The top five F1 Australian GP season openers

Ever since Melbourne’s Albert Park circuit replaced Adelaide on the Formula 1 calendar, it (for fans of a certain age) became synonymous with ‘the start of a new season’ for over 20 years. Adelaide had held every single closer between 1985 and 1995, before the race moved south-east to the state of Victoria to occupy the front end of the calendar.

There were a few occasions where Albert Park could not fulfil its duties as the opener. Melbourne was hosting the Commonwealth Games in 2006, and its ‘demotion’ in 2010 came through an apparent desire to stage the race at a more convenient time for European audiences in waiting for daylight saving time to come into effect.

As the prestige of having the opening race has fallen into the hands of the highest bidder, Australia hasn’t hosted the opener since 2019. COVID forced the cancellation of the races in 2020 and 2021, while Bahrain then stumped up a little more cash to secure the season-opening honours over the past three years. Due to the timing of Ramadan in 2025, Bahrain and Saudi Arabia have moved their races further back in the schedule – reinstating Australia as the opener.

To celebrate that fact, we’ve painstakingly relived every single season opener that Albert Park has ever hosted and picked our top five. We’ve not repeated the exact same conditions as the races were originally broadcast in the UK, in that we’ve not woken up at 4am to watch them. It’s 4am somewhere, I suppose.

5. 1997 – Villeneuve nerfed by Irvine’s swerve, Frentzen denied by brake failure

If Jacques Villeneuve wanted retribution for his oil tank’s untimely leak, Eddie Irvine denied him the chance of even making it beyond the first corner with what one could charitably describe as an overambitious lunge. The Canadian, who had qualified on pole nearly two seconds clear of new team-mate Heinz-Harald Frentzen, had left himself somewhat exposed into the first corner with a start that paled in comparison to the German’s fleet-of-foot start. Frentzen thus took the lead, while Villeneuve had to play with the cars behind.

Irvine’s lock-up edged Villeneuve into the gravel, in turn showing a fast-starting Johnny Herbert into Albert Park’s kitty litter as the Sauber driver had looked set to upgrade seventh on the grid into third. David Coulthard and Michael Schumacher trickled through the skirmish, as Frentzen hoped to convert his early advantage into a first-time-out win for Williams.

His cause was helped when Coulthard and Schumacher got held up behind Arrows’ Pedro Diniz, although the McLaren driver was a threat owing to his one-stop strategy versus Frentzen’s two – and the extra stop ultimately started to hurt him when a stuck wheel prolonged his stay in the pitlane.

This allowed Coulthard to pick up the lead from Schumacher, although Frentzen was bearing down on both – moving up to second when the Ferrari driver stopped. With the Scotsman now in Frentzen’s sights, he hoped to employ his tyre advantage in the final three laps before a brake failure at Turn 1 put the Monchengladbach-born racer into the gravel – ceding the win to Coulthard.

4. 2002 – First-corner pile-up, Webber gets debut points with Minardi

Paul Stoddart and Mark Webber celebrate in front of their home crowd

Photo by: Motorsport Images

Without wishing to be a “good old days”-merchant, there’s something moderately refreshing about the fallout between Rubens Barrichello and Ralf Schumacher after their first-corner clash at Australia 2002. The younger Schumacher, who came off worse after Barrichello changed direction multiple times (in a move that, today, would be punished) which resulted in the Williams driver’s Turn 1 somersault, suggested that the Brazilian didn’t do it on purpose and that it was a racing incident. We’ll leave that anecdote there.

Either way, that collision led to great swathes of the midfield either being put out on the spot amid the chain reaction, or limping back to the pitlane with terminal damage. Eight cars were claimed in the incident, including Jenson Button, Giancarlo Fisichella, and both Saubers.

Race director Charlie Whiting chose to throw a safety car rather than a red flag, denying those caught in the wreck a chance to run to their spare cars. David Coulthard had assumed the lead, while Michael Schumacher dispatched Juan Pablo Montoya and Jarno Trulli ahead when both drivers had separately lost control of their cars on oil – Trulli hitting the wall on the run to Turn 3 to end bring Renault’s return as a works team to an early end.

Schumacher dispatched Coulthard when the Scotsman ran out of road behind the safety car at Turn 14, setting up a duel over second between Montoya and Kimi Raikkonen. But that wasn’t the exciting bit; Minardi rookie Mark Webber was in the hunt for the team’s first points since 1999, and held off Toyota’s Mika Salo to clinch fifth – the home hero got his own special appearance on the podium after.

3. 2008 – Hamilton imperious, Ferrari suffers in attritional race

Lewis Hamilton, McLaren Mercedes MP4/23

Photo by: Sutton Images

See 2002, but with a bit more madness beyond first-corner contretemps. This was the race that, arguably, laid the foundations for Lewis Hamilton’s title challenge in his second F1 season, while Felipe Massa got off to the worst possible start through his languid spin at Turn 2.

His was not the only first-lap blunder; Nelson Piquet Jr dumped Giancarlo Fisichella into the gravel at the first corner, then Mark Webber endured a four-way fracas with Sebastian Vettel, Jenson Button, and Anthony Davidson at Turn 3. Evidently, 37C weather was playing havoc with the drivers’ delicate psyches and with reliability, as the failures and crashes started to roll in.

Massa’s misery continued when he clashed with Coulthard and, three laps later, was put out to pasture with an engine failure. Kimi Raikkonen hardly fared much better in the other Ferrari; the reigning champion went into the gravel while attempting to put a move on compatriot Heikki Kovalainen, and also suffered a slip in his pursuit of Timo Glock. The German, driving for Toyota, sustained his own moment of madness by going off at Turn 11 to cause heavy damage to his car.

But wait: there’s more! Kovalainen pitted late on to lose second – and then lost a place to Fernando Alonso by accidentally pressing the pit limiter on track, Robert Kubica clashed with Kazuki Nakajima, Barrichello was disqualified, and Hamilton was utterly serene in front. This was the first time the Briton had shared the podium with Nico Rosberg – and it was certainly not the last.

2. 2003 – Profligate Montoya wastes certain victory, Coulthard benefits in old McLaren

Michael Schumacher, Ferrari F2002, runs wide as he battles with Kimi Raikkonen, Team McLaren Mercedes MP4/17D

Photo by: Steve Etherington / Motorsport Images

For the second year in a row, Ferrari rocked up to the Australian Grand Prix with the car from the previous year and took it to pole position. McLaren too was running a revised version of its 2002 machinery as its in-progress MP4-18 was proving to be a problematic design. Both teams opted for a vastly different approach to the start in damp conditions; Ferrari opted for the intermediates, while McLaren pulled Kimi Raikkonen in for dry tyres to split its strategy at the end of the formation lap.

The Ferraris marched into a devastating early lead as the Albert Park track surface remained greasy in the early stages, prompting Coulthard to follow Raikkonen’s lead after the opening lap. The dry-shod Juan Pablo Montoya soon came into play as his Michelins started to fire up; by comparison, the jump-starting Rubens Barrichello added another indiscretion to his name by spanking the wall at Turn 5…

After rookies Ralph Firman and Cristiano da Matta also crashed, the safety car emerged; Schumacher took the dry tyres and ceded the lead to Montoya. When the Colombian made eventually made his first stop, the early-stopping Raikkonen moved into the lead – albeit accosted by Schumacher, who eventually put the Finn under scrutiny, Coulthard, and the recovering Montoya.

Raikkonen’s pitlane speeding penalty and Schumacher’s loose bargeboard helped Montoya shuffle back into the lead – with Coulthard giving chase as the Williams driver hoped to clinch his second F1 victory. He spectacularly wasted that opportunity with a spin at Turn 2, which gave Coulthard prime opportunity to slip past for victory – Montoya was lucky not to lose the runner-up spot, as Raikkonen was too far behind.

1. 1999 – Irvine shines amid blunders Down Under

Eddie Irvine, Ferrari wins his first Grand Prix

Photo by: Sutton Images

If you’ve not forked out the couple of pounds needed to watch the race on F1 TV’s archive, what are you doing with your life? Go and watch the 1999 Australian Grand Prix now, and then you can come back and read this bit – and, hopefully, agree.

When the previous season’s two title protagonists stall on the grid, while another two catch fire long before the lights go out, you know you’re in for a volatile affair. When the race did eventually get going, it looked like the McLarens would dominate until both hit mechanical strife, leading Eddie Irvine to his first win. That the Ferrari driver got there was more down to his staying power rather than his outright speed, but he at least made the opportunity that came his way.

But that’s not all. Heinz-Harald Frentzen and Ralf Schumacher starred after their off-season seat swap, as did Rubens Barrichello in the spare Stewart – even after a) his SF-3 spontaneously combusted on the grid and b) he served a stop-go penalty for passing the out-of-position Michael Schumacher under yellow flags.

For a dry race, the attrition rate was also surprisingly high. Jarno Trulli and Damon Hill came to blows on lap one, Jacques Villeneuve’s rear wing departed his BAR on Lakeside Drive, the two McLarens dropped their guts before half distance as Mercedes’ fragility plagued its early-season V10s, returning CART champ Alessandro Zanardi smeared his Williams into the wall, Trulli had another clash with Marc Gene, and the majority of midfielders encountered reliability troubles to clear Arrows’ path to a point with Pedro de la Rosa.

That Giancarlo Fisichella finished in a strong fourth place was only a mere footnote on a wild day down under.

Eddie Irvine, Ferrari F399, celebrates victory as Jordan and Williams mechanics applaud

Photo by: Rainer W. Schlegelmilch / Motorsport Images