Here are the records which are up for grabs over the 2019 Australian Grand Prix weekend!
THE NUMBERS AND MILESTONES
This will be the 998th Formula 1 Grand Prix, the 84th Australian Grand Prix, the 35th Australian Grand Prix which has counted toward the F1 championship, and the 24th F1 race at Albert Park.
The 23rd lap of the race will be the 1350th racing lap of the circuit since 1996.
Kimi Raikkonen will equal Jenson Button’s record of appearances at Albert Park this weekend. 2019 will mark the Finn’s 17th Australian Grand Prix.
The Australian Grand Prix will mark the 300th Grand Prix with a Canadian driver present on the grid.
Alexander Albon will be first Thai driver to compete in F1 since Prince Bira at the 1954 Spanish Grand Prix. The 2019 Australian Grand Prix will be only the 20th F1 race which has featured a Thai driver.
Lando Norris will become the fourth youngest driver to start an F1 race this weekend, narrowly missing out on third sport. On Sunday, he’ll be just two days older than Jaime Alguersuari was when he started the 2009 Hungarian Grand Prix. The average age of the grid at the 2019 Australian Grand Prix will be 27 years, 2 months and 3 days; which will make it the thirteenth youngest average grid in F1 history.
If a Mercedes-powered car takes pole position at any race this year, they’ll equal Ford Cosworth’s record of 17 consecutive seasons with a pole position.
If Pierre Gasly or Romain Grosjean score a point, this will be the 500th F1 race in which a French driver has scored a point.
THE RECORDS TO BEAT
Sebastian Vettel could equal the record of most Australian Grand Prix wins for a driver this weekend. The record of four wins is currently shared between Lex Davison, who won the event in the pre-F1 era, and Michael Schumacher. He’d also equal Schumacher’s record tally of four wins at the Albert Park circuit.
If a Ferrari-powered car wins, they’ll equal Mercedes power with ten wins at the Australian Grand Prix. Mercedes, meanwhile, could extend the record to eleven.
A pole for Lewis Hamilton this weekend would mark his sixth consecutive pole at the circuit. Should Hamilton take pole position for the Australian Grand Prix, it would be his eighth at Albert Park, equalling the record for most poles at the same Grand Prix. The record is currently shared between Ayrton Senna and Michael Schumacher, who took eight poles at San Marino and Japan respectively.
If Hamilton does take pole position and fails to win, it’ll be the 37th time he’ll have done so, which would be a new record. He’s currently tied with Ayrton Senna on 36 poles without taking the win.
Both Hamilton and Sebastian Vettel can become only the second and third drivers to have led a Grand Prix in 13 consecutive seasons if they lead a race this year.
While Lewis Hamilton could extend the record of most Australian Grand Prix podium finishes this weekend to nine, Sebastian Vettel could equal Hamilton’s current tally.
McLaren currently have 26 total podium finishes at the Australian Grand Prix. Ferrari are on 25, so could equal or beat that record in 2019.
As well as becoming the equal-most experienced driver at Albert Park, if Kimi Raikkonen finishes 7th or higher, he’ll become the fourth driver to score 100 points at the Australian Grand Prix, joining Lewis Hamilton, Sebastian Vettel and Fernando Alonso.
Ferrari could become the first team to score a total of 400 points at the Australian Grand Prix. They’ve currently scored a total of 364.5 points in the country since the event first joined the calendar in 1985. They’d need to take 35.5 points to reach that milestone.
Ferrari, McLaren and Mercedes are all tied on five poles at the Albert Park track. One of those teams could become the new outright record holder this weekend.
If Lewis Hamilton leads 25 laps of the Australian Grand Prix, he’ll become only the second driver in F1 history to have led 4,000 laps of races.
Sebastian Vettel and Lewis Hamilton both stand a chance of surpassing Michael Schumacher’s record of 198 laps led at the Australian Grand Prix. Vettel has led 194 laps here so far, while Hamilton has led 152. That means Vettel would need to lead five laps to set a new record, while Hamilton would need to lead 47 laps to break Schumacher’s record. Meanwhile, Vettel could beat Schumacher’s record of 1,190km led at the event. He’d need to lead 30 laps of the race in order to break that particular record.
Sebastian Vettel, who has won both of the last two races at Albert Park, could equal Michael Schumacher’s record of three consecutive wins at the circuit this weekend. Schumacher set the record between 2000 and 2002.
British and German drivers are currently tied for the most wins at this circuit, with nine apiece.
Daniel Ricciardo would become the first Australian to finish on the podium at the Australian Grand Prix in F1 history should he score a top three finish on Sunday. He’s stood on the podium here once before, in 2014, but was later disqualified from the result. If Ricciardo does finish on the podium he’ll reach 1,000 points scored in his career.
A fastest lap for Kimi Raikkonen would see him become only the fifth driver to take a fastest lap with four different teams.
There are three drivers in F1 2019 who’ll be making their race débuts in Australia. Should Lando Norris, Alexander Albon or George Russell score a point at Albert Park, they would become the 76th driver to score points on their maiden Grand Prix appearance.
