The 2025 Formula 1 season is underway! Last Sunday’s Australian Grand Prix was a wildly unpredictable, thrilling race, one that will be remembered as one of the sport’s most exciting curtain raisers.

There was no shortage of intrigue in Melbourne. The preseason favorites were indeed quick, all eyes were on big names in new places, and a teenage darling penned the first pages of what could be an exceptional career.

So, with the teams all packed up from Albert Park and en route to Shanghai for Sunday’s Chinese Grand Prix, Laurence Edmondson and Nate Saunders overreact to the storylines that came to the fore in Round 1 of the 2025 F1 campaign.

Hamilton made a mistake in moving to Ferrari

Lewis Hamilton labored to 10th on his first race in red. After weeks of hype and speculation about his debut, it was somewhat anticlimactic. Hamilton was behind teammate Charles Leclerc across the entire weekend and spent some of the race struggling to get past a Racing Bull and a Williams. Meanwhile, former Mercedes teammate George Russell got on the podium and Hamilton’s heir Andrea Kimi Antonelli grabbed an incredible fourth position on his debut.

Verdict: OVERREACTION

Let’s not get carried away yet — it was one race. The big smile that has accompanied Hamilton since he first put on the red of Enzo Ferrari’s team was still there on Sunday evening; he seemed relieved to have just made it through such a chaotic race in one piece.

The race was a learning experience for everyone involved. Team principal Frédéric Vasseur has promised a thorough review into the way Hamilton and new race engineer Riccardo Adami communicate through the race. Hamilton has repeatedly pointed to how big the changes have been going from Mercedes to Ferrari — down to granular stuff like buttons on the steering wheel and how the Italian team maps out its debrief data — but the Adami messages were the biggest example of how much both sides of the puzzle still need to gel together.

Hamilton is a seven-time world champion and the winningest driver ever, so the reasoning that he’s still adapting won’t hold for long. In fact, that explanation for being off the pace might have expired already, just given the fact that it’s Hamilton. He rightly gets held to a higher standard than most others would.

As for the Mercedes/Ferrari comparison, unless Mercedes is fighting for titles, ultimately who cares where they finish in comparison to Ferrari? Ferrari appeared to get lost with its car somewhere during the weekend and left convinced it did not show its true pace. Mercedes looked strong and reacted well to the changing conditions late on. Neither looks likely to be a legitimate threat to McLaren, though — at this stage of the season, at the very least, but maybe for all of it.

Hamilton’s move was fulfilling a boyhood dream to join Ferrari, and one bad result compared to Mercedes doesn’t change anything. If Mercedes wins a title this year or in 2026, before he or Ferrari manages to, this will be a hard statement to deny from a legacy point of view. But as for now? No mistake. He promised the tifosi a rollercoaster ride, and he’s still loving every second of it. — Saunders

No one will catch McLaren this year

Lando Norris lived up to his preseason favorite tag by taking pole position and the race victory in Melbourne. In drying conditions on intermediate tires, the McLarens were 1.5 seconds faster than any other car on track as the MCL39 showed superior tire management combined with blistering speed across a range of corner types.

Verdict: OVERREACTION

If all 24 races were held at Albert Park, it’d be hard to see anyone beating the McLaren drivers to the championship, but the range of circuit types — even over the next five races of the season — will likely see fluctuations in the competitive order.

Ferrari started Friday practice looking like a genuine rival for McLaren, but seemed to struggle to adapt to the changing conditions over the weekend. That undoubtedly stems from a blind spot in the team’s understanding of its car, but Ferrari has also made the biggest changes to its car over the winter (going from push-rod to pull-rod front suspension) and it was always going to take longer to maximize the potential of its new package.

What’s more, McLaren’s rivals think the papaya cars are the most likely to lose performance as a result of more stringent bodywork flexibility tests set to be introduced from the Spanish Grand Prix onward. If that is the case, even a dominant start to the season might start to unravel with more than half the season remaining.

It’s also worth remembering that this time last year, no one believed Red Bull was beatable in the constructors’ championship, yet the Austrian-owned team finished third overall and McLaren emerged with the best all-around package by midseason. Put simply, trying to draw conclusions from a data sample of one unusual circuit in mixed conditions is a fool’s errand. — Edmondson

Red Bull promoted the wrong driver

Liam Lawson struggled all weekend on his Red Bull debut, qualifying 18th and spinning out of the race late on as the rain came hammering down. Meanwhile, Racing Bulls star Yuki Tsunoda was a standout of the weekend, qualifying sixth, and he would have finished higher than his 12th-place finish had his team not misjudged the changing weather at the end of the race.

Verdict: NOT AN OVERREACTION

As if there wasn’t already a strong case to be made for this, Australia’s race seemed to be the perfect representation of that statement. The opener was Red Bull’s recent driver woes in a nutshell. Max Verstappen was brilliant come rain or shine, while his teammate looked like he was driving in a different class of car at the other end of the order. All the while, Tsunoda was brilliant for Racing Bulls. He appears to be everything Red Bull has been wanting in that seat alongside Verstappen: confident, quick and consistent. Yet for some reason, he is still not in the senior team. Red Bull has never given a sensible explanation for why.

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Is Liam Lawson already a worry for Red Bull?

Nate Saunders and Laurence Edmondson react to Liam Lawson’s opening two practice sessions in Australia.

All of this is not meant to be shade on Lawson, either. He is clearly a very talented driver in his own right, but he’s been thrown into the deep end after two short spells with the junior team across two different seasons. Like Pierre Gasly and Alex Albon before him, Lawson has been pushed up to the top seat earlier than intended because of extenuating circumstances. It would be horrible to see him flame out immediately alongside Verstappen. Lawson impressed Red Bull with some of his aggressive wheel-to-wheel racing last year, but he was still out-performed by Tsunoda across their stint together as teammates in both 2023 and 2024.

Entering his fifth season, Tsunoda is now by far the most tenured Red Bull junior-team driver.

Lawson should fare better as he comes to more familiar tracks (he had never raced at Albert Park in any category). His debut was tough viewing, though, and it will not take long for a narrative to form if Lawson is unable to set things right quickly. The New Zealander deserved a full, uninterrupted year in the junior team to prove what he could do there, just as much as Tsunoda deserved one in the top team. — Saunders

Antonelli could be the next Verstappen

Antonelli’s remarkable drive from 16th on the grid to fourth at the finish was one of the highlights of Sunday’s race. Conditions couldn’t have been much trickier for a debut, yet Antonelli put in the performance of a seasoned veteran to finish just off the podium.

Verdict: NOT AN OVERREACTION

Sure, it’s only one race and, sure, Antonelli made a mistake in qualifying, but the best bits of his performance helped confirm the hype that has propelled him to the pinnacle of the sport at the tender age of 18. The best drivers in F1 always excel in wet conditions, and Antonelli was finding grip in unlikely places at Albert Park while making overtakes on drivers with far more experience. Very reminiscent of Verstappen in his early seasons.

Mercedes’ clinical strategy decisions undoubtedly helped — moving him from 10th to fifth at the final round of pit stops by mimicking Norris’ strategy — but that should take nothing away from the job Antonelli did behind the wheel. Of the current crop of rookies, he already looks like the one destined for greatness. Why not get excited about him? — Edmondson

Alonso isn’t the same Alonso anymore

Fernando Alonso was just 0.081 second ahead of Lance Stroll in qualifying, before he spun out rather uncharacteristically as the rain worsened in the race. It was such an unusual thing to see from Alonso, it was easy to think that maybe this year is one too many for the 43-year-old — the oldest driver on the grid.

Verdict: NOT AN OVERREACTION

There were signs last year, too, but Alonso’s superb drives have waned recently. The gap between himself and Stroll has noticeably come down and his spin in the rain on Sunday was a fairly routine mistake, one no one would expect from a man still considered by many to be the most complete talent to race in F1 this century.

Deeper issues may exist here, too. We saw Alonso thrive in 2023 when Aston Martin briefly had a car to contend for the odd podium, but last year was difficult and this year looks to be little better. Alonso is in a race with Father Time to finally get his hands on a competitive car again, but the toll that wait is taking can be seen in how he is with the media; it was only race one, but his replies already seemed labored, bored and uninspired.

Hopefully the recent arrival of Adrian Newey, although largely focused on 2026, can inject some life into Aston Martin’s upgrade program and inject some of that fire back into Alonso before it’s too late. — Saunders

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Fernando Alonso crashes out of Australian Grand Prix

Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso spins and crashes into a wall during the Australian Grand Prix.

Piastri isn’t ready to take the fight to Norris

The end of lap 44 was painful to watch as Oscar Piastri‘s rear wheels spun helplessly in the grass run-off area beyond Turn 13 and a large proportion of the field filtered past. Perhaps it was the “Australian curse,” which has so far prevented an Australian from claiming a podium in a world championship Formula 1 race on home turf, but the reality is Piastri missed a huge opportunity and already has a 23-point deficit to teammate Norris after just one race.

Verdict: OVERREACTION

The conditions at Albert Park meant the margins between hero and zero were minimal on Sunday. Norris, who admitted as much in the post-race news conference, made the same mistake as Piastri on lap 44, proving how tricky it was to keep the car on track as the pair barreled into a wall of heavy rain at Turn 12. By virtue of returning to the track slightly earlier, Norris was able to get his car stopped in time for Turn 13 while Piastri ran out of road and pirouetted onto the grass.

Roughly 15 laps earlier it was Piastri who was closing in on Norris and looking like the faster of the two McLarens. Eager not to throw away a win while its cars were 16 seconds clear of Verstappen, McLaren called off the fight and arguably shut down Piastri’s best chance of winning his home race.

Another positive for the Australian was his performance in qualifying. Last year he often struggled to match Norris on Saturdays, but in Melbourne he was just 0.084 second off his more experienced teammate — a margin that could easily swing either way over the course of the season. Sunday’s result will have lit a fire in Piastri and he will be keen to hit back at the earliest possible opportunity. — Edmondson

F1 should always start the season in Melbourne

Albert Park served up a thrilling spectacle, with the changing weather catching out rookies and world champions alike. Six drivers crashed out and the safety car came out three times. It might well have a claim to be the greatest opening race of the modern era; it’s hard to remember many better.

Verdict: NOT AN OVERREACTION

Albert Park should have a contract to open the season until the end of time. It wasn’t just a great race, the buzz and vibe around Melbourne was incredible. The local crowd loves Formula 1 and it felt like a fitting place to kick off the most anticipated F1 season of recent times. The Albert Park track has an old-school feel to it, with challenging corners and gravel to punish drivers who make mistakes, a contrast to the large run-offs in Bahrain, which has been the more common season opener in recent years.

As for the weather, that was a random element, but it’s one of the things that has always made Melbourne a great and unpredictable place to host a Formula 1 race. Even before the weather hit, the tricky circuit had caught out the likes of Haas rookie Oliver Bearman.

Bahrain is a nice visual spectacle under the lights, but Australia feels like a throwback to the beginning of the current millennium. Maybe it’s an age thing, but Australia deserves to have this going forward. An added bonus is Piastri on the grid; he’s going to be at the front end of the grid for a long time to come, and the thrill of him trying to break the curse for Australian drivers is going to be a continuing subplot to that phenomenal event. — Saunders

Williams can finish fifth in the constructors’

Williams lived up to its preseason hype, with Albon out-qualifying both Ferraris and finishing ahead of them in the race in a solid fifth position. Carlos Sainz was caught out by the conditions, but the early indication is that Williams and Racing Bulls are leading the midfield pack behind the big four teams. Williams already sits in fourth place in the standings after the first round.

Verdict: NOT AN OVERREACTION

After several seasons of rebuilding, Williams is starting to look like a slick operation again. Sainz had an off weekend when it mattered in Australia, but at times looked like the quicker of the two drivers and will likely return to form in the coming races.

The pace is undoubtedly there and the team now has two drivers who can extract it from the car and push each other forward in the process. In a season where there are still question marks over the performance of Aston Martin, and to a lesser extent Alpine, the door is open for Williams to secure its best championship position since 2017 and take fifth in the standings. — Edmondson

The rookie class isn’t prepared enough

Every single rookie came undone at some point during the weekend. Bearman had a dreadful weekend from practice. Isack Hadjar didn’t even make the start, crashing on the formation lap, while Jack Doohan spun on his own on lap 1. Lawson and Gabriel Bortoleto also went off as the rain worsened later in the day. Even Antonelli, who surged to a brilliant fourth place on debut, spun at one point. It looked very much like the rookies weren’t up to the task.

Verdict: OVERREACTION

This class of rookies is, by definition, very well prepared, given how testing rules have changed over the past few years. Several of them — Lawson, Bearman and Doohan — already had F1 race starts to their names, while all of them had benefitted from practice appearances and the Testing of Previous Cars (TPC) allowance for post-season events. Esteban Ocon pointed out ahead of the weekend that rookies now come into F1 with much more relevant track time than his generation did 10 years ago.

Australia was a unique kind of race, though.

Rain is a different proposition in modern F1, with tests usually being conducted in the Middle East. Running in wet conditions is limited if not completely non-existent until the real thing occurs. Even Hamilton joked before Sunday’s race that he didn’t know where the wet-weather tire button was on the steering wheel of his new Ferrari. Saving the rookies in this verdict was the plight of Sainz, a multiple race winner, and Alonso, a multiple world champion, who both crashed out in the rain as well.

Then there was Antonelli’s super drive late on, as the 18-year-old secured a memorable debut result. That kind of exciting performance is what we had come into the year expecting from the Class of 2025, and this group is talented enough to bounce back from a difficult first weekend and thrive this year. — Saunders