Lewis Hamilton telemetry data shows where Leclerc has early edge
The Ferrari battle is starting strong, while Red Bull is lagging behind Racing Bulls in Australian Grand Prix practice.
The real F1 action is back in Australia after a pre-season testing at Bahrain that left us with many open questions.
In Melbourne, with totally different track and environmental conditions, we have found in the first Free Practice sessions the first answers to the development of the first race of the calendar.
Australian GP data: Charles Leclerc a step ahead of Lewis Hamilton
Ferrari looks strong at the start of the season in Melbourne. The Italian team was already strong here in 2024 with Carlos Sainz’s unexpected victory just days after undergoing appendicitis surgery.
And why Leclerc? The Monegasque driver appears to be one step ahead of Lewis Hamilton, who is still continuing to adapt.
We can see from the telemetry that especially in those corners where a very high confidence in the grip of the car is required, such as Turn 6 and Turn 12 where the tyres are already at high temperature, Leclerc is able to clearly outperform Hamilton.
More than four tenths of a second difference between the best laps of both in FP2… the British driver is still yet to find the sweet spot of his new Ferrari car.
Australian GP data: Ferrari and McLaren or McLaren and Ferrari?
As we said, Ferrari is very strong. But McLaren seems to still have something in store. Lando Norris has said that he is not comfortable with the car when it runs on low fuel loads, but the fact is that the speed difference to the SF25 in single-lap pace is minimal.
In race pace… everything is equal in the same tenth. The fight between the two F1 giants this first weekend is going to be very tough and looks like it will all be decided by minimal details.
Mercedes’ pace with the hard tyre was also very positive. However, presumably they have run with a lower fuel load in their long runs. But let’s not completely rule them out because both George Russell and Andrea Kimi Antonelli’s race pace has been good.
More early F1 2025 data analysis:
? Joy for Carlos Sainz? Williams gains uncovered in F1 testing data analysis
? F1’s slowest team? What the data really shows ahead of season opener
Australian GP data: Racing Bulls ahead of Red Bull?
The big surprise of the day came from the Visa Cash App Racing Bulls team. Isack Hadjar was the best of the rookies on the timesheets and Yuki Tsunoda finished in P4, but how realistic and fast is their pace really?
Are they really ahead of Red Bull? While we obviously don’t know the fuel load and engine mapping data, it is true on first glance… Racing Bulls seems to be one of the revelations in the midfield for this circuit. But Red Bull should still be ahead in qualifying and the race. Still, Liam Lawson might struggle against them.
Although on the telemetry we can see that Max Verstappen obviously has more pace in Turn 10 and in the braking in Turn 1 and Turn 11 he could have performed better.
Tsunoda and Hadjar seem to have a good car in slow corners and this could put them in contention for the points.
With the best Sector 1 of the weekend so far and a solid pace also in the last sector, Racing Bulls are now seeming to emerge after leaving with some doubts in the Bahrain test.
In terms of speed, we can see that Alpine is one of the teams using the least downforce, which allows them to be very fast in Sector 2.
And in terms of race pace, Racing Bulls once again looks like the team to beat in the midfield. With 15 laps accumulated on the medium tyre, six more than Carlos Sainz in the Williams FW47 with the additional degradation that entails, the Japanese driver was only two tenths of a second slower per lap.
Therefore, we can expect the Red Bull sister team to be in the points battle against Williams and Alpine, teams that already in Bahrain showed more solidity than the Faenza-based team.
Qualifying at Albert Park will allow us to see the real pace of each and every one of the teams on a circuit with such special characteristics as Albert Park.
For the moment, the first Free Practice sessions already give us a big picture of what to expect for the rest of the weekend. Or at least, where to look out for…
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