cut short due to multiple safety cars and red flags. Perez, had quite a good race; he worked his way through the field to P5, scoring a nice chunk of points.
Mercedes had a mixed Australian Grand Prix. Both cars overtook Verstappen at the start of the race but Russell did not have good fortune after this. He was caught out by the first red flag when he went to pit under the safety car before the race was stopped, he lost many places and was making progress through the field but his race came to an end when he had an engine issue. On the other hand, Hamilton, who drove a solid race, claimed his first podium of the season with a second place finish.
Source: Sportskeeda.com
Ferrari had a very disappointing weekend, scoring no points. Leclerc did not make it past the first corner as he ended up in the gravel after contact with Stroll on the opening lap. Sainz was also caught out by the red flag because of pitting under the safety car. He was climbing up the grid and soon settled behind Alonso but the restart after the second red flag saw him spin Alonso and earn a 5 second penalty on the final restart (the formation behind the safety car and final lap) which dropped him out of the points. A pleading Sainz was heard over the radio saying the penalty was “too severe”.
Aston Martin had their highest points finish as a team in Australia. Alonso got his third consecutive podium for Aston Martin. At times he looked to challenge Hamilton for second but when he was spun by Sainz on the second restart, he was pleased with the FIA’s call to revert positions back to the previous lap for the last restart. Stroll had a quiet enough race but he did go wide among all the chaos of the second restart and lost some places, so the Canadian also benefitted from the reverting of positions; ending up in 4th.
What looked like a wonderful fifth place finish for Alpine soon turned into a disaster. With few laps of racing left, Gasly was in for a haul of points; until the restart, when he came back onto the track from all the carnage and collided with the wall and his teammate taking both of them out. No penalty was handed out, therefore, Gasly’s penalty points remain at 10.
Source: AP, The Mirror.co.uk
McLaren finally had a positive weekend as the team got some points on the board. Piastri earned his first F1 points in P8 at his home GP and Norris drove a great race to get P6.
Tsunoda avoided what would have been a third consecutive 11th place finish this season by grabbing a point in P10 among all the melee (Sainz’s penalty bumping him up a place). Meanwhile, De Vries was hit from behind by Sargeant on the second restart, ending his race prematurely.
Last year Williams claimed a point here after Albon’s incredible 57 lap stint before pitting on the final lap. This year, it was not the same story. Albon had started well and was running in P6 but not too long after the first safety car, Albon spun out into the barriers in Turn 7, ending his race. Sargeant took out De Vries on the second restart so it was a double DNF for the team.
Source: motorsportweek.com
The Alfa Romeo had relatively quite races, but like the others, Zhou benefitted from the chaos, taking P9. Bottas was the only other finisher but non point scorer like Sainz.
It was a mixed weekend for Haas too. Hulkenberg’s side of the garage will be delighted with P7 as he drove a solid race, but Magnussen’s crash into the wall which brought out the red flag that eventually led to all of the madness will be a tough pill to swallow.
We now take a four week break (much needed after this race) before we head to Baku to continue the championship battle.
While 2018 may not seem like that long ago to us today, the 2018 Australian Grand Prix and the innovations that came with it are nearing their 5th birthday!
2018 saw the birth of the Halo to F1 and all the controversy that came with it, many thought of the halo as some ugly useless feature with no telling just how valuable it would become for the sport.
We as fans were first introduced to this halo on track in Australia, but aside from the halo, let’s look back on that race from the track perspective.
We started the weekend off as yet another beautiful weekend in Melbourne with FP1 seeing the Mercedes reigning supreme taking a 1-2 followed by Verstappen’s Red Bull and the Ferrari duo of Kimi and Seb rounding out the top 5. The bottom 5 for the session saw Checo and Magnussen followed by Hartley and the Sauber duo of Ericsson and Leclerc.
Source: themirror.co.uk
FP2 followed a similar outcome with Lewis still topping the timing sheets followed by Verstappen and Bottas and then the Ferrari duo keeping the structure in the top 5.
Saturday saw a change of pace in more ways then one, with the Ferrari’s finding the speed they very much needed Friday with a 1-2 in FP3 and the Sauber of Ericsson taking 3rd, IN A SAUBER. When it came to qualifying, the Hamilton powered Mercedes would take pole followed by Raikkonen and Vettel to set up for a fun start to Sunday’s festivities.
Sunday’s race saw the Ferrari’s chase down Hamilton without help from Bottas who would lull down in 8th. The Ferrari of Sebastian Vettel would eventually catch up and overtake Hamilton for the lead and from there it was finished. Vettel would take the flag to come home P1 with Hamilton taking 2nd followed by Raikkonen in 3rd.
Source: f1-fansite.com
For the low-lights, the HAAS duo of K-Mag and Grosjean would both DNF in their dumpster fires of cars.
Danny Ric would have himself a great Sunday finishing ahead of his teammate with a respectable P4.
Overall, the weekend was the beginning of a fun and exciting season in F1 and brought along technologies that would change the history of the sport and the safety of its participants and for that, it may go down as one of the most important seasons in the sports history.
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We have all seen the new 2022 tyres on track now. Having been run at 3 race weekends, these low-profile 18-inch tyres are delivering a lot of the changes the FIA and F1 hoped for. But not only have the tyres changed, the rules for running them have also changed although with less change than the tyres themselves. Let’s have a look at the rules from the start!
The tyre allocation ie. which 3 compounds will be available for the race weekend are notified to the teams at least 2 weeks in advance. This gives the teams time to run simulations and look at data from the previous races at the track and of the season, to come up with a run plan to approach the race weekend.
We’ve seen a non-serial for the first time during the Australian GP 2022 with the C2, C3 and C5 tyres. There is no rule against this as the allotment is decided by Pirelli (tyre supplier) and F1 themselves.
For normal race weekends(non sprint), the following dry-weather tyre sets are allocated
2 Hard Compound
3 Medium Compound
8 Soft Compound
For sprint race weekends,
2 Hard Compound
4 Mediums Compound
6 Soft Compound
If a team wants to replace an unused tyre due to any reason(punctures etc.) they can do so with another unused tyre of the same compound specification.
Each tyre is uniquely identified along their sidewalls. That’s where you see the track officials scanning the tyres after a session with their devices. All the tyres are to be used with proper recording of the usage, which shall be validated for the quali lap or sprint or the race as a whole.
For each session declared wet, a fresh set of intermediate tyres will be provided for the driver.
If the race/sprint race starts behind the safety car due to adverse weather, wet tyres will be compulsory to run from the formation lap itself.
Source: f1.com
Unless track conditions are declared wet, each driver has to run at least two different tyre compounds. Not doing so will result in the disqualification of the driver, except when the race has ended under a suspension where 30 seconds will be added to the race time for the driver.
A hypothetical situation would be Alex Albon in the Williams in the recent Australian GP 2022. Where he almost completed the race on the same hard tyres he started with, until they did the last lap pitstop which made them satisfy this rule.
Source: autosport.com
Uptill now the top 10 positions would have to start the race on the same set of tyres you completed your fastest lap in Qualifying-2. Regular fans of the sport would remember this as the ‘Q2 Rule’. However from this season this rule has been scrapped, so teams can start the races on any tyre they wish to. This has resulted in very bold strategies played by some teams in the races till now, however the full story of this change will become more clear as the season progresses.
Source: f1.com: Predicted strategies for Jeddah GP
Wrong Tyres:
Wrong tyres i.e. tyres other than those allotted to the driver, cannot be used during any session in the race weekend. If by mistake they are fitted, they have to be changed back to the correct tyres within one lap with respect to the line of track.
An example of this rule in action would be Sakhir 2020. Where a mixup during the double pitstops of the Mercedes team resulted in George Russel being fitted with tyres of his teammate Valterri Bottas. What followed was the infamous ‘George we have a mixed tyre set’ radio message from Peter Bonnington who was the Chief Engineer for Lewis Hamilton’s replacement that weekend. GR was called into the pits the next lap itself to correct this according to the rule.
Tyre blankets are now at a lower temperature. But the changes have not been disclosed to the public but the responses from the teams around this topic point to a significant shift in operations here. Also additional restrictions are there for how the teams can prepare the tyres before a session to get them ready.
After all the running of these tyres on the pinnacle of motorsport cars, methodic procedures are laid out for return of tyres after a session and the entire weekend. With extensive logging as previously mentioned to monitor that all teams comply with the rules laid out.
Source: Article 30, F1 Sporting Regulations (Issue5)
After 2 seasons away from the streets of Albert Park and the beautiful nation of Melbourne, F1 is officially back at Albert Park.
After the pandemic led to its cancelation in 2020 and its postponement turned cancelation in 2021 it was feared we may never return and nobody could’ve been more devastated than the always smiling Daniel Ricciardo.
With the pandemic closing the borders to most of Oceania including Australia Daniel not only couldn’t race in his home country, but couldn’t even visit his family. He admitted to this taking a toll on him mentally and held hope for the eventual return of this historic race.
Now in 2022 the wishes of Daniel and so many other have been answered! Sundays race in Melbourne brought not only the next chapter to what is warming to be an excellent title fight, but also some closure for fans and drivers alike. Welcome back Melbourne! You have been dearly missed.
The 2014 season was the 65th year of the Formula 1 championship with the opening race held in Melbourne Australia on the 16th of March 2014. First race of the season fans are always excited for racing to commence. Unlike the races today where normally 20 drivers race, during the Australian GP, there were 22 drivers in the running.
Qualifying
Fans who expected some Aussie sunshine during the race weekend where met with a rainy day forecasted for the duration of qualifying. Fan favourite for this race was Australian driver Daniel Ricciardo. There was 6 drivers knocked out from Q1, Grosjean, Ericsson, Gutierrez, Bianchi, Chilton and lastly Maldonado who did not set a time within the 107% requirement.
The next 6 drivers to go during Q2 was Perez, Kobayashi, Sutil, Vettel, Räikkönen, and Button. The last 10 drivers hand out into Q3 with the crowds cheering on for home racer Ricciardo. For a few seconds Ricciardo was on pole before Hamilton secured pole position with the faster lap at 1:44.321. Q3 ended with Bottas, Massa, Kvyat, Hulkenberg, Vergne, Alonso, Magnussen and the top 3, Rosberg, Ricciardo and Hamilton. Bottas had a 5 grid place penalty due to a gearbox change and started 15th, Gutierrez also had 5 grid penalty place due to a gearbox change and started 19th, Grosjean started from the pit lane due to changing his car in parc ferme.
Race
The first few laps were eventful. On the first corner, Kobayashi clipped Massa and both went into the gravel forcing them out of the race. During the third lap, Hamilton had an engine complaint and retired. Vettel had power problems which soon led to his retirement of the race. Rosberg was now in the lead with Ricciardo behind conserving fuel. Bottas came out of turn 10 and hit the wall which broke his rear rim. Two corners later he lost the wheel forcing the safety car to come out. This allowed the race leaders to make an early yet strategic pit stops on the 12th lap of the race.
On lap 20, Ricciardo was given the radio message that he no longer needed to preserve his fuel. Despite having some struggles earlier in the race, Bottas recovered astounding well and gained 5th place . Throughout the race, Ricciardo was putting pressure on Rosberg but started to struggle with 8 laps remaining. This is when McLaren gave radio message to Rookie Magnussen to put pressure on Ricciardo. Ricciardo couldn’t catch up to Rosberg and finished 24 seconds behind the German while Magnussen finished 2 seconds behind Ricciardo in third. The German, Australian and the Danish enjoyed the podium celebrations.
However, the drama for the day did not stop there. The stewards started an investigation into the Ricciardo’s car. Hours later they found that his car exceeded the maximum permitted fuel flow rate and disqualified the Aussie from the race. The official race result consisted of 1st place – Rosberg, 2nd place – Magnussen, and 3rd place – Button, 4th place – Alonso, 5th – Bottas, 6th place – Hulkenberg, 7th place – Räikkönen, 8th place – Vergne, 9th place – Kvyat, and 10th place – Perez. What an amazing season opener!
Source: racefans.netAutoblog.com
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The Fastest Sector 