The 2017 Formula 1 season opens with the Australian Grand Prix at Albert Park, Melbourne this weekend (March 24-26th). The home of the race has been the tight street circuit around Albert Park Lake from 1996. This is the 19th time the Grand Prix is being run at Melbourne as the opening race of the season (exceptions were in 2006 and 2010).
Australian Grand Prix Preview
The History
The inaugural Australian Grand Prix was held in 1985 on a street circuit in the Australian city of Adelaide. The race in Adelaide was always the last race of the season and the first race there was won by Keke Rosberg for Williams. The Grand Prix became a popular venue for drivers and teams and took root in Australia. When it moved its home from South Australia to Melbourne, the capital of Victoria, it became the opening race of the season. The first race at Albert Park was won by Damon Hill for Williams in 1996.
The Drivers and Teams
McLaren has won the most Australian GP’s with 11 wins so far. Ferrari with seven wins and Williams with five wins are the other teams who have enjoyed the most success “down under”. Mercedes has won the title the last three years, since the start of the hybrid engine era.
Michael Schumacher is the most prolific winner with four wins (2000, 2001, 2002, 2004) at the current venue. The great German won his first drivers’ championship in 1994 in controversial fashion by one point over Damon Hill at the Australian GP held in Adelaide. Jenson Button has won three times in Australia (2009, 2010, 2012). Fernando Alonso (2006), Kimi Raikkonen (2007, 2013), Lewis Hamilton (2008, 2015) and Sebastian Vettel (2011) are the drivers on the current grid who have won at Albert Park. The rookie brigade of Stoffel Vandoorne (McLaren), Lance Stroll (Williams) and Esteban Ocon (Force India in his first full season) will be excited and nervous in equal parts. They will be watched keenly by F1 fans to see who the potential new superstars are.
The Circuit
The 5.303 km Albert Park street circuit is a mixture of sixteen slow and medium speed corners. The twisty nature of the track demands precise driving as drivers can end up in the wall or the gravel with the slightest mistake. The track is medium to high downforce and is a heavy braking circuit. The circuit is a high fuel consumption track and the new regulations allow a maximum of 105 Kgs of fuel.
Sectors, Corners, and DRS Zones
Sector 1 (Turn 1 to Turn 5) starts with the starting straight funneling into the narrow Turn 1. This is followed by the left-hand corner at Turn 2 and quick change of directions in the next corners and ends with the short straight after Turn 5.
Sector 2 (Turn 6 to Turn 10) is comprised of a series of a right-hand corners and accelerate hard through Turn 10 into the next sector.
Sector 3 (Turn 11 to Turn 16) starts with the left-right chicane at Turn 11-Turn 12 and is then punctuated by short straights leading to the start-finish line.
As the circuit is a temporary street circuit, it has fairly low grip and takes time to ‘rubber in’. The tight nature of the track especially at Turn 1 has led to many a first lap incident. The safety car makes a frequent appearance in this race.
The drivers will be vying for pole position as grid position is important on this narrow track with few overtaking opportunities. There are two DRS Zones again this year. There is one common DRS detection point 13m before Turn 14. The first DRS Activation point is 762m before Turn 1 and second DRS Activation point is 510m before Turn 3.
Tyre Strategies
Pirelli tyre choices are the purple-striped ultrasoft tyres, red-striped supersoft tyres, and yellow-striped soft tyres. The tyres for 2017 are wider and made of harder compounds than last year. The pit lane speed limit at Albert Park is 60 km/h, making the pitstop time over twenty seconds at least. The performance of the tyres in the dry conditions predicted for the race weekend will be watched with interest.
Current Form
All the teams and drivers will start with zero points at this first race. The three teams at the sharp end of the grid are Mercedes and Ferrari, with Red Bull Racing closely behind. In the last few seasons, Mercedes has shown complete dominance in qualifying. It will be interesting to see if this pattern continues. The pecking order in the midfield was not very clear, except for Williams leading the pack. McLaren have had a difficult start to the season. The Woking-based team, beset with reliability issues, might look at both drivers finishing the race as a bonus.
In 2016, Sebastian Vettel had a great chance to win the race, but the Ferrari strategy department threw the race away. Coming off a winless 2016, the Maranello-based team will look for a successful start to the new season. Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas will try to extend the three-race winning streak of Mercedes at this venue. Daniel Ricciardo is a big crowd favourite at his home Grand Prix and would like to take the fight to the front runners. The so-called “Max Verstappen rule” on overtaking has been withdrawn for the new season.
The wider, heavier and much faster cars will challenge the drivers physically. So with the excitement building up, all Formula 1 fans are waiting to hear the familiar words “Lights are out and away we go” on Sunday. It will be the start of a new era of F1 after sweeping regulation changes. Can the other teams challenge the Mercedes dominance which started with the new hybrid engines from 2014?
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