Formula 1’s 2025 season-opening Australian Grand Prix provided challenging weather, but that was no excuse for some of the weekend-wrecking errors by drivers across the F1 experience range.
Here’s Edd Straw’s judgement on the field.
How do the rankings work? The 20 drivers will be ranked in order of performance from best to worst on each grand prix weekend. This will be based on the full range of criteria, ranging from pace and racecraft to consistency and whether they made key mistakes. How close each driver got to delivering on the maximum performance potential of the car will be an essential consideration.
It’s important to note both that this reflects performance across the entire weekend, cognisant of the fact that qualifying is effectively ‘lap 0’ of the race and key to laying the foundations to the race, and that it is not a ranking of the all-round qualities of each driver. It’s simply about how they performed on a given weekend. Therefore, the ranking will fluctuate significantly from weekend to weekend.
And with each of the 10 cars fundamentally having different performance potential and ‘luck’ (ie factors outside of a driver’s control) contributing to the way the weekend plays out, this ranking will also differ significantly from the overall results.
Started: 6th Finished: 5th
Amid the focus on his new team-mate Carlos Sainz, Alex Albon proved to be Williams’s spearhead with an outstanding qualifying and race performance.
Given the Williams is still a little wind sensitive, he did well to avoid any significant errors in the race, and although he lost a place to Kimi Antonelli late on, the pace advantage of the Mercedes and the ease of the DRS pass meant that there was probably little he could have done to hold onto fourth.
Verdict: Got the most out of the car.
Started: 1st Finished: 1st
Lando Norris looked every bit the favourite from the start of practice, converting that speed into pole position with a small but crucial edge over McLaren team-mate Oscar Piastri.
The race was a little trickier, particularly in the phase when Piastri was quicker and threatening him before team orders intervened, although Norris can be forgiven for the trip through the gravel at Turn 12 given the sudden rain.
What mattered more was he had the presence of mind to gather it up and dive into the pit, in doing so ensuring he held the lead.
Verdict: Carried favourite status superbly.
Started: 3rd Finished: 2nd
Even with a car deficit, Max Verstappen did everything he could to menace McLaren.
By his own admission, he could have extracted a fraction more in Q3 but it wouldn’t have impacted his third position. He also made an error early on that allowed Piastri to pass him.
Despite those minor criticisms, it was a typically dogged Verstappen performance – one that put him close to being able to challenge Norris for the lead in the final two laps.
Verdict: Always a threat.
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Started: 4th Finished: 3rd
There’s little to say about George Russell’s weekend beyond the fact that he got everything he could out of the Mercedes. He couldn’t have done better in qualifying and the race, with the only minor negatives the two brief, but inconsequential, offs during practice.
His approach to the grand prix was particularly mature, Russell recognising that he couldn’t go with the McLarens or Verstappen and driving his own race.
Verdict: Maximised the car.
Started: 5th Finished: 12th
Until lap 44 of the 57-lap grand prix, Yuki Tsunoda’s weekend couldn’t have been better.
He aced qualifying, heading the midfield, and didn’t put a foot wrong as he ran in the top six.
But when the rain came, shortly after he’d passed Charles Leclerc’s Ferrari for fifth, everything unravelled.
Tsunda had a bite of the gravel at Turn 12 on lap 45, beginning a slide that cost him places to Pierre Gasly and both Ferraris. Racing Bulls left him out on slicks until lap 47, meaning he rejoined 11th, losing another place to Piastri by the flag.
Verdict: Outstanding, but undone by the return of the rain.
Started: 16th Finished: 4th
Debutant Kimi Antonelli was a joy to watch around Albert Park, and although there were some mishaps – notably damaging the front of his Mercedes’ floor with a wide moment at Turn 6 that led to his elimination in Q1 and a spin during the race after dropping a wheel off the road – he avoided the bigger mistakes that ruined the weekend for others.
Fortune played a part in him jumping from 10th to fifth in terms of the timing of his lap-44 pitstop, but he also picked off Albon with a pass on the penultimate lap.
Verdict: Prodigious speed among the inevitable rough edges.
Started: 17th Finished: 7th
An untidy final part of Nico Hulkenberg’s last Q1 lap cost him a place in Q2, which was unfortunate as he had the pace to have made it.
His race was a tidy but tricky one in a Sauber that wasn’t quick enough to climb into the points – not least because a lack of straightline speed made passing difficult – until the team’s razor-sharp call to come in on lap 44 catapulted him up to seventh.
Verdict: Only slight qualifying underachievement counts against him.
Started: 13th Finished: 6th
Lance Stroll qualified just three hundredths of a second off Fernando Alonso, and while his Aston Martin team-mate’s floor damage narrowed that gap slightly, Stroll’s qualifying performance was still decent.
He was one of the few to drive a clean race with no significant errors. Although Alonso was again faster, the fact Stroll avoided his team-mate’s fate vindicated an approach he described as “tippy-toeing around”.
Verdict: A very tidy weekend.
Started: 2nd Finished: 9th
This was so close to a great weekend for Piastri, who pushed McLaren team-mate Norris hard in qualifying but just lost out, and then was on the receiving end of team orders at a point where he looked like the quicker of the two mid-race.
He was also just on the wrong side of another fine margin, spinning onto the grass when recovering from his Turn 12 off while Norris escaped, condemning Piastri to a bitterly disappointing ninth.
Verdict: Proved he’s not there to be number two.
Started: 9th Finished: 11th
Alpine had a tougher time in Australia than expected given the promise of Bahrain testing, with Gasly describing the weekend as “harder than we thought”.
Although he wasn’t able to assert himself over team-mate Jack Doohan in terms of pace, Gasly did a good job to put the car in Q3 and monopolise ninth place until the rain came.
After pitting, he held eighth but a small mistake at the first corner meant he was shuffled back behind the Ferraris and Piastri – although the real damage was done by Antonelli, Stroll and Hulkenberg all making the switch back to inters before him and jumping ahead.
Verdict: His efforts merited points.
Started: 7th Finished: 8th
Leclerc showed startling pace at times during practice, but tyre troubles held Ferrari back in qualifying and the anticipated pole position challenge never materialised.
Having held fifth for three-quarters of the race, he struggled when the rain returned, being passed by Tsunoda and having a spin, although Ferrari’s decision to leave him out on slicks until lap 47 cost him a stronger result.
Verdict: Erratic performance largely down to Ferrari’s fluctuations.
Started: 8th Finished: 10th
Lewis Hamilton’s first Ferrari weekend was disappointing in terms of the car performance and results, but he made good progress in closing the gap to team-mate Leclerc through practice – showing signs that he’s getting to grips with the Ferrari.
It’s those signs of progress during that made this a productive if – by his own lofty standards – so-so weekend that proves there is much more to come.
Verdict: A qualified success.
Started: 18th Finished: 13th
On a terrible weekend for pace for Haas, which struggled badly in the high-speed corners, Esteban Ocon’s driving was the least of the team’s problems.
He did what he could in what was, by some margin, the slowest car, which meant he had little opportunity to catch the eye despite doing exactly the job the team needed him to do.
Verdict: A clean weekend in the slowest car.
Started: 15th Finished: DNF
It was unfortunate that Gabriel Bortoleto’s grand prix debut ended with him spinning into the wall given he’d caught the eye with his performance in an improved, but still tricky Sauber.
Making Q2 was an achievement, although “skateboarding” the Turn 4 exit kerb meant he didn’t maximise that opportunity.
In the race, he battled a brake problem and lost five seconds for an unsafe pit release before losing it on the exit kerb at Turn 12 after switching back to intermediates.
Verdict: A good debut despite the bad ending.
Started: 14th Finished: DNF
Doohan’s pace was strong, at times giving him the edge over Gasly.
He might well have turned that into a Q3 place as he was close to the pace of his Alpine team-mate when his final Q2 run was ruined by yellow flags, meaning he had to back off having been within hundredths of Gasly out of Turn 10.
But the promising weekend was shattered when he shunted on the straight on the opening lap.
Verdict: Genuinely quick before his lap-one blunder.
Started: 12th Finished: DNF
Alonso had a good turn of speed in the Aston Martin, but uncharacteristically made mistakes in both qualifying and the race.
Floor damage for a wide moment in Q2 cost him any chance of nicking a Q3 place, while he was running 10th when he lost it exiting Turn 6 and crashed – blaming that on gravel kicked up by Gasly.
Verdict: Qualifying and race errors meant pace was wasted.
Started: pits (19th) Finished: DNF
Although he was unique in never having raced at Albert Park before, and had FP3 ruined by an air intake problem, Liam Lawson’s Red Bull debut was disappointing to say the least.
Not only did he struggle for pace, but he had two offs on his way to Q1 elimination then crashed out of the race having made little progress through midfield. His season starts in China.
Verdict: Worryingly Perez-like.
Started: Pits (20th) Finished: 14th
Practice was a disaster, Ollie Bearman crashing exiting Turn 10 in FP1, missing FP2 as a result then binning it on the first flying lap of FP3 after dropping a wheel onto the grass at the entry to Turn 11.
A gearbox glitch meant he couldn’t run in qualifying, with suspension set-up changes prompting a pitlane start.
His race was a good one given the poor machinery, but it couldn’t compensate for what came before.
Verdict: Let himself down badly in practice.
Started: 10th Finished: DNF
Although he showed strong pace at times, when it came to qualifying Sainz wasn’t as comfortable extracting the most out of the softs as Williams team-mate Albon.
He described qualifying as “scruffy”, but reached Q3 with ease and ended up 0.086s off his team-mate’s pace – a good effort considering he’s still familiarising himself with the Williams.
That foundation was thrown away when he crashed under safety-car conditions at the end of the first lap as a result of “a big torque kick from a poor upshift”.
Verdict: Safety-car crash destroys his ranking.
Started: 11th Finished: DNS
Judged purely on practice and qualifying, Isack Hadjar performed impressively despite his limited experience.
He only just missed out on Q3, lapping 0.166s off Racing Bulls team-mate Tsunoda, and looked well-set for a good debut.
Unfortunately, he ruined his weekend when he lost it on a white line on the formation lap and crashed out before he’d even started.
The definition of a rookie error, but one that can’t be excused when it comes to his ranking.
Verdict: Formation-lap disaster undid his good work.
