The 2025 Formula 1 season kicks off
After 98-day break, Australian Grand Prix takes its traditional role as season opener
March 13, 2025
The wait is finally over as the Formula 1 2025 season kicks off with the Australian Grand Prix at the iconic Albert Park Circuit.
After a 98-day break from the sport, the Australian Grand Prix takes its traditional role as the season opener with FP1 being held on Friday, 12:30pm local time and the race being held on Sunday, 3:00pm local time.
We are coming into this season with a layer of uncertainty with more rookies than ever before, new important regulations and an unpredictable title fight.
The attention for the first few races will mostly be directed towards Lewis Hamilton who sets sail on his groundbreaking chapter with Ferrari after having spent 12 years and winning 6 world championships with the Silver Arrows where his seat will be taken by the 18-year-old rookie, Andrea Kimi Antonelli.
Apart from that 5 other drivers will also be driving in Formula 1 full time with Antonelli’s former PREMA teammate Oliver Bearman driving for Haas alongside Estaban Ocon.
Liam Lawson will be taking over Sergio Perez’s seat at Red Bull as reigning world champion, Max Verstappen's team teammate. Gabriel Bortoleto and Isack Hadjar are also on the grid at Kick Sauber and Racing Bulls respectively.
Jack Doohan gets his chance with Alpine after the car showed competitive form in pre-season testing, but they are going to have competition from a strong driver lineup at Williams, featuring Alex Albon and Carlos Sainz—the latter having signed his contract during the winter break after Hamilton replaced him at Ferrari.
Alongside the changes to the driver line-up, there have also been a number of tweaks to the rules for the 2025 F1 season. A controversial change for this year has been the removal of the fastest lap point. Since 2019, drivers in the top 10 could earn a bonus point by setting the fastest lap of the race but now the decision was taken to remove it from the scoring system.
The driver cooling system is also a new addition to the regulations which means that if the temperatures are predicted to go above 31C, teams will be notified and would have to fix a cooling system in the car which would lead to an increase in the weight limit of the cars — additional 2kg for practice and 5kg for the races.
Mandatory FP1 running for rookies has been included in the rules getting them double the amount of track time during a race weekend for those who have been in two or less F1 races.
Stricter restrictions on DRS designs and wing deflections have been introduced bringing an end to the concept of “mini-DRS” in which the top section of a rear wing tilts backwards to reduce drag.
Lastly, there have also been changes to the qualifying sessions with drivers championship classifications being used if a qualifying session cannot be held due to extreme weather conditions.
Going into the first race weekend of the season, Mclaren has proved to be the strongest in terms of pace after pre-season testing but Lando Norris tones down the advantage saying, “I don't think in any way we’re superior” and predicts a tough weekend.
The season opener at Albert Park promises to deliver fierce battles, unpredictable weather and high-stakes drama.
— Ayra shahzad is a student and a F1 enthusiast.
