Celebrating the Excitement of Every Season Opener at Albert Park
Ever since Melbourne’s Albert Park circuit took over from Adelaide on the Formula 1 calendar, it has become synonymous with ‘the start of a new season’ for over two decades. From 1985 to 1995, Adelaide hosted every single season opener, but when the race moved south-east to Victoria, Albert Park took its place at the front end of the calendar.
The Unforgettable Season Openers at Albert Park
Over the years, Albert Park has witnessed some unforgettable season openers. Here are our top five picks, carefully selected and revisited to bring you the essence of these exciting races. We’ve adjusted the viewing conditions to suit a modern audience, so no more waking up at 4 am!
Let’s dive into the thrilling world of Formula 1 and relive these memorable moments.
5. 1997 – Villeneuve vs Irvine, Frentzen’s Brake Failure
If Jacques Villeneuve sought revenge for his oil tank’s untimely leak, Eddie Irvine denied him the chance at the first corner with an overambitious lunge. The Canadian, who had qualified on pole nearly two seconds clear of new team-mate Heinz-Harald Frentzen, found himself vulnerable into the first corner due to a lackluster start. Frentzen took the lead, while Villeneuve battled the cars behind.
Irvine’s lock-up sent Villeneuve into the gravel, opening the door for Johnny Herbert to claim Albert Park’s kitty litter as his own. David Coulthard and Michael Schumacher navigated the skirmish, with Frentzen hoping to convert his early advantage into a first-time-out win for Williams.
Coulthard took the lead when Schumacher and Frentzen got held up behind Pedro Diniz, but Frentzen was a threat due to his two-stop strategy versus Coulthard’s one. However, a stuck wheel prolonged Frentzen’s pit stop, allowing Coulthard to maintain his lead. With Frentzen now in Coulthard’s sights, he aimed to employ his tyre advantage in the final three laps before a brake failure at Turn 1 put him into the gravel – ceding the win to Coulthard.
- 2002 – First-Corner Pile-up, Webber’s Debut Points with Minardi
Without wishing to be a “good old days” merchant, there’s something moderately refreshing about the fallout between Rubens Barrichello and Ralf Schumacher after their first-corner clash at Australia 2002. The younger Schumacher, who came off worse after Barrichello changed direction multiple times (in a move that, today, would be punished), suggested that the Brazilian hadn’t done it on purpose and that it was a racing incident.
Either way, that collision led to great swathes of the midfield either being put out on the spot amid the chain reaction or limping back to the pitlane with terminal damage. Eight cars were claimed in the incident, including Jenson Button, Giancarlo Fisichella, and both Saubers.
Race director Charlie Whiting chose to throw a safety car rather than a red flag, denying those caught in the wreck a chance to run to their spare cars. David Coulthard had assumed the lead, while Michael Schumacher dispatched Juan Pablo Montoya and Jarno Trulli ahead when both drivers separately lost control of their cars on oil, Trulli hitting the wall on the run to Turn 3 to end Renault’s return as a works team to an early end.
Schumacher dispatched Coulthard when the Scotsman ran out of road behind the safety car at Turn 14, setting up a duel over second between Montoya and Kimi Raikkonen. But that wasn’t the exciting bit; Minardi rookie Mark Webber was in the hunt for the team’s first points since 1999 and held off Toyota’s Mika Salo to clinch fifth – the home hero got his own special appearance on the podium.
- 2008 – Hamilton Imperious, Ferrari Suffers in Attritional Race
See 2002, but with a bit more madness beyond first-corner contretemps. This was the race that, arguably, laid the foundations for Lewis Hamilton’s title challenge in his second F1 season, while Felipe Massa got off to the worst possible start through his languid spin at Turn 2.
His was not the only first-lap blunder; Nelson Piquet Jr dumped Giancarlo Fisichella into the gravel at the first corner, then Mark Webber endured a four-way fracas with Sebastian Vettel, Jenson Button, and Anthony Davidson at Turn 3. Evidently, 37C weather was playing havoc with the drivers’ delicate psyches and with reliability, as the failures and crashes started to roll in.
Massa’s misery continued when he clashed with Coulthard and, three laps later, was put out to pasture with an engine failure. Kimi Raikkonen hardly fared much better in the other Ferrari; the reigning champion went into the gravel while attempting to put a move on compatriot Heikki Kovalainen, and also suffered a slip in his pursuit of Timo Glock. The German, driving for Toyota, sustained his own moment of madness by going off at Turn 11 to cause heavy damage to his car.
But wait: there’s more! Kovalainen pitted late on to lose second – and then lost a place to Fernando Alonso by accidentally pressing the pit limiter on track, Robert Kubica clashed with Kazuki Nakajima, Barrichello was disqualified, and Hamilton was utterly serene in front. This was the first time the Briton had shared the podium with Nico Rosberg – and it was certainly not the last.
- 2003 – Profligate Montoya Wastes Certain Victory, Coulthard Benefits in Old McLaren
For the second year in a row, Ferrari rocked up to the Australian Grand Prix with the car from the previous year and took it to pole position. McLaren too was running a revised version of its 2002 machinery as its in-progress MP4-18 was proving to be a problematic design. Both teams opted for a vastly different approach to the start in damp conditions; Ferrari opted for the intermediates, while McLaren pulled Kimi Raikkonen in for dry tyres to split its strategy at the end of the formation lap.
The Ferraris marched into a devastating early lead as the Albert Park track surface remained greasy in the early stages, prompting Coulthard to follow Raikkonen’s lead after the opening lap. The dry-shod Juan Pablo Montoya soon came into play as his Michelins started to fire up; by comparison, the jump-starting Rubens Barrichello added another indiscretion to his name by spanking the wall at Turn 5…
After rookies Ralph Firman and Cristiano da Matta also crashed, the safety car emerged; Schumacher took the dry tyres and ceded the lead to Montoya. When the Colombian made eventually made his first stop, the early-stopping Raikkonen moved into the lead, albeit accosted by Schumacher (who eventually put the Finn under scrutiny), Coulthard, and the recovering Montoya.
Raikkonen’s pitlane speeding penalty and Schumacher’s loose bargeboard helped Montoya shuffle back into the lead – with Coulthard giving chase as the Williams driver hoped to clinch his second F1 victory. He spectacularly wasted that opportunity with a spin at Turn 2, which gave Coulthard a prime opportunity to slip past for victory – Montoya was lucky not to lose the runner-up spot, as Raikkonen was too far behind.
- 1999 – Irvine Shines Amid Blunders Down Under
If you’ve not forked out the couple of pounds needed to watch the race on F1 TV’s archive, what are you doing with your life? Go and watch the 1999 Australian Grand Prix now, and then you can come back and read this bit – and, hopefully, agree.
When the previous season’s two title protagonists stall on the grid, while another two catch fire long before the lights go out, you know you’re in for a volatile affair. When the race did eventually get going, it looked like the McLarens would dominate until both hit mechanical strife, leading Eddie Irvine to his first win. That the Ferrari driver got there was more down to his staying power rather than his outright speed, but he at least made the opportunity that came his way.
But that’s not all. Heinz-Harald Frentzen and Ralf Schumacher starred after their off-season seat swap, as did Rubens Barrichello in the spare Stewart – even after a) his SF-3 spontaneously combusted on the grid and b) he served a stop-go penalty for passing the out-of-position Michael Schumacher under yellow flags.
For a dry race, the attrition rate was also surprisingly high. Jarno Trulli and Damon Hill came to blows on lap one, Jacques Villeneuve’s rear wing departed his BAR on Lakeside Drive, the two McLarens dropped their guts before half-distance as Mercedes’ fragility plagued its early-season V10s, returning CART champ Alessandro Zanardi smeared his Williams into the wall, Trulli had another clash with Marc Gene, and the majority of midfielders encountered reliability troubles to clear Arrows’ path to a point with Pedro de la Rosa.
That Giancarlo Fisichella finished in a strong fourth place was only a mere footnote on a wild day down under.
