The worst Saturday in Australia in a decade The dream crew of Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton, celebrated simply 10 days in the past by a cheering crowd in Milan, has had a disastrous begin to the 2025 season. In Australia, each Ferraris completed qualifying in seventh and eighth place, occupying the whole fourth row and being overwhelmed not solely by the McLarens and Max Verstappen but additionally by George Russell’s Mercedes, Yuki Tsunoda’s Racing Bulls, and Alex Albon’s Williams. Definitely not the beginning that Fred Vasseur and his drivers had been hoping for.
Clearly, the race—particularly if rain comes into play—may change the present pecking order, however for now, the cruel actuality is confirmed by the statistics: at this time marked Ferrari’s worst qualifying efficiency in Melbourne in over a decade. The final time the crew struggled this a lot on the Australian observe was within the first season of the hybrid period in 2014. Again then, Fernando Alonso nonetheless managed to qualify fifth, whereas Kimi Räikkönen did not make it previous Q2 and completed twelfth on Saturday. It was even worse in 2012 when each Ferraris (pushed by Alonso and Massa) had been eradicated in Q2. For the report, it’s value noting that F1 didn’t race in Melbourne in 2020 and 2021.
As for season openers, Ferrari hasn’t carried out this poorly within the first qualifying session of the 12 months because the disastrous 2020 marketing campaign. That 12 months, on account of COVID, the season began in Austria in July, the place Leclerc certified seventh and Sebastian Vettel solely eleventh.
A step again from 2024 This 12 months’s consequence for Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton seems to be much more disappointing when in comparison with 12 months in the past. Within the weekend that noticed Carlos Sainz declare victory on Sunday, Ferrari had already proven promising indicators in qualifying: Carlos Sainz secured a front-row begin, simply 270 milliseconds behind Max Verstappen, whereas Charles Leclerc certified fifth, albeit half a second off pole.
A 12 months later, these numbers have considerably worsened: Charles Leclerc was over six-tenths off Lando Norris’ pole time, whereas Lewis Hamilton—who not less than has the partial excuse of it being his first outing in purple—was greater than eight-tenths behind. Not the begin to the season Ferrari followers had been hoping for.
Mar 15, 2025
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