Formula 1 is back! The 2025 Season got underway earlier today as FP1 kicked off proceedings in Melbourne, Australia. Here’s how it all unfolded.
Australian F1 Drivers: A History of Champions and Contenders
FP1 – First Impressions
Nico Hulkenberg was the first car out on track for the session as he made his debut for Kick Sauber. All eyes then turned to Lewis Hamilton as he took his brand new Ferrari out onto the track for an initial shakedown. The British driver had a little lockup on the medium tyres as he made his way through turn 3 but otherwise had a clean initial run.
From the live footage of the session that was broadcast, it was, fittingly, the Australian Jack Doohan who we saw complete the first full timed lap of 2025 on a Grand Prix weekend. The Alpine rookie posted a time of 1.21.087
The first top five of the year teased what many believe is to come in 2025. Verstappen led the way with Leclerc behind him in second place and Piastri in third. Russell propped them up in fourth with Hamilton rounding out the top five.
Red Bull put both of their cars out on track with a splash of green flow vis paint, indicating that there’s still something they don’t understand about their car. With every session crucial in what promises to be a tight season for the entire grid, Red Bull will want to figure these issues out sooner rather than later if they don’t want to fall behind.
Last year, the quickest FP1 time was a 1.18.5. With fifty-one minutes to go in the session, Charles Leclerc had already set a time of 1.18.317. On top of that, there were four teams in the top five in the first fifteen minutes.
Close Shaves and a Red Flag
Liam Lawson brushed the wall at the entry of turn 9. The New Zealander got away with this though at a corner where you normally experience 5.1G through the apex. He won’t want to be repeating that this weekend. The other Red Bull of Verstappen also had a brief moment of strife. The Dutchman dipped his car into the gravel at turn 6 but also got away with this flirtation.
The first red flag of the weekend came out thanks to Jack Doohan. The Australian displaced a small amount of gravel at turn 6. This brought out the red flag despite there already being some gravel out on this part of the track. Somehow, this is already the fourth red flag of the year. This follows the three bizarre ones that occurred during testing in Bahrain.
As the green flag was waved and the session resumed, Piastri immediately kicked up some more gravel at turn 6. This was thanks to some understeer with the car. This was also the same cause that both Verstappen and Lawson had before him. The latter did damage his car a little during the session with the Red Bull outfit checking the plank of his car in the pits. Doohan too damaged the left hand rear of his floor but ultimately, it proved to be nothing major.
The other Alpine of Pierre Gasly had a snap of oversteer at turn eleven with just under thirty minutes left on the clock. It will be the outfit’s final year as a works team before switching to Mercedes power next year.
Bearman into the Barriers
The fifth red flag, and the first caused by a driver crashing, of 2025 was brought out thanks to Oliver Bearman. A snap of oversteer, as the rear of the car shimmied out of line, sent him into the gravel at turn 10 and smashed the Haas car into the barriers. The right side of the car took the brunt of the damage. The front wing came off the car for good measure too. Bearman was checked over by the medical team and discharged back to the team with a clean bill of health.
Race to the Finish in FP1
Cars were lining up in the pitlane to get out after this red flag with just eleven minutes to go in FP1. Sainz was leading the way for Williams just prior to the red flag and it wasn’t until the final moments of the session that this would change. Lando Norris would steal away the top spot from his former McLaren teammate. But he had to work for it. Norris and Doohan had a small scrap on track on their warm up laps from turn 6 to turn eleven. Then, out of nowhere, Norris found himself being overtaken by Tsunoda . The pair had a drag race to turn 1 and ultimately ruined both of their laps in the process!
Verstappen had his own trouble on the restart of the session. He came across Sainz at turn 6 when he was on a push lap and had to take evasive action so as to not crash into the back of the Spaniard. Sainz apologised as Verstappen drove past.
Then, with around forty seconds to go, Russell dropped his front right wheel into the grass and got spun around into the barriers at turn 4. But he was able to get into reverse and get back onto the track and carry on without any apparent damage.
FP1 – A tease for 2025
Norris took first blood in 2025 in P1 by the end of FP1 with Sainz in P2 for Williams and Leclerc in P3 for Ferrari. Piastri, Verstappen, Albon, Russell and Alonso rounded out the top 8. Hadjar was the best of the rookies for Racing Bulls in P9 with Stroll in tenth.
It has been ninety-six days since the chequered flag fell to conclude the 2024 Formula 1 Season in Abu Dhabi. But with Norris topping the timesheets out of the gates with Sainz and Leclerc hot on his heels and qualifying looking set to be 10 degrees hotter than FP1, we can now say that the start of the 2025 Formula 1 Season is well and truly underway.
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