Johnnie’s Judgement: 2025 Australian Grand Prix talking points & ratings

Jonathan Victoria • 17 Mar 2025 Features

What a way to kick off the new season!

There’s nothing better than the first race back after a long winter - especially when the race features rain, a slippery track, multiple safety cars and a bunch of rookies who have to try to traverse the conditions in a car they have very little practice in.

The 2025 Australian Grand Prix concocted the perfect formula for a thrilling season opener, and now we’re going to take a look at the talking points from the weekend plus my driver ratings.

McLaren are indeed the ones to beat

Unsurprisingly, the reigning champions have shown that they will be the cream of the crop once more this year, with a strong performance in both qualifying and the race from both drivers.

A front row lockout was the perfect showing of where they expect to be this year, with Oscar Piastri’s time, which was good enough for second, only nine-hundredths of a second off of Lando Norris’ pole time, but more importantly was over three-tenths quicker than Max Verstappen in third.

As for Sunday, it took a bit before the race was able to get going properly, but once it did it was the trio who set themselves apart from the rest. Verstappen got ahead of Piastri for some time but made a mistake, allowing the hometown hero back through.

From then until the rain fell again, the McLaren’s scampered away, showing even Verstappen’s natural pace may not be enough if conditions stay good.

Of course, it was unfortunate for Piastri to not finish on the podium. If the rain hadn’t fallen, we would’ve been treated to a race win battle between the Papaya teammates. Instead, Norris held his nerve against Piastri and later Verstappen, showing in the process that maybe he is ready to take on the mantle as championship favourite.

Verstappen will make things interesting

Of course, Verstappen will have something to say about that point I make above. It has only been one race so we can’t say for sure how far off the Red Bull car is to the McLaren, but once Piastri had cleared Verstappen, the pair of Papaya’s put a lot of clear air between themselves and the Dutchman.

But when the rain did fall and safety cars bunched the pack back up again, Verstappen was right on Norris’ back end and looked capable of making something happen. He couldn’t do it this time around, thanks to Norris’ mastery on the restarts, but maybe with a couple more laps he could have.

I reckon that’ll be the case for much of this year. McLaren may have the better car, but Verstappen is in his prime and is ludicrously quick. He will put himself into race winning positions which will test Norris and Piastri if either are to win their first titles this year.

Rookie disasterclass for all but one

Of the six full-season rookies on the grid this year, only two managed to finish the race - and really only one of that pair actually impressed.

Kimi Antonelli outshone his class, recovering from a poor Q1 qualifying exit to finish fourth thanks to a fair bit of luck but also some great determined driving. 

Ollie Bearman was the other rookie to finish, and quite frankly it was impressive that he did given that he hadn’t finished a single other season during the weekend. It was still last of the finishers and he never actually did anything, but it’s still better than the other four rookies.

Speaking of those four, Isack Hadjar had a good qualifying but ruined any hype as he took himself out at the second corner on the formation lap. His tears were warranted but the mistake, even for a rookie, was fairly inexcusable. 

Jack Doohan had Flavio Briatore licking his lips as his race also finished early. Another one who had a good qualifying ruined by a mistake, which is the same sentiment for Gabriel Bortoleto.

Finally, the not-so-much-a-rookie Liam Lawson made a bad first impression with the senior Red Bull team. A Q1 exit was poor enough, he was never able to capitalise on the safety cars and general mayhem before his race finished on lap 47.

While Antonelli was the only one to look good, you can’t fully blame them all for their hardships. The conditions in the race weren’t ideal in the slightest, and at least some looked good during the better conditions in qualifying. No-one is writing any of them off just yet, and they’ll get another opportunity to build and show what they’re really capable of this coming weekend in China.

New year, same Ferrari

We’ll keep this one brief as it’s nothing new - Ferrari will always be Ferrari, no matter how much changes.

Lewis Hamilton got his first feel for that and their general incompetence with strategy as the team’s decision not to pit either driver when the rain started to come down again cost them some decent points.

Granted, both drivers didn’t perform well in qualifying, but some reports stated that the team had taken the risk in putting the cars in a more wet-race-focused setup, costing them speed in the hopes the could capitalise should the conditions be unfavourable on the Sunday.

They were unfavourable, yet they didn’t capitalise. Leclerc did already before the rain but Hamilton got stuck behind the Williams of Albon and couldn’t recover. Eighth and 10th is ultimately what they deserve.

Driver ratings

• Lando Norris | 9.5
  • Strong qualifying performance, strong race win despite pressure from Piastri and Verstappen at points.
• Kimi Antonelli | 9
  • Only rookie who can be pleased with their season opener. Started 16th and looked confident despite conditions to take a surprise fourth.
• Alex Albon | 9
  • Followed up a solid 6th in qualifying to come home in fifth and showed up his ‘better’ teammate in the process.
• Max Verstappen | 8.5
  • Red Bull clearly a step behind McLaren but given the chance at the win, the reigning champion still looked capable of beating Norris. Was unlucky not to do so this weekend, but will certainly see more of that this year.
• George Russell | 8.5
  • A quiet yet capable race for Russell. Didn’t get much screen time as he didn’t have much to do, but ultimately was a big beneficiary of Piastri’s spin as he took his podium spot.
• Oscar Piastri | 8
  • Feels unfair to rate Piastri any lower because of his mishap. The spin and near-beaching were more the conditions faults than his as he drove a very solid race before then. The race win very much could have been his.
• Nico Hulkenberg | 8
  • Part of the lucky group that benefited from Piastri’s misfortune, Ferrari’s bad strategy call and overall mayhem to take seventh and six valuable points for Kick Sauber.
• Lance Stroll | 8
  • Luck played a major role again but the fact Stroll managed to keep his car on the track in those conditions is a major achievement.
• Yuki Tsunoda | 7.5
  • A stunning fifth in qualifying was followed by a problematic race, Racing Bulls copying Ferrari for Yuki’s strategy and sending him to a 12th-place finish. Not his fault, though, and he looked strong before the team's mistake.
• Charles Leclerc | 7.5
  • A poorer qualifying made for ground to make up, which Leclerc did until Ferrari’s classic strategy incompetence let him down.
• Pierre Gasly | 7
  • Same as Piastri, I won’t let one mishap ruin his rating. Gasly drove well and points looked possible until his mistake that cost him three places.
• Lewis Hamilton | 6
  • Not the debut he would’ve wanted. Lost a place to Albon and could never recover it. Got his first experience of a shambolic Ferrari strategy to end up with one measly point.
• Esteban Ocon | 5
  • A poor weekend in his new team, Ocon set the slowest time in qualifying then never made any headway during the race.
• Oliver Bearman | 5
  • A weekend to forget as Bearman only completed one full session. While it surprisingly was the race, being one of only two rookies to finish, he didn’t do anything during. Still, impressive that he made it to the chequered flag.

Non-finishers

• Liam Lawson | 5.5
  • Poor qualifying, started from the pitlane and made good ground before making the same mistake as almost all other non-finishers.
• Jack Doohan | 5.5
  • Impressive qualifying, not so much so in the race, which ended very quickly.
• Gabriel Bortoleto | 5.5
  • Beat his teammate in a surprising Q2 appearance but we didn’t get to see much from him during the race.
• Isack Hadjar | 5
  • Narrowly missed out on a debut Q3 appearance, which would’ve given him a strong rating if it weren’t for the rookie ending his race at the second corner during the formation lap.
• Carlos Sainz | 5
  • Ranked harsher due to his experience, Sainz qualified well but made the same mistake as many of the rookies to end his race very early.
• Fernando Alonso | 4.5
  • Same as Sainz, reason for lower ranking due to experience, but also uncharacteristic mistakes in qualifying and the race cost him dearly.