Every Team Reviewed | 2025 Australian GP

Lando Norris kicked off his WDC campaign in style, holding off Max Verstappen to win a chaotic opening round which threw up more questions than it answered. Let's take a look at how every team fared on the opening weekend of the season.

McLaren

Well it was very almost a perfect weekend for the papaya team but a late mistake from Oscar Piastri cost the side a 1-2. Coming into the weekend, the team were clear favourites, but there were still question marks over how dominant the side would be. Practise went plain sailing for them, with Norris topping FP1 and Piastri topping FP3. Qualifying at times looked like there might be an opportunity for the others to steal a spot on the front row, but on the final Q3 runs, Lando and Oscar delivered, qualifying within a tenth of each other and 3 tenths clear of Max in P3. On a wet Sunday afternoon, the race start went well for Lando as he held off Max and Oscar into turn 1, however Max found some more grip than the Australian and took P2. Oscar found his groove and managed to force Max into a mistake to take back P2 and then started to put the pressure on Lando. The two were a class above the rest and made their car advantage count, pulling clear of the pack. But as the rain fell and the track became slippery, both were caught out, and whilst Lando was able to get himself back on the tarmac, Oscar found himself stuck and fell down the pecking order. It's hard to put too much blame on either of them, as leading the pack they were the first to experience the conditions and both were pushing each other for the race win. There could be questions asked once again over McLaren's strategy to let them race, as if they hadn't been pushing each other so much then they may have avoided the mistake and loss of a 1-2. Either way Lando managed to recompose himself and hold off Max after the safety car restart, whilst Oscar made some daring moves to work his way back into the points and finish P9.

8/10 - Clearly the fastest package and on a normal weekend it would have been a comfortable 1-2. Both drivers had excellent performances and they will be incredibly confident of going even better in China.

Ferrari

Going into 2025, there was so much optimism around the Scuderia but this weekend was one to forget. Lewis Hamilton making his debut in red managed to gradually build his weekend up to the point of getting within two tenths of Charles in qualifying - unfortunately this was for P7/8 and not fighting at the front. With an RB and Williams ahead of both, the signs are incredibly worrying from a point of view of challenging for the championship. Onto Sunday, and Charles had an excellent start, passing Yuki and Alex off the line, however Lewis was unable to make inroads. As the race went on, Lewis and Charles held position and were unable to compete with the top three teams. The team took the gamble to stay out when the rain came down, and it looked like it may pay off as they were momentarily 1-2, however with no red flag brought out, the two had to pit and came out well down the order. P8 and P10 on paper doesn't look great however they were slightly unlucky. Either way the pace isn't there and it was an extremely disappointing weekend.

3/10 - Brought home some points and were slightly unlucky, but really poor for the teams chances going forward.

Red Bull

A mixed weekend. Max was able to extract the most from a package that looks a couple of tenths off the McLaren, and was able to make sure he was in a position to take advantage of any mistakes by the McLaren boys. Once again it just shows how difficult it is going to be to beat Max over the course of a season with him picking up a P2 when he really shouldn't have. On the complete other side, Liam Lawson had a weekend to forget. The Kiwi looked off the pace all weekend, clearly struggling on Friday, and then essentially had no running in FP3 due to an issue. Qualifying was incredibly poor, with Liam only managing P18, a whole second off Max Verstappen, and in the race it wasn't much better. Unlike Kimi, Liam was unable to make his way through the midfield and then eventually spun in the wet and had to retire.

7/10 - Max made the most of the cars potential and showed the car has promise. Liam with a weekend to forget but it is early days and he can learn a lot.

Mercedes

A pretty quiet weekend all things considered but one with plenty of positives. George Russell went massively under the radar to pick up a P4 in qualifying and made no mistakes in the race to finish P3. I'm not sure we even saw him once on the broadcast, but it shows how mature a drive it was from George and he stepped up well in the team leader role. As for Kimi, the weekend started off with the Italian missing out on Q2 by less than a hundredth of a second. At that point it looked like it may be a baptism of fire for Kimi but in the race he showed the potential many believe him to have. An incredibly mature drive, which only saw one little trip into the grass, allowed Kimi to make his way through to the top ten, before keeping his head in the wet and be on the right tyres at the right time to go from P10 to P5. An excellent move on Alex Albon saw him take P4 and bring home the best result he could have. Brilliant drive and an excellent weekend for the team to build on.

8/10 - Excellent from George and a brilliant mature drive from Kimi to maximise the weekend for the team

Aston Martin

Another team with a mixed weekend. Alonso and Stroll were pretty evenly matched across the weekend, with Fernando slightly quicker and on the cusp of the points, running P10 until a mistake saw him into the wall and out. Lance managed to stay composed and pitted at the right time to come out in P6. He held onto the position in difficult conditions and brought home valuable points for the team.

7/10 - It was a good weekend for the team from a points perspective, however looking long term, the team seem to have the 7th or even 8th quickest car and are going to struggle to get in the points on a consistent basis.

Alpine

On his home weekend, Jack Doohan got his weekend off to a perfect start, matching Pierre for pace and arguably going quicker than him across the practise sessions. And when it came to qualifying he was once again on the pace, going quicker in Q1. Q2 was desperately unlucky for the Aussie who was sent out on used tyres for some reason on his initial run, which was never going to allow him to be quick enough to get through, and then he was massively compromised by the yellow flag on his second run. This was in contrast to Pierre who was on new tyres for his first run which was good enough to see him through to Q3. Pierre looked like he got close to getting the most out of the car in Q3 but was only able to qualify P9. In the race, Jack unfortunately lost it in a similar way to Carlos and was out on Lap 1, an incident which will only build the pressure on him. As for Pierre he ran a flawless race until the second spell of rain. Pierre was another of those to gamble and stay out, just like he did to great success in Brazil last year, however this time he couldn't hang it out and had to pit from P3. He came out eventually P8, still good points, but then a mistake saw him go into the grass and then fall out the points.

5/10 - A big opportunity missed but the pace looked pretty good, slightly off that of Williams and RB but still competitive.

Haas

Wow slow! Expectations were relatively low for Haas this season, however I'm not sure many saw them as clearly the slowest side on the grid. At the back end of last year, the side were competing for fifth quickest, however this weekend was one to forget, even before the competitive running. Ollie Bearman in his fourth F1 weekend got off to a terrible start, binning it in the wall in FP1 which meant he couldn't run in FP2. Then he once again lost it in FP3 and missed out on qualifying. As for Esteban, it's hard to judge how he performed this weekend with no teammate to properly compare to, but P19 in qualifying doesn't inspire. Onto Sunday, and things didn't get much better, although they didn't get any worse on a positive note. Ollie looked relatively comfortable starting from the pit lane and managed to close the gap to Esteban. Even though there were opportunities with the rain, Haas weren't able to make the most of it and came home P14 and P13.

2/10 - Poor pace and two crashes. Only positive was the two kept it out the wall on Sunday!

A weekend of missed opportunities. Yuki Tsunoda's P5 in qualifying has showed the side have made massive strides in performance this season, but that being said, the side once again made blunders from a strategic point of view. Yuki was running P6 the entire race after being overtaken by Leclerc at the start, and was showing maturity to comfortably hold off Albon behind. However once the second spell of rain began, the side took the gamble of staying out and it proved to be a costly mistake, dropping Yuki down to P11 once he eventually pitted. With Albon finishing P5, there was a clear opportunity for Yuki to have finished P4 if the side had played it safe. Either way a great drive from Yuki and promising signs for the rest of the season. On the other side of the garage, Isack had a decent start to the weekend, keeping it clean and then putting his VCARB in P11 in qualifying, narrowly missing out on Q3. A great start for the frenchman who was the highest placed rookie, however his fortunes on Sunday couldn't have been worse. On the formation lap, Isack lost the car trying to get heat into the tyres and went into the barriers. Even though it was an embarrassing mistake to make, he can take comfort from the fact Carlos made a similar mistake moments later (albeit whilst running competitively). After, Isack was clearly emotional and whilst it was understandable, Helmut Marko was less than impressed and there will be pressure on him to put it behind him next weekend.

3/10 - Yuki was excellent but the team let him down. It should have been big points and so to come away with nothing could prove costly come the end of the season. Isack can take positives from Saturday but has to put Sunday behind him.

Williams

Apart from Sainz's spin on lap 2, it was essentially the perfect start to the season for Williams. Both drivers were flying in the practise sessions and it transferred to quali, with both in Q3 - Carlos on debut P10 and Alex with a stonking lap to put him P6. Carlos' opening weekend then took a bit of a dive, going into the barriers on lap 2, although with others doing the same, it is hard to lay too much blame on the Spaniard. Alex was overtaken by both Ferrari's off the line, however quickly got back the position from Lewis. From then on he did well to hold off Lewis and then boxed at the right time to come out P4 post rain. Even though he was overtaken by Kimi towards the end, it was still an excellent opportunistic drive from Alex to come home P5 and bring in 10 valuable points. Great quali pace, great race pace and good strategy - very promising!

8/10 - Brilliant from Alex and the team, with the only blemish being Sainz's mistake.

Sauber

Clearly a step up from last year and put themself in the position to capitalise on the opportunity which arose. Gabriel Bortoleto had an impressive debut, out-qualifying Nico, however the German then proved why the side had signed him on the Sunday, making his way up the field to put himself in the perfect position make the most of the conditions. No one would have expected a Sauber to finish P7 this weekend, and with their point scoring opportunities looking limited for the rest of the season, the points scored this weekend could be invaluable. Bortoleto wasn't able to make it to the chequered flag, but it was still a positive weekend.

9/10 - Absolutely made the most of the opportunity presented and have clearly made a step forward as a team.

So what is the current pecking order? Here's what I think: