11/03/2025
NEWS STORY
Max Verstappen: It is great to be getting back to racing again and officially starting the season. It is good to see the first race of the season starting up in Melbourne; I drove my Formula One debut race here, so there are a lot memories and we always see the passionate fans come out here to support. In Bahrain, we learnt a lot from Testing but there is still a lot more work to be done. We have ideas about what we can do and how we can take on what we learnt at Testing, so we will see how we go when we start driving on the track. We have been analysing the data and working on where we can make improvements and can work to optimise things further. We are ready to get started up again and I am excited to get the season underway.
Liam Lawson: "I'm looking forward to my first weekend with the Team. It'll be my first weekend in Melbourne as well, so there's a lot to look forward too. Myself and the Team have prepared a lot for the season which has been great. It's been my first official pre-season in Formula One, so it's nice to bring all the hard work we've done into Melbourne for this weekend. The simulator work we've done has been really important, but also the time I've spent with the engineers over the winter. It's a new crew for me, so I wanted to build relationships with the Team ahead of the start of the campaign. It's obviously really exciting to get the season underway and, of course, have my first Australian Grand Prix. It's close to home, so it feels like a home race for me. I can't wait to get started as an Oracle Red Bull Racing driver and I'll give one hundred percent all season for the Team and the fans - that starts in Melbourne this weekend."
Stats & Facts
• The Australian Grand Prix will mark the 20th anniversary of the Team's debut in Formula One, when David Coulthard and Christian Klein qualified 5th and 6th in 2005. It was the best performance by a debuting constructor in F1 since 1970.
• Max has won the season opener in each of the last two seasons, which has contributed to his record-breaking run as the Drivers' World Championship leader, having continuously led the championship since the 2022 Spanish GP - over 1,029 days.
• Saturday in Melbourne marks 10 years since Max made his F1 debut at Albert Park in 2015 where he drove for Toro Rosso. Since then he has clocked up 63 race wins, 40 pole positions and four Drivers' World Championships.
• After 11 races in F1, Liam will make his Oracle Red Bull Racing debut in Melbourne becoming the ninth graduate from the Red Bull Junior Team to represent the six-time World Champions.
• This weekend will be the 28th Australian GP, in the previous 27 editions none of them have seen the top three on the grid finish in the order that they qualified.