FORMULA One statistics for Sunday’s Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne, the third round of the 23-race season:
Lap distance: 5.278km.
Total distance: 306.124km (58 laps)
2022 pole position: Charles Leclerc (Monaco) Ferrari, one minute 17.868 seconds.
2022 winner: Leclerc
Race lap record: Leclerc (2022) 1:20.260
Start time: 0500 GMT (1500 local)
There was no grand prix at Albert Park in 2020 and 2021. The circuit was shortened by 28 metres, with two turns taken out and seven corners modified, for last year’s race and is now considered a new layout from 2019.
A fourth DRS zone has been added for this year.
AUSTRALIA
McLaren rookie Oscar Piastri is the only Australian in Sunday’s race.
No Australian driver has ever won a home grand prix.
There have been 14 Australian F1 drivers since 1950 and two world champions — Jack Brabham and Alan Jones.
This year’s race will be the 26th to be held at Albert Park and the 37th Australian Grand Prix. It was held in Adelaide, as the final race of the year, between 1985 and 1995.
Four current drivers have won before in Melbourne: Fernando Alonso (2006), Lewis Hamilton (2008, 2015), Valtteri Bottas (2019) and Leclerc (2022).
Ferrari great Michael Schumacher won a record four times in Australia.
Hamilton has been on pole in Melbourne a record eight times (2008, 2012, 2014-2019).
McLaren has won a record 11 times in Australia, with Ferrari on 10.
The lowest starter to win was Britain’s Eddie Irvine from 11th in 1999 for Ferrari. Sixteen of the 25 races in Melbourne have been won from the front row.
Leclerc last year achieved his first ever ‘grand slam’ in Melbourne – pole, leading every lap, winning, and fastest lap.
RACE WINS
Hamilton has a record 103 career victories from 312 starts but his most recent was in Saudi Arabia in December 2021.
Red Bull’s double world champion Max Verstappen has 36 wins from 165 starts.
Red Bull has won 12 of the last 13 races and 18 of the 21 since the 2022 Australian Grand Prix.
Aston Martin’s Alonso is on 32 wins, his last coming in his home Spanish Grand Prix in 2013 with Ferrari, from a record 357 starts.
POLE POSITION
Hamilton has a record 103 career poles.
Sergio Perez’s pole for Red Bull in Saudi Arabia was only the Mexican’s second in Formula One. The first, last year, was also in Jeddah.
LAPS LED
Alonso is the only driver apart from the Red Bull pair to have led a race this season.
PODIUM
Alonso is chasing his third podium finish in a row. The last time the Spaniard did that was in 2013 (Belgium, Italy, Singapore) with Ferrari.
POINTS
Verstappen leads Perez by a single point after two races.
SAFETY CAR
The safety car has made an appearance in three of the last five dry races in Melbourne. It was deployed twice last year.
MILESTONE
This weekend will be Red Bull’s 350th grand prix. The team made their debut in Melbourne in 2005. They are chasing a third successive one-two finish, something they have never before achieved.
