All Info You Want to See Before the 2024 Australian F1 GP Starts

The 2024 Formula 1 season continues with its third event, the 2024 Australian Grand Prix at Melbourne's Albert Park.

10th Consecutive Win for Verstappen Again?

Max Verstappen is definitely the favorite to take his 10th consecutive victory, which would tie the F1 record for longest winning streak, set by Verstappen himself last year. The two streaks are only separated by the 2023 Singapore Grand Prix, where Red Bull mysteriously had no pace throughout the weekend.

Sergio Pérez, the other Red Bull driver, has done well enough to finish second in the first two events of 2024 and should go for a third consecutive podium in the same spot. Meanwhile, Ferrari (Charles Leclerc, Carlos Sainz and Oliver Bearman) has looked comfortable as the second-best so far.

The Italian outfit and its SF-24 car seem to have some margin over the likes of Aston Martin (Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll), McLaren (Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris), and Mercedes (George Russell and Sir Lewis Hamilton).

Last year, Mercedes was the second-best around Albert Park, with Hamilton finishing the race comfortably in second place. It could be a good signal for the German team for the upcoming event, but the team seems unable to unlock the car and make it comfortable for its two drivers.

2024 Australian GP Facts & Figures

The 27th Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne will be celebrated on Sunday.

The Australian Grand Prix entered the Formula 1 circus in 1985. It was held at the Adelaide Street Circuit, in Adelaide from 1985 to 1995. Adelaide was the last race of the year each time and it was the place of many historical F1 moments. Nigel Mansell losing the 1986 World Drivers’ Championship due to tyre failure was a big one. However, Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill colliding in the 1994 title-deciding race will always be in the minds of any true F1 fan.

In 1996, the race venue was changed to Melbourne and the Albert Park Circuit and it has been the inaugural GP of 22 of the last 29 seasons. The most successful driver in Australia is Michael Schumacher, who won four times between 2000 and 2004.

Regarding Pole Positions, Sir Lewis Hamilton has eight to his name, including every Pole Position from 2014 to 2019.

Among the current drivers, Valtteri Bottas won in Melbourne in 2019 and Charles Leclerc won in Australia for Ferrari in 2022. Max Verstappen, the favorite in 2024, won the event in 2023, ahead of Hamilton and Fernando Alonso.

McLaren is the team with the most wins in Australia since 1985 with 11. Ferrari has won 13 times at Australia, but three of those victories came before Australia joined the World Championship.

Since the switch to Melbourne, Ferrari leads the teams with eight victories. On the engine side, Mercedes engines have 11 wins at Albert Park with three teams —Mercedes (4), McLaren (6), and Brawn GP (1).

Albert Park Circuit Track Info

The circuit was the subject of some criticism in recent years due to the difficulty it presents for overtaking. A street circuit, Albert Park is not a traditional urban track since it has some real overtaking spots which were not explored in recent years. However, the current layout proves to be a little better in that regard, based on some indications seen in that regard, although the DRS has been too powerful.

The circuit length is 5.279 km and it has 14 corners (it previously had 16). There were angle changes to several corners and others were eliminated before the 2022 race. Turn 1 is now 2.5 meters wider on the right-hand side. Turn 3 was also widened by four meters to the right, Turn 6 was also widened by more than seven meters and will see a huge increase in speed. Moreover, the T9-T10 chicane that preceded the straight that put cars into the extremely fast T11-T12 chicane has been eliminated and proved a good overtaking spot.

Now, there is a flat-out section from Turn 6 that will go through T7, T8, and into the now T9-T10 chicane. What is now Turn 11 (previously T13) was also reprofiled to increase overtaking chances.

The record during a race around the old Albert Park Circuit (5.303 km) was set by Michael Schumacher in 2004. The German put the Fastest Lap of 1:24.125 min behind the wheel of his Ferrari F2004 with an average speed of 226,934 km/h.

The current records are obviously from the 2023 Grand Prix, with Max Verstappen's Pole Position time of 1:16.732 min being the fastest in Qualifying, and the Lap Record from a race was 1:20.235 min lap, also by Verstappen in the Red Bull RB19.

2024 Australian Grand Prix - Tyres

The dry tyres for the 2024 Australian Grand Prix will be the C3 as P Zero White hard, C4 as P Zero Yellow Medium, and C5 as P Zero Red soft.

Pirelli explained their choice to go with this option with a press release: "Pirelli’s C5 tyre – the softest of the five slick compounds available this year – will make its debut at the Australian Grand Prix: round three of the 2024 season. This has been nominated alongside the C4 (as used in Jeddah) and the C3, which is seen at practically every race.

This is a softer selection compared to last year, when the C2, C3, and C4 were chosen, but it’s not the first time that the softest compound has been seen in Melbourne. Back in 2022, Pirelli brought the C5 to Albert Park as the soft nomination (when it was paired with C3 as medium and C2 as hard, leaving out the C4).

The decision to go with a softer selection was taken after analysing last year’s race, which centred around the C2 with 10 drivers using it for 47 of the 58 laps, and three drivers running it for more than 50 laps. The 2023 Australian Grand Prix was characterised by numerous stoppages, including three safety cars and three red flags, with two restarts from the grid and one rolling restart.

The Albert Park track is made up of 14 corners, having recently been redesigned to make it more flowing. It’s still tricky to overtake on, although not as hard as it was in the past. Historically, a one-stop strategy has been the favoured option, but the move to a softer tyre nomination might change that – as well as creating situations where the pace difference between the cars as a result of varying levels of tyre performance helps overtaking.

The C5 remains unaltered from 2023, but it's the compound that has up to now been used least on the current generation of cars. It wasn’t nominated for either of the two opening races this year, and just 140 kilometres were covered on the softest compound in the 2024 range during the single pre-season test in Bahrain from 21-23 February.

Lewis Hamilton was the only driver to complete a true long run with it, while the Williams drivers mainly used it for a series of in and out laps. Only two other teams, Ferrari and Stake F1, selected the C5 for the Bahrain test: an abrasive track that is not particularly suited to the softest compound. So it remains something of an unknown heading into this weekend’s Australian Grand Prix.

The Albert Park weekend is a firm favourite in the world of Formula 1, thanks to its stunning location and the buzzy atmosphere of host city Melbourne. The track itself isn’t too hard on tyres, with degradation being a bigger factor than wear. It’s now the beginning of autumn at this time of year in Australia, and this can spring a few weather-related surprises, with temperature swings and rain all having made their mark on the race weekend in the past.

There’s a packed programme of support races from Thursday onwards: as well as Formula 2 and Formula 3, there’s also the Porsche Carrera Cup and Australian Supercars championship, which means there will be plenty of rubber laid onto the track to influence grip levels."

The minimum starting pressures for the tyres will be 24.0 PSI (front) and 21.5 PSI (rear).

2024 Australian Grand Prix Weather Forecast

Friday, March 22nd - FP1 & FP2
Conditions: Mostly cloudy; breezy in the afternoon
Max. temperature: 21°C
Chance of rain: 2%

Saturday, March 23rd - FP3 & Qualifying
Conditions: Partly sunny and breezy
Max. temperature: 20°C
Chance of rain: 3%

Sunday, March 24th - Race
Conditions: Plenty of sunshine
Max. temperature: 21°C
Chance of rain: 1%

Who will be on the 2024 Australian Grand Prix Podium?

Race winner Max Verstappen (Red Bull Racing ) (second from left), Second placed Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes) (L), Third placed Fernando Alonso (Aston Martin) (R) and Rob Marshall, the Chief Engineering Officer of Red Bull Racing (second from right) celebrate on the podium during the 2023 F1 Grand Prix of Australia

While Red Bull should be able to dominate around Melbourne with Verstappen and Pérez leading the pack, the battle for the other podium spot could be interesting.

Ferrari could have Carlos Sainz back, as he missed the previous race after being diagnosed with appendicitis. With Sainz, Ferrari should cruise to the third and fourth spots, if Red Bull's form continues to be as dominant as we saw in the first two events. Aston Martin and McLaren could present some fight against the Italian squad, while Mercedes remains with more question marks than any of the top teams.

Our podium prediction for the 2024 Formula 1 Australian Grand Prix is: 1. Max Verstappen, 2. Sergio Pérez, 3. Charles Leclerc.

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