After two stops in Asia, Formula 1 moves to Oceania for the Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne. The Albert Park circuit and the nation at large are steeped in history when it comes to motorsport's top flight. Let's go find out the most curious statistics.
The records of past editions
- In 2009 the Grand Prix ended under the safety car. To this day, he is part of a small circle of 13 races concluded behind the safety car.
- La victory by the narrowest margin was that of Häkkinen su Coulthard since 1998not without controversy. Hakkinen, in fact, saw the lead of the race elude him for a "ghost call" in the pits. Comrade Coulthard took advantage of this, and he seemed to be on his way to victory when on the finish line he decided to slow down and let the Finn pass.
- La victory with the largest gap between first and second place, however, there was in the edition 1995, last held in Adelaide, when Hill he crossed the finish line even two laps behind bread. Even today it is, together with the 1969 Spanish GP, the largest gap ever recorded in the history of F1!
- Adelaide was mentioned in the previous point. In fact, the Australian GP has not always been held at Melbourne's Albert Park, but from 1985 to 1995 it was held at Adelaide. The race was nicknamed "The Ultimate" because ended the season e could assign the drivers' and/or constructors' titles. In fact, two pilots (Cheers since 1986 e Schumacher since 1994) and two stables (McLaren since 1985 e 1991 e Williams since 1994) celebrated their world championship victory right at the end of the race in Australia. On the contrary, Melbourne has often been the scene of the opening race of the world championship.
- So far, in 2023 both polemen then won the race (Verstappen in Bahrain and Perez in Saudi Arabia). However, Melbourne has the reputation of not bringing too much luck to those who start from the pole: in 25 editions, in fact, only 10 riders managed to start and finish the race in first position. nell 'it was hybrid it only happened twice, with Hamilton in 2015 and with Leclerc last year.
- Speaking of starting positions, the victory from the rearmost square in the array belongs to David Coulthard, In which 2003 he won his last career race by starting 11esimo. In the hybrid era, however, the winner always started in the top 3.
- Having been the first race of the season for years, Melbourne has given rise to the "curse" of the winner of the first race, who has always finished second in the world championship since 2017. Out of 25 GPs in Melbourne, in fact, alone 12 times the winner of the race became champion at the end of the year. The last to succeed was Rosberg since 2016.
- The edition of 1991, duration just 24 minutes in torrential rain, it is there second shortest race in history. The GP of Belgium 2021, with only one lap under the safety car, occupies the first place.
- Speaking of second places, the edition of 2013 he saw well 7 different race leaders. Only the GP ofItalia 1971, with 8 riders leading the race for at least one lap, did better.
Statistics of the 2023 edition
- Melbourne will host the Australian GP in April for only the third time in history, following the 2006 and 2022. In the case of the first edition, the competition was held on 2th April like this year and was won by Fernando Alonso. Could it happen again on Sunday?
- If the Ferrari wins the race, will join the McLaren such as team with most wins in Australia (11).
- If the Mercedes wins the race, it will become the third most successful team in Australia, on a par with the Williams a 5.
- Hamilton holds pole record in Australia (8) but on Sunday he could only convert two of these into a win. To date, he is the only rider on the grid with more than one win in Australia to his credit, while the overall record belongs to Schumacher at altitude 4 hits.
- If Alonso gets to the podium, he will equal Schumacher on 6 podiums, behind Hamilton (9) and Vettel (7). By the way, the Asturian's next podium will be his 101st and all previous drivers won the race on their 101st podium finish.
