Hamilton swallowed up by ‘old school’ Ferrari chaos – Up/Down Australian GP
Hamilton toiled in Australia as his new Ferrari team looked clueless – but were there promising signs in amongst the misery?
Talk about difficult debuts...
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What happened to Ferrari? We thought ‘Sensible Fred’ Vasseur had got them sorted out judging by last season.
No more bungled strategies, no more dropped wheel nuts, no more convoluted radio messages.
However at the dawn of the 2025 season Lewis Hamilton got a race full of Maranello gaffes served up Down Under. He just needed the steering wheel to fall off a la Nigel Mansell’s Ferrari debut and it would have been the complete Scuderia experience.
These things are never easy, but the late ’25 Australian GP deluge offered a chance to vault Charles Leclerc and Hamilton up to the front by making a quick change to inters before the rest did.
Instead Ferrari opted to keep out its drivers on dry hard tyres, which, considering how windy and cold the track was even after the rain had stopped, might as well have been Pirelli granite-compound.
Both drivers had to admit defeat and finally changed to inters long after the rest had which, as Hamilton pointed out, put them right back where they started.
On top of all of this, the car didn’t look hooked up. The honeymoon period well and truly ended on a stormy weekend in Oz.
Going Down – Running out of Hammer time?
Hamilton in the midst of mid-race turmoil
Ferrari
The tetchy radio messages in Melbourne said it all about Hamilton and Ferrari’s race, but to be fair the Brit was glued to Leclerc for a lot of the running – someone he described in pre-season as “Mr Ferrari” and “blindingly fast” over one lap.
The Monegasque is known for getting the most out of the red car, so if Hamilton was there or thereabouts, it might bode well for the future.
As mentioned above, it all hinged on Ferrari’s hesitance over strategy, showing how the complexion of an entire race weekend can hinge on one moment.
Going Up – The great entertainer
Cheer up Isack – you’re on your way to meme-immortalisation
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Isack Hadjar might just be the new Jean Alesi. The French driver has brilliant pace, but is also prone to the odd gaffe – with accompanying instant-classic radio messages.
He stalled on the grid during the title-deciding F2 decider last year, and carried on that form by shoving his lovely Racing Bull into the barrier on the formation lap in Melbourne.
He then proceeded to cry all the way back from Turn 1 to the team hospitality, making previous waterworks by the likes of Felipe Massa (Brazil ’08) Mika Hakkinen (Italy ’99) look amateurish.
Hadjar looks set to be box office for the rest of the year. Enjoy his best ever radio exchange below.
“I destroyed the car!” 😱
Isack Hadjar doesn’t hold back his passion over the radio 👀#F1 pic.twitter.com/RaFukDFUEQ
— Formula 1 (@F1) March 13, 2025
Going Down – Under pressure
Pretty much the opposite of what Doohan needed – Ryo Hirakawa might even be in the car soon at this rate
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Is Doohan doomed? The Aussie had exactly the race he didn’t want, binning the car on the first lap.
Meanwhile Alpine had his rumoured successor Franco Colapinto demonstrating how to drive Albert Park on the simulator for social media content. Should have given his race driving team-mate a few tips it seems. Awkward…
Heading down under for the opening round of the season! 🇦🇺🦘
Presented by @eni , join Franco for a lap around Jack’s home race — the Albert Park Grand Prix Circuit 😎@trak_racer @cybertek_fr pic.twitter.com/XCHDxGS2H9
— BWT Alpine Formula One Team (@AlpineF1Team) March 12, 2025
Going Up – Bottas BAR
Simultaneously the best and worst F1 livery of all time
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Valtteri Bottas made full use of his Mercedes reserve role by driving the first ever Brackley F1 car – the disgusting BAR 001 – around Albert Park.
A car that looks so bad it’s almost good. Also probably faster than last year’s Sauber.
Going Down – Classic Formula Partridge
Sure he had it somewhere
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Lost your helmet have we?
Going Up – The kid’s alright
Shouldn’t you be at school?
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Looking like he should still be in rental karts, 18-year-old Kimi Antonelli drove a brilliant debut race to come through from 16th to fourth for Mercedes.
The third-youngest F1 driver ever, he’s got two more races to become the youngest ever GP winner. C’mon Kimi, you can do it.
Going Down – Bad Sainz
Sainz pays tribute to the Helio Castroneves Spiderman celebration in salute to his record
Williams
Crofty helped us out with a brilliant stat during the race. Carlos Sainz has now retired on the first lap of a GP the second-most times (eight) since the world championship started.
Nico Hülkenberg holds the record with 12. This is F1 heritage.
Going Up – Wily old fox
Hulk’s still got it
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Speaking of The Hulk, driving the pretty slow Sauber, he came through the chaos to finish seventh. Just like we predicted in our F1 Fantasy guide. You can thank us now.