Australian pride leads the standings on the opening day of the season

Oscar Piastri tops the timesheets on the first official day of the Formula 1 season. The home hero gave his compatriots a brilliant start, setting the fastest time at the Albert Park circuit. Piastri clocked a 1:19.729, just over two tenths quicker than Mercedes driver Kimi Antonelli, who finished second with a 1:19.943. Antonelli’s teammate, George Russell, took third with a time of 1:20.049.

While Melbourne offered changeable weather last year, the forecast for this year’s Australian Grand Prix is much more stable. No rain is expected on either Saturday or Sunday, with afternoon temperatures ranging between 22°C and 24°C on both days.

However, increased cloud cover is predicted for Sunday, which could result in slightly lower track temperatures compared to Saturday. Piastri set his best time on the C5 soft compound. In the second half of the session, drivers utilised all three compounds for race simulations.

Oscar Piastri

“That’s the first day done. A lot of learnings but overall, a reasonably good day. FP1 was tricky and we had a few power unit calibration issues at the beginning, but we resolved them during the session. FP2 ran smoothly and we were able to find a bit more consistency and the car behaved more as we expected, which was good. We’ll review what we’ve learned today so that we can find more tomorrow ahead of the first Quali of the year.”

Simone Berra – Pirelli Chief Engineer

Track evolution will certainly be a factor to consider during the first Formula 1 race weekend. Despite the initial low grip, it was evident that conditions have already improved compared to the first measurements taken by our technicians earlier this week, and they will continue to do so until Sunday, inevitably impacting car performance.

While the first hour of activity served primarily to evaluate car behaviour on this track—also regarding energy management for the new power unit—some teams focused on high-fuel runs for race simulations during the second hour.

Graining, a well-known phenomenon in Melbourne, appeared again this year across several sets of all three compounds selected for the weekend, generally proving more evident on the front axle. From our initial findings, no specific options seem particularly penalised, meaning the entire trio remains in play for potential race strategies.

Lap time differences are in line with simulations. The gap between the C3 and C4 stands at about 0.3–0.4 seconds, while the gap between the C4 and C5 is approximately half a second. Degradation appears limited and perfectly manageable for the drivers.

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