Australian Grand Prix Tag

By Luis Torres, Staff Writer The world of open wheel racing took a slew of schedule alternations all across the world due to the rise of the much feared coronavirus pandemic. As many sports sanctioning bodies (NBA, NCAA, MLB, MLS, WEC, IMSA, AMA Supercross, LPGA and XFL) have suspended or delayed their seasons, the world of motorsports are no exceptions. Effective immediately, three notable races have changed in both Formula One and the NTT IndyCar Series. AUSTRALIAN GRAND PRIX CANCELLED The commencement of Formula One’s 70th season will have to waitRead More

By FIA Mercedes’ Valtteri Bottas took a dominant Australian Grand Prix victory, finishing 20 seconds ahead of team-mate Lewis Hamilton and claiming the bonus point on offer for fastest at Melbourne’s Albert Park circuit. Max Verstappen, meanwhile, got Red Bull Racing’s Honda-powered era off to good start by handing the Japanese manufacturer its first podium finish since 2008 as he claimed third place beind the Mercedes duo. At the start, Bottas made a good start from the front row and managed to get past pole position man Hamilton in TurnRead More

By FIA Lewis Hamilton set a new track record at Albert Park to claim his first pole position of the new season ahead of team-mate Valtteri Bottas as Ferrari failed to convert pre-season form into results in qualifying for tomorrow’s Australian Grand Prix. Across eight days of testing in Barcelona, the Italian squad looked to have found a distinct advantage over Mercedes, but in the time since the defending champions appear to have recovered their superiority. “Coming from Barcelona, we made some really big steps forward and we brought thatRead More

By FIA Lewis Hamilton made it a clean sweep of practice sessions at Melbourne’s Albert Park circuit, with the Mercedes driver claiming top sport in FP3 with 0.264s in hand over Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel. Charles Leclerc finished third in the second Ferrari. Of the expected frontrunners, Vettel was the first to bolt on a set of red walled C4 tyres with around a quarter of the session left to run. At the point the German sat in P3 0.379s off Hamilton who set the quickest time of the opening phaseRead More

By FIA The 2019 FIA Formula One World Championship got underway in Melbourne with defending champion Lewis Hamilton of Mercedes narrowly claiming top spot ahead of Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel in the opening practice session for the Australian Grand Prix. Ferrari looked to have an advantage over Mercedes in pre-season testing but in Melbourne, Hamilton continued where he left off last season, powering around the Albert Park circuit to the top of the time sheet with a lap of 1:23.599s. The Briton was pushed hard though by pre-season testing’s fastest man,Read More

By Luis Torres, Staff Writer On the eve before the first on-track activity for the Rolex Australian Grand Prix at Albert Park commences, FIA Formula One Race Director Charlie Whiting, 66, passed away in Melbourne Thursday morning. In a statement released by the FIA, Whiting’s cause of death was a result of pulmonary embolism. FIA President Jean Todt sent his condolences to Whiting: “It is with immense sadness that I learned of Charlie’s sudden passing. I have known Charlie Whiting for many years and he has been a great Race Director,Read More

By Joey Barnes, Editor-in-Chief Formula One has announced the start times for the 2019 season, which stay relatively consistent to last year. The sport opted for later start times in 2018 in an effort to assist broadcast partners, starting events 10 minutes after the hour instead of on the hour like previous seasons. The biggest change on the upcoming schedule will be for the French Grand Prix, which will start at 3:10 p.m. local time versus the 4:10 p.m. time from last year that was made in an effort toRead More

By Adam Tate, Associate Editor The Australian Grand Prix gave us plenty of interesting moments this year, it also gave us more than a handful of meaningful statistics to crunch on. Here are some of the best of them from the first Grand Prix of 2018: First and foremost are the milestones for Lewis Hamilton and Sebastian Vettel as they continue rewriting the F1 record book. Hamilton sets a new all-time pole position record every time he goes fastest of all on a Saturday and he racked up his 73rd thisRead More

By Adam Tate, Associate Editor The Australian Grand Prix kicked off the 2018 Formula 1 season with plenty of drama yesterday from Albert Park in Melbourne, Australia. Though the race was by no means a classic, it proved to be far more entertaining than the season opener of 2017 and gave us plenty of talking points, from the pace and misfortune of Haas, to Max Verstappen’s wild spin. Sebastian Vettel won after taking advantage of Mercedes and Lewis Hamilton’s miscalculation during the Virtual Safety Car. Kimi Raikkonen joined them on theRead More

By Joey Barnes, Editor-in-Chief ESPN has issued an apology after a variety of technical issues plagued its debut as the chief provider of Formula 1 broadcast coverage in the United States. The problems began with the “On the Grid” prerace show on ESPN2 as the video feed from coverage partner Sky Sports came through without audio. The network then cutaway to another show as the incident persisted before returning with that particular problem resolved 10 minutes prior to lights out. “We deeply apologize to Formula 1 fans for the technicalRead More