Here we go, the 2025 Formula 1 season has officially begun.
After the almost completely pointless virtual presentations, the glittering but equally uninteresting F1-75 glamour event, and 3 days of pre-season testing in which all the teams hid and many didn't even show the final versions of their single-seaters, now it's getting serious.
It starts in Melbourne. The last time the Australian Grand Prix was the first event on the Formula 1 calendar was in 2019, so after 6 years, drivers and teams will immediately be forced to face major setup challenges to test new solutions. Melbourne is in fact a semi-city track and tends to trigger the phenomenon of graining relatively easily, putting the tyres in crisis especially in the race. Furthermore, Pirelli has intervened on the compounds, in particular the C4 and C5, which are now slightly harder than last season, and this will be another variable and possible difficulty for the teams, who will not be able to rely on reliable comparative data.
Compared to 2024, no changes have been made to the asphalt of the track. The only changes to the track concerned Turns 6 and 7, where the crash barriers and kerbs were modified as a precaution against the recurrence of some accidents in that part of the track. The circuit, 5.278 km long, combines fast straights and technical corners at low and medium speed, with some challenging braking zones.
The single-seaters arrived at the circuit yesterday and have already been partially assembled in the various pits, almost ready for the Display Car Procedure.
The very first pictures of the year come to us thanks to reporter Adam Cooper, who has already posted some photos on his X profile. The pits are still closed with the mechanics working inside, but the front wings and some of the single-seater tyres are outside waiting to be fitted.
The front wings shown by Ferrari are the medium-low load ones, the same ones tried in Bahrain where larger profile solutions would have been needed, but the team probably wanted to test the overall balance in these conditions just in view of the first GP.
Article being updated...
Read also: Australian GP: what happened the last time Melbourne hosted the season opener
All the news, photos, weather, session times and times from the Australian GP 2025
