Australian GP - McLaren on top, Ferrari disasterclass and Roman Staněk being robbed
What a season opener we could have seen on Sunday! If you woke up before 5 AM, you saw amazing on-track action with elements of spectacular F1 race - crashes, action and wet weather. Who are the winners of the Australian GP and what should we expect now?
Let's start from top - McLaren showed us that they built a dominant car for this year. Regardless of Oscar Piastri spinning due to the inclement weather, Norris was able to stay ahead of Verstappen even in the wet conditions. Verstappen's pace is astonishing in wet, as he showed in Brazil last year. McLaren is indisputably the fastest car at the moment and we will not see many skirmishes for the victory.
On the other hand, Ferrari fans are disappointed again. The expectations might have been too high before this season, however, Ferrari was able to qualify on in seventh and eighth place and finish the race in eighth and tenth. Ferrari is ashamed by drivers who finished ahead of them - Antonelli started 16th and climbed up twelve (!) positions in the first race of his career. Albon and Stroll are not the drivers to be expected in fifth and sixth place and Nico Hülkenberg could collect more points in one race than the whole Sauber team did in the previous year. Sauber is ahead of Ferrari in the constructors championship. Overall, these four drivers are definitely blessed by the results and by wrong strategy decisions by Ferarri. Both Hamilton and Leclerc pitted too late for the intermediate tires. Additionally, radio communication among Leclerc and his race engineer became an internet joke quickly. After declaring that his (Charles') seat is full of water, his engineer replied with "Must be the water". Leclerc answered with "Let's add that to the words of wisdom". What a real-life comedy.
Besides from Antonelli, only Ollie Bearman made it over the finish line in fourteenth. Unfortunately, he crashed twice this weekend in first and third free practice and destroyed the gearbox already. He could resist in those terrifying conditions on slippery lines in streets of Melbourne, which are used regularly 51 weeks in the year. Hadjar, Doohan, Bortoleto and Lawson were not able to keep their car on track, as well as both Carlos Sainz and Fernando Alonso. As I mentioned earlier, home hero Piastri disappointed the fans after running wide and becoming stationary that threw him at thirteenth place.
In conclusion, let's talk about Formula 2, which includes a Czech driver from Zašová in Zlínský kraj, Roman Staněk. Roman qualified himself in sixth place and finished the sprint race in fifth, however, after moving three positions forward on start due to the penalties of other drivers, the feature race of Formula 2 was canceled because of the "inclement weather".
Jakub Ondruš
Sources: https://www.formula1.com/en/results/2025/races/1254/australia/race-result</p>