Who's Hot And Who's Not?

Albert Park.

    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....
        

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