The worst Saturday in Australia in a decade
The dream team of Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton, celebrated just 10 days ago by a cheering crowd in Milan, has had a disastrous start to the 2025 season. In Australia, both Ferraris finished qualifying in seventh and eighth place, occupying the entire fourth row and being beaten not only by the McLarens and Max Verstappen but also by George Russell’s Mercedes, Yuki Tsunoda’s Racing Bulls, and Alex Albon’s Williams. Certainly not the start that Fred Vasseur and his drivers were hoping for.
Clearly, the race—especially if rain comes into play—could change the current pecking order, but for now, the harsh reality is confirmed by the statistics: today marked Ferrari’s worst qualifying performance in Melbourne in over a decade. The last time the team struggled this much on the Australian track was in the first season of the hybrid era in 2014. Back then, Fernando Alonso still managed to qualify fifth, while Kimi Räikkönen failed to make it past Q2 and finished 12th on Saturday. It was even worse in 2012 when both Ferraris (driven by Alonso and Massa) were eliminated in Q2. For the record, it’s worth noting that F1 did not race in Melbourne in 2020 and 2021.
As for season openers, Ferrari hasn’t performed this poorly in the first qualifying session of the year since the disastrous 2020 campaign. That year, due to COVID, the season started in Austria in July, where Leclerc qualified seventh and Sebastian Vettel only 11th.
A step back from 2024
This year’s result for Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton looks even more disappointing when compared to 12 months ago. In the weekend that saw Carlos Sainz claim victory on Sunday, Ferrari had already shown promising signs in qualifying: Carlos Sainz secured a front-row start, just 270 milliseconds behind Max Verstappen, while Charles Leclerc qualified fifth, albeit half a second off pole.
A year later, those numbers have significantly worsened: Charles Leclerc was over six-tenths off Lando Norris’ pole time, while Lewis Hamilton—who at least has the partial excuse of it being his first outing in red—was more than eight-tenths behind. Not the start to the season Ferrari fans were hoping for.
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