F1 Driver Form: Australian Grand Prix

Max Verstappen recorded his first Australian Grand Prix podium finish in 2019 with third place. He has scored points on four of his five appearances at the circuit, recording his only non-finish on debut in 2015. 2015 is also the only time that the Dutchman has failed to out-qualify his team-mate here. Verstappen has qualified in the top five in all of the last four Australian Grands Prix, qualifying fourth in both of the last two races. 2019 marked the first time that Verstappen has finished in a better position than where he started from at Albert Park.

Sergio Perez finished in the points on debut at the 2011 Australian Grand Prix, but he was disqualified for having an illegal rear wing. Perez has finished all nine races he has entered at the track, finishing in the points four times. He has not scored here since 2017, when he recorded his best Albert Park result of seventh. 2019 marked Perez’s first Q3 appearance at the Australian Grand Prix after eight consecutive Q2 eliminations. He has out-qualified his team-mate on all four of his last appearances at the circuit. 2016 and 2019 are the only occasions that Perez has finished in a worse position than where he started.

Lewis Hamilton has taken pole position for all of the last six Australian Grands Prix, but has won the event only once in that time, in 2015. He retired in 2014 and has finished as runner-up in every Australian Grand Prix since 2016. He has had four further podium finishes at the track, including a win in 2008, and third place on debut in 2007. 2014 is the only occasion that Hamilton has retired in Australia, though he was also disqualified in 2008 after he and the McLaren team were found to have been lying to race stewards. 2009 and 2010 are the only seasons that Hamilton has failed to reach Q3 at the Australian Grand Prix, while 2007 and 2010 are the only times that he has been out-qualified by a team-mate at Albert Park. The latter two years are also the only occasions that Hamilton has finished the event in a position better than where he has started from.

Becoming the first retirement of the 2019 season, Carlos Sainz failed to score at Albert Park for the first time in 2019. Though he has never finished above eighth at the circuit, with his best finish coming in 2017, Sainz scored on all of his first four visits to the track. 2019 was also the first time the Spaniard has failed to reach Q3 at the Australian Grand Prix. His best grid slot at the track is seventh, which is where he started from on both of his first two visits. He’s yet to gain a position from where he has started in any race at this track.

From his eight Australian Grand Prix appearances, Daniel Ricciardo has scored points on four occasions. He recorded his third DNF at the circuit in 2019 after running over his own front wing on the way to the front corner. He finished as runner-up on his Red Bull debut in 2014 before being disqualified for a fuel flow issue. Aside from that, his best result here is fourth place, which he scored in 2016 and 2018 and is the joint best result for an Australian at their home race. 2013 and 2019 are the only seasons that Ricciardo has failed to reach Q3 at the Australian Grand Prix. He has started from the front row once, in 2014 and has been out-qualified by his team-mate in all of the last three Albert Park races.

In two of his last three appearances at the Australian Grand Prix, Fernando Alonso has failed to finish. After skipping the 2015 race due to injury, Alonso suffered a heavy crash in the 2016 event after colliding with the rear of Esteban Gutierrez’s Haas. In 2017, the Spaniard retired just seven laps from the end with a broken floor. 2016 and 2017 mark Alonso’s only non-finishes at Albert Park, while his maiden F1 appearance here in 2001 is the only other occasion on which he has failed to score. On his last F1 outing here in 2018, Alonso finished fifth. He finished in the top five in every Australian Grand Prix between 2004 and 2014, winning the 2006 race and recording a further four podium finishes. Alonso has never taken pole here, with a best qualifying result of second on his McLaren debut in 2007. In his last eleven races at the track, he has been out-qualified only once – by Felipe Massa in 2013. Alonso has not reached Q3 here since 2014, and has not led a lap at the circuit since 2013.

In 2019, Sebastian Vettel failed to finish on the podium at the Australian Grand Prix for the first time since 2014. Vettel has won at the circuit on three occasions, in 2011, 2017 and 2018, and has had a further four podium finishes at the track. All of Vettel’s first three appearances at Albert Park resulted in retirements, as did his last Red Bull appearance here in 2014. He has scored on every other appearance. Vettel has taken pole at Albert Park three times, but not since 2013. He also started from the front row in 2017. 2014 is the only occasion that Vettel has failed to reach Q3 at the Australian Grand Prix, and is one of only three times that Vettel has been out-qualified by a team-mate at the track. Vettel has led over 30 thirty laps in all of the last three Australian Grands Prix.

On his third appearance at the Australian Grand Prix in 2019, Lance Stroll picked up his first points at the circuit. On his Racing Point debut, Stroll finished in ninth place. It followed a DNF at the track in 2017 and a fourteenth place finish in 2018. 2018 is the only season where Stroll has out-qualified a team-mate at the circuit, as well as the only time that he has not been eliminated in Q1 at Albert Park.

Valtteri Bottas won the Australian Grand Prix for the first time in 2019. He had previously finished on the podium here once, with a third place finish on his Mercedes debut in 2017. He has scored on all but two appearances at Albert Park. He finished fourteenth in his first ever F1 race in 2013, and he failed to start in 2015 after injuring his back in qualifying. Bottas started from the front row for the first time at the circuit in 2019. He has reached Q3 five times in total at the track, including in 2018 when he crashed in the session and was able to start only fifteenth. 2013 is the only season that Bottas has out-qualified a team-mate at the Australian Grand Prix. Bottas has never finished the event in a worse position than where he started it. 2017 is the only season that he has finished where he started.

Kevin Magnussen made his Formula 1 debut at the 2014 Australian Grand Prix, where he scored a podium finish with McLaren. 2019 marked the first time that the Danish driver scored at the circuit since then, finishing in sixth place. He failed to start the race in 2015 when deputising for the injured Fernando Alonso and failed to finish in both 2017 and 2018 with Haas. His only other finish here is twelfth place for Renault in 2016. Magnussen has reached Q3 on his last two Australian Grand Prix appearances but his best qualifying result here remains his fourth place on debut in 2014. Magnussen has gained at least one position from where he has started each time he has finished the race.