Hamilton makes his Ferrari debut, three drivers make their maiden appearances and F1 has its first Finn-less race in almost 15 years. Here are the milestones and records which could be broken at the season-opening 2025 Australian Grand Prix!
THE 2025 AUSTRALIAN GRAND PRIX MILESTONES
The 2025 Australian Grand Prix will be the 1,126th World Championship event in Formula 1 history.
This will be the 39th time that Formula 1 has raced in Australia. F1 first visited the country in 1985. It will be the 28th Grand Prix held at Albert Park. In total, this will be the 88th Australian Grand Prix since the event was first held in 1928.
This will be the first time that the Australian Grand Prix has been the season-opening race since 2019. It is the 23rd time in total that Albert Park has been the season-opener, extending its record for the most times hosting the first race of the season.
The 2025 Australian Grand Prix will be third F1 race to take place on March 16. It’s also the third time that an F1 season has started on this date, with the 2008 and 2014 Australian Grands Prix having also taken place on March 16.
This weekend, Fernando Alonso becomes the first driver to have made 20 appearances at Albert Park. Lewis Hamilton will make his 17th start here, equalling Jenson Button and Kimi Raikkonen for second on the list.
Fernando Alonso becomes the first driver to compete in 22 different Formula 1 seasons, while Lewis Hamilton becomes the fifth – after Fernando Alonso, Rubens Barrichello, Michael Schumacher and Kimi Raikkonen – to compete in 19 different seasons. Hamilton becomes the British driver who has raced in the most different seasons, having equalled both Graham Hill and Jenson Button in 2024.
Alonso also becomes the first driver to have a Formula 1 career which has lasted for over 24 years, extending his record as the driver with the longest time between his first and last Grand Prix appearances.
Lap 40 of the 2025 Australian Grand Prix will be the 1,600th racing lap at Albert Park in its history on the F1 calendar.
NEW FACES IN NEW PLACES
Kimi Antonelli, Isack Hadjar and Gabriel Bortoleto will all make their Formula 1 debut at the 2025 Australian Grand Prix. This will be the first race since the 2021 Bahrain Grand Prix to feature three drivers making their maiden Formula 1 start.
Kimi Antonelli becomes the third youngest driver to have ever raced in Formula 1, behind only Max Verstappen and Lance Stroll.
If Kimi Antonelli wins, he will become the youngest Grand Prix winner in Formula 1 history. A podium finish – in any race before the Bahrain Grand Prix – would make him the sport’s youngest-ever podium finisher.
A win at any of the first three races of the 2025 season would make Kimi Antonelli Formula 1’s youngest-ever winner. He will become the sport’s youngest-ever polesitter if he takes pole for any race this year, the youngest podium finisher (if he finishes in the top three before the Bahrain Grand Prix), the youngest driver to lead a lap (before the Bahrain Grand Prix), the youngest driver to set the fastest lap (if he does so before the United States Grand Prix) and the second-youngest points-scorer in F1 history (if he scores before the Bahrain Grand Prix).
A pole position at any race in 2025 for Kimi Antonelli, Ollie Bearman, Gabriel Bortoleto or Isack Hadjar would make them the youngest polesitter in F1 history.
If Antonelli, Bortoleto or Hadjar qualify in the top ten at the 2025 Australian Grand Prix, they will become the eighth driver to reach Q3 on debut in F1 – and the first to do so since Lando Norris in 2019.
The 2025 Australian Grand Prix will be the first race to feature no Finnish drivers on the starting grid since the 2010 Spanish Grand Prix. It will be the first F1 race which no Finnish drivers will enter since the 1994 Hungarian Grand Prix. It’s set to be the first F1 season without any Finnish drivers on the grid since 1988.
The 2025 Australian Grand Prix will be the first race to not feature Sergio Perez on the grid since the 70th Anniversary Grand Prix in 2020, as well as the first which Valtteri Bottas will not start since the 2015 Australian Grand Prix, ending the fourth-longest starting streak of any driver. It will be the first Grand Prix that Bottas will not enter since the 2012 Brazilian Grand Prix.
LEWIS HAMILTON’S FERRARI ERA BEGINS
A win for Lewis Hamilton at the 2025 Australian Grand Prix will make him the first driver to win on his Ferrari debut since Fernando Alonso at the 2010 Bahrain Grand Prix. He would become the eighth driver to win on their Ferrari debut in total.
A win for Lewis Hamilton would make him the 16th driver to have won Grands Prix with as many as three different teams.
A pole position for Lewis Hamilton at the 2025 Australian Grand Prix would be his ninth at Albert Park, seeing him equal his own record for most pole positions at a single circuit. In 2023, Hamilton became the first driver to take nine poles at a single track with pole position at the Hungaroring.
If Lewis Hamilton wins the 2025 Australian Grand Prix, it would be the 23rd time that a driver has won the same race on the same date twice. Hamilton last won the Australian Grand Prix on March 16 in 2008.
If Lewis Hamilton fails to win the 2025 Australian Grand Prix, this will become the second-longest win-less streak in his Formula 1 career. It will be only the second time that he has gone as many as 11 races without taking a victory.
If Lewis Hamilton scores a point, he will become only the fourth driver – after Michael Schumacher, Kimi Raikkonen and Fernando Alonso – to have scored a point in as many as 19 different seasons. A point for Alonso would see him extend his record of most seasons scored in to 21.
Lewis Hamilton is currently tied with Michael Schumacher as the driver who has set the fastest lap of a Grand Prix in the most consecutive seasons. Schumacher set a fastest lap in at least one race in all 15 seasons between 1992 and 2006, while Hamilton has set a fastest lap in every season since 2010. A fastest lap for Hamilton this year would see him become the first driver to take a fastest lap in 16 consecutive seasons.
If Charles Leclerc out-qualifies or out-races Lewis Hamilton at the 2025 Australian Grand Prix, he will become the first driver to out-perform Hamilton on their first race as team-mates since Fernando Alonso did so in 2007.
WILL THE REIGNING CHAMPION START THE YEAR STRONG?
Should Max Verstappen win the 2025 Australian Grand Prix, he will become the fourth driver to have won the first race of the year in three consecutive seasons. Juan Manuel Fangio, Graham Hill and Michael Schumacher are the only other drivers to have done so.
A victory for Max Verstappen would make him the sixth driver to have won a Grand Prix in as many as ten Formula 1 seasons. He would also become the fourth driver – after Michael Schumacher, Lewis Hamilton and Alain Prost – to have won in ten consecutive seasons.
Pole position for Max Verstappen would make him the seventh driver to have taken pole positions in seven consecutive seasons.
A pole this weekend would make Max Verstappen the fifth driver to have taken pole at the season-opening race in three consecutive seasons, after Stirling Moss, Jim Clark, Mika Hakkinen and Lewis Hamilton.
Max Verstappen holds the record for wins from the most different grid positions in Formula 1. He’ll become the first driver to win from 11 different grid slots this weekend should he win from 5th, 8th, 11th, 12th, 13th, 15th, 16th, 18th, 19th or 20th on the grid.
If Max Verstappen leads the race from start to finish, he will equal Sebastian Vettel for third on the list of most F1 races led from start to finish. Verstappen has led 14 Grands Prix from start to end so far in his career.
A Grand Slam for Max Verstappen – winning from pole position having led every lap and set the fastest lap – would be his sixth Grand Slam. That would see him equal Lewis Hamilton for second on the list of most Grand Slams in F1, behind only Jim Clark.
If Max Verstappen scores a point at the 2025 Australian Grand Prix, he would equal the seventh longest scoring streak in Formula 1. It would be his 22nd consecutive points-scoring appearance.
A win for Red Bull in 2025 would make them the fifth team to have won in as many as ten consecutive seasons. The team has won at least one race in every year since 2016.
Red Bull are one fastest lap short of becoming the fifth team to record a century of fastest laps in Formula 1. A fastest lap for a Red Bull driver would make 2025 the 17th consecutive season in which the team has recorded the fastest lap in a Grand Prix. That would equal Ferrari’s record of 17 successive years with a fastest lap, set between 1995 and 2011.
Having become the first driver to have led the championship for over 1,000 consecutive days, Max Verstappen will overtake Alain Prost for third on the list of the drivers who have led the title race after the most races should he lead after the 2025 Australian Grand Prix. Both Prost and Verstappen have led the Drivers’ Championship after 78 races.
LONGEVITY RECORDS ON OFFER FOR HAMILTON AND ALONSO
A win for Lewis Hamilton this year would see him move into the top ten of Formula 1’s oldest Grand Prix winners. Meanwhile, a victory for Fernando Alonso would make him the sport’s sixth oldest winner – and the oldest since Jack Brabham at the 1970 South African Grand Prix. Only nine drivers have won races at the age of over 40. The most recent driver to do so was Nigel Mansell, at the 1994 Australian Grand Prix.
A pole position for Lewis Hamilton in 2025 would make him the first driver in his 40s to take pole position since Nigel Mansell at the 1994 Australian Grand Prix. He would be the sixth driver to take a pole position above the age of 40.
A win for Fernando Alonso at any race in 2025 would see him set a new record for the longest gap between two Formula 1 victories, with his last having come at the 2013 Spanish Grand Prix. The current record is 6 years, 6 months and 28 days, set by Riccardo Patrese.
A pole position for Fernando Alonso in 2025 would make him the sport’s fourth-oldest polesitter. He would be the oldest polesitter since Jack Brabham at the 1970 Spanish Grand Prix.
THE OTHER FORMULA 1 RECORDS WHICH COULD BE BROKEN
A podium finish for Oscar Piastri would see him become the first Australian driver to finish on the podium at the Australian Grand Prix in F1 history. Daniel Ricciardo stood on the podium in 2014 but was later disqualified from the final result.
A podium finish for Charles Leclerc at the 2025 Australian Grand Prix will see him equal Fernando Alonso as the driver to have taken the fifth-most podium finishes with Ferrari in Formula 1.
If Charles Leclerc scores ten points this weekend, he will overtake Sebastian Vettel as the driver who has scored the most points with Ferrari. Vettel scored 1,400 points with the team from 2015 to 2020, while Leclerc has scored 1,391 points to date.
A win for Ferrari would make 2025 the 60th season in which they’ve won a Grand Prix.
A victory for a Ferrari-powered car this weekend would make Ferrari the first engine manufacturer to have powered 250 victories in Formula 1. Of the 249 previous victories, Sebastian Vettel’s with Toro Rosso at the 2008 Italian Grand Prix is the only one which was not taken in a Ferrari chassis.
A double podium for Mercedes would mark the team’s 300th top three finish in F1. They would be the fourth team to reach the milestone, after Ferrari, McLaren and Williams.
A 1-2 result for Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri would make this the 50th 1-2 finish for McLaren in Formula 1. They would be the third team to reach the milestone, after Ferrari at the 2001 Malaysian Grand Prix and Mercedes at the 2019 French Grand Prix.
If Nico Hulkenberg scores four or more points this weekend, Germany will become the second nation to have scored 8,000 points in Formula 1.
If Jack Doohan wins the 2025 Australian Grand Prix, he will become the first driver to take his maiden F1 victory on home soil since Johnny Herbert at the 1995 British Grand Prix.
Should Pierre Gasly be the first retirement in the 2025 Australian Grand Prix, it will be the third time in the last four years that he has recorded the first DNF of the year. He’d equal the record for the most first DNFs of the season, currently shared between Jean-Pierre Jarier, Johnny Herbert, Christijan Albers and Pastor Maldonado.
THE AUSTRALIAN GRAND PRIX RECORDS ON OFFER
Michael Schumacher holds the record for most Albert Park victories with four. His record cannot be equalled at the 2025 Australian Grand Prix but Lewis Hamilton could become the fourth driver to have won three Albert Park races, while Fernando Alonso, Charles Leclerc, Max Verstappen or Carlos Sainz could become the eighth driver to record multiple Melbourne wins.
Victory from pole position for Lewis Hamilton would see him become the first driver to win from pole at Albert Park on three occasions. He has previously done so in 2008 and 2015. A win from pole for Charles Leclerc or Max Verstappen would see them become the third driver – after Hamilton and Michael Schumacher – to win multiple races here from pole position.
McLaren and Ferrari currently share the record for most Australian Grand Prix wins since the event first joined the F1 calendar in 1985, with 11 apiece. Either team could set a new outright record for most victories at the 2025 Australian Grand Prix.
Mercedes and Ferrari share the record for most 1-2 finishes at Albert Park, with three apiece. A 1-2 finish for either team this weekend would see them become the first constructor to record four 1-2 finishes at the track, while a 1-2 finish for Ferrari would make them the second team – after Mercedes in 2015 and 2016 – to record consecutive 1-2 results at Albert Park.
In Australian Grand Prix history, Ferrari have had 28 podium finishes, while McLaren have 27 top three results. Ferrari could extend their record at the 2025 Australian Grand Prix, while McLaren could overtake Ferrari at the top of the list.
Ferrari and Mercedes are the most successful engine manufacturers in Australian Grand Prix history, each having powered 11 victories at the event. A win for either this weekend would see them set a new outright record. Similarly, Mercedes have powered the most wins at Albert Park, with 11, but Ferrari could equal the German manufacturer this weekend.
Lewis Hamilton could set a new record for most laps led at Albert Park in the 2025 Australian Grand Prix. He would need to lead 42 laps of the race to overtake Michael Schumacher at the top of the list. Meanwhile, if Hamilton leads 43 laps of the race, he will become the second driver – after Schumacher – to have led over 200 Australian Grand Prix laps during the event’s 40-year history on the F1 calendar. Doing so would also see Hamilton overtake Ayrton Senna and Sebastian Vettel in the list.
Ferrari could overtake McLaren at the top of the list of most laps led in Australian Grand Prix history. They’d need to lead 33 laps more of the race than Ferrari to do so.
If Lewis Hamilton completes the first 43 laps of the 2025 Australian Grand Prix, he will become the driver to have raced the second-most laps at Albert Park. He will pass Jenson Button in this list on Lap 16 and will pass Kimi Raikkonen on Lap 43. Only Fernando Alonso has completed more laps of the track. Alonso will surpass 1,100 laps raced at the track if he reaches Lap 54 of Sunday’s race.
British and German drivers are currently tied for most victories at Albert Park, with nine wins apiece. Either nation could set a new record this weekend.
Six points in the 2025 Australian Grand Prix would see Lewis Hamilton become the first driver to score 200 points at Albert Park since the track first joined the F1 calendar in 1996.
Fernando Alonso holds the record for most points-scoring races at Albert Park and could extend the record this weekend to 15. If Alonso fails to score, Lewis Hamilton can equal his current record of 14 points-scoring races at the track.
Oscar Piastri holds a 100% points-finishing rate at the Australian Grand Prix, having scored on both previous appearances. Another top ten finish this weekend will see him equal Daniil Kvyat and Paul di Resta as the driver to have started the most races here without failing to score in any of those starts.
A third place finish for Fernando Alonso in the 2025 Australian Grand Prix would see him become the first driver to finish third four times at Albert Park. Lewis Hamilton can equal the current record, which is shared between Alonso and three other drivers (Ralf Schumacher, Kimi Raikkonen and Sebastian Vettel).
Lando Norris holds a 100% finish rate at Albert Park, having finished on all four of his previous visits to the track. He currently holds the record for the most appearances here without a non-finish.
If Nico Hulkenberg is out on the opening lap of the 2025 Australian Grand Prix, he will equal Felipe Massa’s record of three first lap retirements at Albert Park.
A podium finish for a British driver would make this the tenth consecutive Australian Grand Prix in which a British driver has finished in the top three. Britain would extend the record for the longest podium streak for a nation at Albert Park.
2025 AUSTRALIAN GRAND PRIX: QUALIFYING RECORDS
Pole position for Max Verstappen at the 2025 Australian Grand Prix would make him the third driver – after Mika Hakkinen and Lewis Hamilton – to have taken pole at Albert Park in as many as three consecutive seasons.
Pole for a Red Bull driver would make them the fourth team – after McLaren, Ferrari and Mercedes – to have secured three consecutive pole positions at Albert Park.
Mercedes and Ferrari are tied for most pole positions at Albert Park, with six apiece. Either team could set a new record at the 2025 Australian Grand Prix, while the existing record could be equalled by McLaren or Red Bull.
Ferrari and McLaren are currently tied for the most front row lock-outs at Albert Park, with four apiece. Either team could set a new record at the 2025 Australian Grand Prix, while Mercedes could equal the existing record.
A front row qualification for Lewis Hamilton would make him the first driver to record ten front row starts at Albert Park.
A Q1 exit for Lance Stroll or Pierre Gasly would see them equal Marcus Ericsson’s record of four Q1 eliminations at the Australian Grand Prix.
