The first Sunday Formula One race of the season is set to take place this weekend, at one of the series’ most beloved venues, the iconic Albert Park circuit in Melbourne.
The third round of this season will be the 38th running of the F1 Australian Grand Prix, and the 27th in Melbourne, with the venue being a staple on the calendar since 1996. The Grand Prix has been held at Albert Park every year since then, except for in 2020 and 2021 due to the Coronavirus Pandemic, which saw the F1 paddock dramatically leave the circuit just hours before the 2020 event was scheduled to begin.
Dutchman Max Verstappen, who took his first Australian Grand Prix win last year, returns to the track with a commanding lead in the Drivers’ Championship, driving for the dominant Red Bull team who are showing no signs of slowing down on-track, despite a dramatic off-track saga playing out in the background.
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Verstappen won both of this season’s opening rounds, Middle Eastern races in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia, meaning that his current win streak, which dates back to the back end of last season, is standing at nine races.
If Max does take his streak into double digits this weekend, he would tie his own record which he set at last year’s Italian Grand Prix at Monza. He currently leads the Drivers’ Championship, being 15 points ahead of his teammate, Sergio Perez, who came home second in both Bahrain and Saudi Arabia to up Red Bull’s 1-2 tally to 30.
Outside of the top team, the battle between the teams placed second to fifth looks very close, with them comfortably ahead of the five slowest teams.
Haas are placed in sixth despite only scoring a single point, when Nico Hulkenberg finished 10th in Jeddah, being aided by impressive defensive work by his teammate Kevin Magnussen, whose only career podium to date came on his F1 debut in Australia.
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Verstappen is one of five Australian Grand Prix winners on the current grid, with Lewis Hamilton being the only two-time Albert Park Circuit winner set to start this year’s race. Lewis’s former teammates Fernando Alonso and Valtteri Bottas each have a single Melbourne win to their name, as does Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc, who finished third in Saudi Arabia.
The Grand Prix will be a home race for two of the grid’s most popular drivers: RB’s Daniel Ricciardo and McLaren’s Oscar Piastri. Ricciardo has raced in Melbourne nine times in the past but has never managed to finish on the podium, with his best results in Australia being fourth-place finishes in 2016 and 2018.
Daniel looks unable to finally get a home podium this weekend, as he has an uncompetitive car, but Piastri is in with a shot.
In his rookie season last year, Oscar finished eighth at the track to secure his first F1 points, and in Jeddah, he finished just outside of the podium positions in fourth.
A Piastri podium could bring the headlines away from the ongoing Christian Horner saga at Red Bull, which is currently dominating the F1 news.
