The waiting is over as the 2025 Formula 1 season kicks off with the Australian Grand Prix, six years on from the last time Melbourne hosted the opening round of the season in 2019.

This country has played an important role in the history of Formula 1, with three world titles courtesy of Sir Jack Brabham and one for Alan Jones, while it has also hosted 38 Grands Prix. Despite the vast distance between Melbourne and Maranello, Scuderia Ferrari HP has always been able to count on plenty of support from the fans here. Add to this the fact Albert Park is a semi-permanent circuit where Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton have both won in the past and it's easy to understand why they're keen to get behind the wheel of their SF-25s to start the new season.

Charles and Lewis make up the team's 140th driver pairing, the eighth to debut in Australia, while when he starts Sunday's Grand Prix, Lewis will become the 98th driver to have taken part in a Formula 1 race at the wheel of a Ferrari, the 78th as a Scuderia "works" driver.

The World Championship first raced at Albert Park in 1996. It has a mix of high speed and technical sections and has similarities with a street circuit. With medium speed corners and four DRS zones, overtaking is on the cards. Turn 1 is a critical point, especially on the opening lap, with a demanding chicane and gravel on the outside. Turn 3 is one of the best overtaking opportunities, as drivers brake hard at the end of a DRS straight. Turns 9 and 10 slow the fastest section of the track and require absolute precision, while the braking point for turn 11 is another passing opportunity. In recent years, the track has delivered some very spectacular racing, with a variety of strategies being used and close battles right down to the final lap.

Frederic Vasseur: The wait is finally over and we're ready to take to the track for the first race of the season. One could say we're stepping back in time, as it's been a few years since Australia hosted the opening round. The Albert Park street circuit is not particularly representative of what the rest of the year has in store, but we did well there last year. Naturally, there are plenty of unknowns and we are keen to find out what the hierarchy will be, especially as the results of the Bahrain test were very difficult to read.

Everyone, including the drivers has worked hard all winter in the factory in Maranello. Charles has also pushed harder than ever in the gym, and Lewis has made a great effort to assimilate with the team as quickly as possible. I believe we have everything in place to do well. As always, we will concentrate on ourselves this week, aware that this is just the start of a very long season. A week ago, we were given a wonderful welcome by a huge crowd of our tifosi in Milan and now, in Melbourne, we will be aiming to give all our fans further reason to be proud of us.

Three questions to Loic Serra, Technical Director Chassis

Can you tell us about the characteristics of the Albert Park track?
The Albert Park Circuit is a temporary street circuit combining high-speed sections and tight corners. One of the peculiarities of the Melbourne track is the unpredictability of its weather, it sometimes takes less than an hour to swing from hot to cold conditions which poses a real challenge for the engineers to predict and optimise the car setup across the race weekend. Additionally, as the track is not used throughout the year, the surface rubbers-in a lot over the three days so the grip levels change all the time.

How useful were the three days of testing? What did we learn about the SF-25?
Despite the unusually challenging weather conditions we faced in Bahrain, the test was really useful for us and we got through all our planned programme, the car running reliably with no major issues. The SF-25 headline numbers were pretty much in line with expectations and the car responds well to set-up changes. We were pleased to see that there was good correlation between the data we got at the Sakhir track and what we had seen in the simulator. That really is an essential foundation to now focus on maximising the car performance race by race. Bahrain was particularly cold and this weekend, we can expect much hotter weather at the end of the Australian summer, which will affect car behaviour, particularly in terms of the tyres. By the end of the weekend we will have a clearer but not yet definite picture of the hierarchy among the teams. We will focus on ourselves and work on having a strong start to the season.

Your first full season with Scuderia Ferrari is about to start. How impressed are you by the passion that constantly surrounds Ferrari?
Impressed is the right word! The passion for Ferrari among its fans and employees is admirable. This united fervour is a real inspiration for all of us and one of the strongest driving forces I have ever experienced. Right now the mood in the team is very positive with everyone believing that we can achieve our goals.

Australian Grand Prix: facts & figures

7. The number of seasons, including this one, in which Charles Leclerc has driven for Scuderia Ferrari HP. With 126 Grands Prix to his name, he is already the team's fourth longest serving driver and by the end of this season he will move ahead of Felipe Massa for third place. The only drivers to have spent more seasons with Ferrari are the aforementioned Brazilian and Kimi Raikkonen both on eight, and way out in front on 11, Michael Schumacher.

8. The number of Scuderia Ferrari HP driver line-ups, including this year's, that have made their debut in Australia. The first Ferrari pairing to race together in the Antipodes was an unexpected one. In 1991, Gianni Morbidelli was a last- minute replacement for the sacked Alain Prost for the last race of the year, then held in Adelaide, paired with Jean Alesi. With Melbourne usually being the opening round of the year, it became quite commonplace for new driver pairings to make their debut here. In 1996 that was the case for Michael Schumacher and Eddie Irvine, while 2000 saw the German team up with Rubens Barrichello. Kimi Raikkonen was part of a string of new pairings, in 2007 with Felipe Massa, in 2014 with Fernando Alonso and in 2015 with Sebastian Vettel. Then in 2019 it was the turn of Vettel and Leclerc, the latter this year forming a new pairing with Lewis Hamilton.

10. Wins for Ferrari Formula 1 cars bearing the numbers 16 and 44, as currently run by Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton respectively. Apart from the Monegasque, the only other driver to have won with the number 16 was Mike Hawthorn, with victory in the 1953 French Grand Prix at the wheel of a 500 F2, with the other eight all down to Leclerc: 2019 Belgium and Italy with an SF90; 2022 Bahrain, Australia and Austria with the F1-75: 2024 Monaco, Italy and United States with the SF-24. To date, the only victory for a Ferrari number 44 dates back to the 1955 Monaco Grand Prix won by Maurice Trintignant at the wheel of a 625 F1.

13. The number of British drivers who, prior to this weekend, have taken part in at least one round of the Formula 1 World Championship at the wheel of a Ferrari. In chronological order, they are Peter Whitehead (seven races, one podium between 1950 and 1952); Roy Salvadori (one race in 1952); Mike Hawthorn (35 races, three wins and one world title between 1953 and 1958); Peter Collins (20 races and three wins between 1956 and 1958); Cliff Allison (six races and one podium between 1959 and 1960); Tony Brooks (seven races and two wins in 1959); John Surtees (30 races, four wins and one world title between 1963 and 1966); Mike Parkes (six races and two podiums between 1966 and 1967); Jonathan Williams (one race in 1967); Derek Bell (2 races in 1968); Nigel Mansell (31 races and three wins between 1989 and 1990); Eddie Irvine (64 races and four wins between 1996 and 1999) and Oliver Bearman (one race and six points in 2024).

101. The number of points up for grabs at a race weekend run to the normal format, from 25 to the winner to one point for the tenth placed finisher. As of this year, there is no longer an additional point given to a driver setting the fastest race lap, as long as he was also a top ten finisher. Over a Sprint weekend a further 36 points are on offer in addition to the 101, with Saturday's short race scored 8 down to 1 for the top eight finishers.