Winners and Losers of 2025 F1 Australian GP

The Formula 1 season-opener, the Australian Grand Prix, has been completed, but who were the winners and losers of the first event in 2025? 

Feature image credit: McLaren F1

Winner – Lando Norris

The championship leader. Lando Norris put in an impressive performance in the season-opening race and corrected some of his biggest problems in 2024. 

Last year, race starts were one of his big weaknesses from pole position, as he tended to lose position into the first or opening corners. However, Norris went out and controlled the race in changing conditions.

Loser – Oliver Bearman

The Australian Grand Prix was one to forget for the British Haas driver. Bearman crashed in FP1, he missed FP2 due to the FP1 crash, he beached his car in FP3 and couldn’t qualify with gearbox problems. 

A 14th-place finish, the last of the drivers who finished the race, compounded a terrible first race for the British driver’s first full-time F1 season. 

Winner – Kimi Antonelli

Kimi Antonelli was one of the two rookies to finish the Grand Prix, with Bearman finishing down in last of the running drivers, and delivered the best result of the 2025 rookies. 

Antonelli worked up to fourth place before a five-second time penalty reverted him to fifth, before he was reinstated to fourth after Mercedes won a Right of Review. 

Although he qualified and started in 16th, in those conditions, a recovery drive to fourth is an impressive feat in the rookie’s first race.

A ‘disappointing result’ from ‘positive’ Australian GP for Piastri

Loser – Oscar Piastri

Oscar Piastri looked strong this weekend, and the chance of a win was certainly in the cards for the homegrown hero. He was comfortably sitting in second place towards the latter stages of the race and was given the green light to race Norris for the race win. 

However, a sudden, heavy downpour of rain brought a podium finish and a race win crashing down as he slid off the track at Turn 13, following an excursion on the gravel at Turn 12. 

Although a recovery drive to ninth allowed McLaren to retain the championship lead, it was a disappointing race for the Australian. 

Winner – Mercedes

Although they did not win the race, a strong podium finish in third with George Russell and a fourth place with Kimi Antonelli would be a pleasant surprise for the Brackley-based team.

Mercedes entered Melbourne expecting their rivals to have a performance advantage over them, but the great equaliser of rain helped them secure a strong result. As such, the former world champions now stand tied on points (27) in the constructors championship behind McLaren. 

Loser – Ferrari

This was not the weekend for Ferrari. A seventh and eighth grid position, for Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton, respectively, was followed up by an eighth and 10th finish in the race. A total of five points was collected.

The team held an okay fifth and eighth position before the sudden rainfall in the later laps, and a poor strategy call dropped them to the bottom of the point-scoring order. 

Ferrari will be hoping China, this weekend, is a better outing than Australia.

Read more Formula 1 here:

• A ‘disappointing result’ from ‘positive’ Australian GP for Piastri
• Mercedes wins Australian GP Right of Review to promote Antonelli P4
• FIA release statements for no further verdicts at Australian Grand Prix
• Norris wins dramatic 2025 F1 Australian GP as several crash
• FIA approve Bearman participation in 2025 F1 Australian Grand Prix
• Who finished where: 2025 F1 Australian GP – Qualifying

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Kamron Kent

Hi, I’m Kamron. I created ApexMotorsports.co.uk in the dying embers of the 2021 Formula 1 world championship. It allowed me freedom to write whatever I wanted to write about which was all things motorsports, my passion.

I have put a lot of effort in over the years to keep this website in its best shape and I’ve loved seeing the brand grow consistently, month-on-month, year-on-year. My ambition is to keep watching this brand grow into a primary outlet of news for all things motorsports whilst fueling my desire to pursue a career in sports journalism, specialising in motorsports.

Kamron Kent

Hi, I'm Kamron. I created ApexMotorsports.co.uk in the dying embers of the 2021 Formula 1 world championship. It allowed me freedom to write whatever I wanted to write about which was all things motorsports, my passion. I have put a lot of effort in over the years to keep this website in its best shape and I've loved seeing the brand grow consistently, month-on-month, year-on-year. My ambition is to keep watching this brand grow into a primary outlet of news for all things motorsports whilst fueling my desire to pursue a career in sports journalism, specialising in motorsports.