The Formula 1 engineer’s guide to the 2025 Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne

Aston Martin Aramco Formula 1 Team deputy performance director Tim Wright has given Raceteq the ultimate engineer’s guide to every circuit on the 2025 F1, Formula 2 and Formula 3 calendar by focusing on the technical and set-up demands of each track. 

 

Length: 5.303 kilometres

Number of turns: 14

 

 

“This is a temporary track, which means track evolution comes into play. This is essentially a temporary track, which means track evolution makes a bigger difference to the cars and drivers over the weekend. Drivers will hit the track on Friday and it will be slippery given there’s little residual rubber left by the tyres of racecars. The more rubber is laid down, the more the track evolves and offers more grip. 

 

“Therefore you don't just turn up in qualifying conditions and run the car that you plan to run - or the fastest version of the car you think you have. You can't do that. The level of grip on the circuit is just not going to be as high as it will be in qualifying. It's something that happens through the event. And that's the case for a number of circuits. 

“So Melbourne's one of those venues where if you just turn up with your qualifying car, the driver's going to say there's loads of things wrong with it. It might not have the level of downforce needed for the grip level in first practice. It might not behave well enough on the kerbs either. 

“Another thing in Melbourne is there are a few corners where you've got to be able to ride the kerbs at a reasonable sort of speed. It's a circuit with some low-speed corners, some high-speed sections; quite a lot of medium-speed sections. The driver has got to be able to ride the kerbs at certain places to put in a good laptime. 

“And if you go with a car which is set up for qualifying grip levels or race grip levels, the driver might hate loads of things about it in practice, whereas actually there's nothing wrong with the set-up.”