It’s been just under a year since the 2024 Australian Grand Prix, but the outcome of the first day of free practice remains the same, with Lando Norris quickest in FP1 and Charles Leclerc fastest overall.

The McLaren driver headed the field at the end of the first hour with a time of 1’17”252, which is 1”312 quicker than his best lap in this session a year ago. There is less of a difference for the Ferrari driver, who did 1’16”439 today against 1’17”277 last March.

THE DAY ON TRACK:
The major unknown factor going into the Melbourne weekend is the weather. It was sunny and relatively warm today and tomorrow, temperatures are expected to rise above the 30 °C mark for air and 40 °C on track, while there’s a high 80% chance of rain for Sunday, with temperatures set to plummet by over 10 °C. This scenario influenced the teams’ approach to today’s two hours of free practice in terms of set-up choices and aerodynamic configuration and rather less so when it came to tyre management. Mercedes was the only team to use a set of Hard tyres, on both a short and long run, while all the other teams stuck with the Medium and Soft. Of course, all drivers attempted a maximum performance run with the C5 in the middle of FP2 and Pierre Gasly (Alpine) also did a 12 lap long run with softest of the three compounds available.

Simone Berra: Chief Engineer:
“It was a very interesting opening day. In purely racing terms, once again we saw that it’s very close with the top 14 drivers covered by less than a second, with seven different teams in the top ten. As for the tyre behaviour, an initial analysis revealed a relatively low level of graining, lower for example than what we saw a year or so ago at this track.

“There was a clear improvement in track conditions during the first session, while in the second the evolution was relatively stable. In terms of the performance difference between the compounds, we can say that the delta between the C4 and C5 is around half a second, which is actually in line with what we expected going into this event. At this stage we do not have enough data to evaluate the gap between the C3 and the C4.

“In the second session, we saw all teams put in some long runs with a heavy fuel load, with all three compounds coming into play, even if the vast majority of drivers – 17 of the 20, focused on the C4. The odd ones out were the Mercedes drivers, who both ran the Hard and Gasly who also tried the Soft on a long run. In terms of performance drop-off, the C3 and C4 exhibited a relatively low level while, as was entirely predictable, the C5 suffered more. If the race takes place in the dry, which actually seems a remote possibility at the moment, with this level of degradation a one-stop would seem to be an absolutely competitive option, with the Medium having a more important role than we saw last year. In mixed wet and dry conditions and with temperatures predicted to be much lower than today, then even the Soft could come into play."

FORMULA 2:
The first qualifying session of the season saw Italian rookie Gabriele Minì driving for Prema Racing, take pole position. Last year’s runner-up in the FIA Formula 3 Championship set a time of 1’29”286, 114 thousandths faster than ART Grand Prix’s French driver Victor Martins, in his third year in the category. Unfortunately for the Italian, the Stewards later gave him a three place grid penalty for both the Sprint and Feature Races. Therefore Martins inherits pole, with Richard Verschoor (MP Motorsport) moving up to second place in the classification. For the opening round of the season in Melbourne, Pirelli has confirmed the decision taken last year to go for a jump between the two compounds available in order to offer a bigger difference in terms of performance and degradation during the race. Therefore, once again this year, drivers will be using the Medium and Supersoft. In the 2024 race, most drivers used the Medium for the Sprint Race, with the Supersoft reappearing as the most popular starting compound choice in the Feature event. It’s straightforward to expect a similar scenario this weekend.

FORMULA 3
Brazil’s Rafael Camara (Trident) is the first pole sitter of the season. The Ferrari Driver Academy driver set a best time of 1’34”999, beating his Danish team-mate Noah Stromstedt by 129 thousandths of a second. For the race debut of the new 16” F3 tyres the Medium is the chosen compound, the same in terms of its position in the range, as last year. In 2024, graining played its part throughout the course of the weekend, making tyre management very complicated for the drivers. This phenomenon actually increases degradation and tyre wear and requires astute management if a driver wants to gain an advantage over their opponents. With the Formula 3 action this weekend taking place in the early morning, the weather could add to the puzzle because, if temperatures are too low, it would definitely complicate matters during the warm-up phase for the tyres.