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 six appearances at the circuit and recorded DNFs on debut in 2015 and in the last race here in 2022.

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 five Australian Grands Prix, qualifying on the front row at Albert Park for the first time in 2022. 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 ten races he has entered at the track, finishing in the points five times.

Perez finished on the podium as runner-up in the 2022 Australian Grand Prix, marking his first top three finish at the venue and his first points at the track since 2017. He had never previously finished in the top six.

2019 marked Perez’s first Q3 appearance at the Australian Grand Prix after eight consecutive Q2 eliminations. He recorded his best qualifying result at the track to date last year, lining up third on the grid. 2022 was the first time since 2015 that Perez failed to out-qualify his team-mate at Albert Park. 2016 and 2019 are the only occasions that Perez has finished in a worse position than where he started.

Charles Leclerc recorded a Grand Slam at the 2022 Australian Grand Prix, winning the race from pole position, setting the fastest lap and leading every lap on his way to victory. He had picked up points in Australia for the first time in 2019, on his Ferrari debut, where he finished fifth, one

In 2018, on his Formula 1 debut with Sauber, he finished in 13^th. That’s the only year in which Leclerc has been eliminated in Q1 at the track, qualifying 18^th.

Carlos Sainz has retired on each of his last two Australian Grand Prix appearances. Becoming the first retirement of the season, Sainz failed to score at Albert Park for the first time in 2019. He spun out into the gravel in the early stages in 2022. 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.

Sainz has reached Q3 on five of his six visits to Albert Park, the exception being a Q1 exit in 2019. 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.

Lewis Hamilton took pole position at every single Australian Grand Prix between 2014 and 2019, but won the event only once in that time, in 2015. He retired in 2014 and finished as runner-up in every Australian Grand Prix from 2016 to 2019. His fourth place in 2022 marked the first time he did not finish on the podium at Albert Park since 2014.

Hamilton 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.

In 2022, Hamilton finished fourth having started fifth. It was the first time he started the Australian Grand Prix from outside of the top three grid slots since 2010 and the first time since then that he finished the race in a better position than where he had started.

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 14^th 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 at the circuit for the first time 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 15^th. He was eliminated in Q2 last year.

2013 and 2022 are the only seasons in which Bottas has out-qualified a team-mate at the Australian Grand Prix. He 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.

Fernando Alonso 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. Until 2016, Alonso held a 100% finish rate at the Australian Grand Prix – but he has since recorded two retirements here. 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.

Aside from his DNFs, there are only two other Albert Park races in which he has failed to score: his F1 debut here in 2001 and his last appearance in 2022, where he finished 17^th.

Alonso has never taken pole here, with a best qualifying result of second on his McLaren debut in 2007. In his last 12 races at the track, he has been out-qualified only twice – by Felipe Massa in 2013 and by Esteban Ocon in 2022. Last year marked the first time Alonso reached Q3 here since 2014. He has not led a lap at the circuit since 2013.

On his third appearance at the Australian Grand Prix in 2019, Lance Stroll picked up his first, and so far only, 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 14^th place finish in 2018. He finished 12^th last year.

2018 is the only season in which 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. He failed to set a time in 2022 after a collision in Q1 with fellow Canadian Nicholas Latifi.

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 finishes here are 12^th place for Renault in 2016 and 14^th for Haas in 2022.

Magnussen has reached Q3 three times at the Australian Grand Prix appearances but his best qualifying result here remains his fourth place on debut in 2014. In 2022, he recorded his third Q1 elimination at the track. Magnussen has gained at least one position from where he has started each time he has finished the race.

Nico Hulkenberg returns to Albert Park having last raced here in 2019. In four of his last five Australian Grand Prix appearances, Hulkenberg has finished in seventh place. His best result here is sixth place, in 2016, but that is the only other time aside from his seventh places that he has scored at the circuit.

Hulkenberg failed to finish on his first two Australian Grand Prix appearances in 2010 and 2012, before failing to even start in 2013.

The German has reached the final part of qualifying four times from his nine appearances, with a best result of seventh in 2014. Hulkenberg has never been eliminated in Q1 at the track and has been out-qualified by his team-mate only once – in 2016.

Hulkenberg has never lost a position from where he started in any of his six finishes at Albert Park.