This weekend marks the third race of the 2023 Formula 1 World Championship, which is happening in Melbourne, Australia.
The track used for this event is at Albert Park Circuit, a street circuit that has been part of the F1 series since 1996 and had some changes made to it last season. To make it faster, they changed how the corners are driven and made it easier to pass down the straightaways. The track was also given a new surface to drive on as well.
This year, the track is a bit shorter than usual with only 14 turns and being 3.28 miles long. There’s a special feature called DRS (Drag Reduction System) Zone which is an extra turn between Turn 8 and Turn 9 that could allow cars to go really fast!
The tyres used this year are different from last year. Pirelli has chosen the C2 (White hard), the C3 (Yellow medium) and the C4 (Red soft) for this race. This combination is slightly softer compared to last year’s C2, C3, and C5 compounds.
It looks like Melbourne will have mostly nice weather for our qualifying on Saturday and Sunday’s race, which is also going to be the first day race of the season.
At the end of practice on Friday, Fernando Alonso from Aston Martin was the fastest, followed by Charles Leclerc from Ferrari and Max Verstappen from Red Bull Racing.
Going into the weekend, Verstappen is in the lead of the 2023 Drivers’ Championship with 44 points. His fellow Red Bull driver Sergio Perez is second with 43 points and Alonso third with 30 points. In the Constructors’ Championship, Red Bull is on top with 87 points while Aston Martin and Mercedes-Benz AMG are equal with 38 points. Last year, Leclerc drove for Ferrari and won Australia’s race.