After six seasons, the Australian Grand Prix returns to its familiar position at the start of the Formula One World Championship calendar.
This will be the 23rd occasion the F1 season curtain-raiser has taken place Down Under, having first done so on Melbourne’s inaugural appearance on the schedule in 1996.
In all, it will be our sport’s 28th visit to Albert Park.
Sunday will mark the start of the F1’s 76th season, and 75th anniversary campaign. The same 24 circuits that appeared on last season’s calendar appear on the 2025 rota.
Interestingly, the Australian Grand Prix was the first race of 1996, and the last race of 1995 (held in Adelaide). It marks the only time in F1 history the same Grand Prix has taken place in consecutive races.
Sunday’s Grand Prix will take place over 58 laps of the 5.278km layout. The last noticeable change to the track came before 2023, when the right-left sequence at Turn 9 and 10 around the lake was removed, to make way for a longer high-speed section towards the new Turn 9/Turn 10 sequence.
The G Forces experienced by drivers at the new Turns nine and 10 in 2025 will be the highest of the entire season, at 5.1G.
It means that 78% of the total lap distance is spent at full throttle, the third highest of all the track on the 2025 calendar after Monza and Las Vegas.
Drivers will make just 35 gear changes on a lap of Albert Park, the second lowest of any lap of the season apart from Monza.
At 281 metres, the pit lane at Albert Park is the shortest on the 2025 F1 calendar.
Cars will only spend 12.6 seconds driving through the pits when making a stop this weekend, quicker than any other track visited this season.
Albert Park is also one of two layouts on the 2025 F1 calendar to have four DRS Zones, to aid with overtaking. The other is Singapore.
With no room for error at high speed between the tight walls, it is no surprise that there have been six Safety Car deployments across the past five editions of the Australian Grand Prix. The past two Grands Prix have finished under Safety Car conditions as well.
And what about the weather? Well, as you may expect from a summer Down Under, temperatures tend to be in the mid to high twenties. So, no chance of rain? Not quite.
Two sessions in the past five editions of the event have been run in the rain. Mathematicians among you may be interested to know there is an 8% chance of rain based on previous data.
Forecasts for this weekend predict a warm start – with the mercury set to reach 36 C on Saturday, before dropping to 24 on race day, with a 45% chance of rain
Mercedes has four wins in Melbourne as a works team, and all have come since our return to the sport in 2010. Mercedes-Benz as an engine manufacturer has a total of 11 wins , the most of any engine supplier in F1 history. Nico Rosberg claimed two wins in 2014 and 2016, while Lewis Hamilton claimed victory for the Silver Arrows in 2015.
Valtteri Bottas got his 2019 campaign off to the perfect start with victory in Melbourne. The Finn also made his debut for the team at the circuit in 2017 – and scored a P3 finish.
That podium remains the best Three-Pointed Star debut result in the modern era. Speaking of debuts….
Kimi will become the 13th different driver to start a Grand Prix for Mercedes when the lights go out on Sunday. The 18-year-old will become the third-youngest driver ever to start an F1 race, and the first Italian to start a Grand Prix since Antonio Giovinazzi at the 2021 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.
George returns to the track he made his F1 debut at in 2019, driving for Williams. He scored his first Mercedes podium at Albert Park in 2022.
This weekend will be his 129th GP start, moving him past 1978 World Champion Mario Andretti.