Every so often Formula One produces a thoroughly enthralling Grand Prix, and the 2025 iteration of the Australian Grand Prix (AGP) was nothing short of chaotic bedlam. It was one of those occasions where you just didn't know where to look or what was going to happen next. Certainly renders predictions based on pre-season form redundant. Congratulations to Lando Norris and McLaren starting their championship challenge off in style. Norris withstood immense pressure from not only his team mate Oscar Piastri and Red Bull's Max Verstappen, but also the elements in the form of Melbourne's unpredictable weather.
    With the performance window converging between the teams as we commence the last season of the current regulations, could 2025 be the season where keeping the car on track result in the accumulation of points? Nico Hulkenberg in a Sauber finishing P7, or both Williams' qualifying in the top 10, with Alex Albon finishing P5 for example. It was a testing time for all the full time rookies at Albert Park. Isack Hadjar, Jack Doohan, Liam Lawson, Ollie Bearman, Gabriel Bortoletto all had challenging weekends. Even the most experienced on the grid, two time champ Fernando Alonso crashed out in the race. Mercedes rookie however, Andrea Kimi Antonelli, despite sustaining floor damage in qualifying to line up P16, demonstrated the potential the team knew he possessed by finishing an impressive P4 at the chequered flag. A future star perhaps?
    What was obvious to us, was whether it was the excruciatingly oppressive heat of qualifying or the cold wet conditions of the GP, McLaren have a well balanced car in all conditions that clearly looks a cut above the other teams at this early stage of the season. Now the Chinese GP is on this weekend and we've only just caught our breath from the AGP! 

   
    It is with great sadness that we've just learned of the passing of former Jordan F1 Team owner, media pundit and business entrepreneur, Eddie Jordan. Fiercely determined, driven and passionate about motorsport who also loved a good party. Even if you didn't know him, you felt like you did, such was his charisma. His Jordan team after transforming through various guises, lives on today as the Aston Martin F1 Team. Our thoughts and prayers are with his family at this time.
​    Vale EJ.  
               



​

    The Formula One teams have decamped Bahrain after pre-season testing and are well and truly in transit to Melbourne to embark on yet another quest for F1 supremacy at the season opening Australian Grand Prix. Comes around quick doesn't it? Saying that we're pleased Australia has returned to its traditional opening round status in the Melbourne era is an understatement. 
    What can we conclude from testing though? Pundits and punters alike attempt to dissect the 3 day test, but we feel this is fraught with assumptions and speculations. As much as we love to speculate, isn't testing simply an acclimatisation process with extended systems checks, analysing the car's response to various fuel loads, and evaluating different parts and set up changes? Unless one team is consistently smashing everyone else's time over the whole test, are some reading more into it as what's warranted? 
    Last year the teams' disparities were closing, and with 2025 being the last year of the current regulations, we suggest this year will be even closer fought and may unveil multiple winners. We will certainly obtain some sort of indication of outright pace after qualifying next weekend, but Albert Park is a bit of an outlier. In fact, the first real "aero" circuit is Suzuka in Japan for Round 3. After that we may not get a real understanding until the teams return to Europe. Even then, there's bound to be a few tenths of a second between first and last. Uh oh! Speculating aren't we?
    There's always a bumper program at the Australian GP. F2, F3, Supercars and Porsche Carrera Cup. The track action is fast and frenetic and off track there's numerous car displays, kid's zones, interactive displays, fan forums and a massive music festival. A sensory overload! A large number of rookies are competing this year in F1. How will they fare? How will Lewis Hamilton shape up against Charles Leclerc at Ferrari? Can Carlos Sainz make an immediate impact at Williams? No doubt a large contingent of the parochial sellout crowd will be cheering for the two Aussies, McLaren's Oscar Piastri and Alpine's rookie Jack Doohan.
​    To answer the question, "Who's hot and who's not?" Who knows? See you in Melbourne....