March 14, 2025 • 7 mins
Kiwi driver Liam Lawson's recorded the 16th-fastest time in the opening practice session of Formula One’s season-opening Australian Grand Prix.
Lawson's efforts were hampered by two separate red flags, which caused delays to the drivers’ time on track, he also brushed the wall.
Teammate and reigning champion Max Verstappen was fifth-fastest. McLaren's Lando Norris topped the timesheets with a fastest lap of 1 minute 17.252 seconds.
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Speaker 1 (00:06):
You're listening to the Sports Talk podcast with Duncie Wildergrave
from News Talk ZEDB.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
Well, here it is Formula One season gets under way
twenty twenty five Albert Park. It is unrolled.
Speaker 3 (00:19):
What have we learned?
Speaker 2 (00:19):
If anything? We've got all of the cat and mouse
going on with pre season. Now we're starting to see
what the cars have laid down. What can you tell
us out of free practice one if anything?
Speaker 4 (00:31):
Yeah, I mean, if you're still early. But it is
a little bit more representative than anything we saw in
preseason testing, just because when we get into the rhythm
of a weekend, the cut and thrust of it, teams
start to run fairly similar programs, similar fuel loads, similar
engine usages, all all that kind of things.
Speaker 3 (00:46):
So it starts to become a little bit more easy
to compare.
Speaker 4 (00:50):
But that's it. You've got to take the times with
a grain of salt. But let's have a look at
them very quickly. And we saw Lando Norris top of
the order, and we feel like that's pretty representative. We
saw both McLaren sort of up there a Andugh Norris
very much at the top. Ferrari also looked pretty competitive,
not just because Charl Leclair was close on the soft tie.
He was about two tens off overall, but it was
actually runs on the medium tire where he looked actually
(01:12):
comparatively quick, so if the drivers had been on that
fast a tire. So it looks like McClaren ferrari A
emerging as the early favorites. I guess we expected, but
I don't think we've seen the fullhand from Mercedes or
Red Bull Racing either. And then of course Williams, I
don't think you're actually in the top four mix. We
heard from Team Visible James Vowels during the break between
practice sessions. He was saying, look, to break into the
(01:34):
top four would be too much. It is a really
positive sign though that they could be the team that
locks out those last two points paying position due to
the top ten.
Speaker 3 (01:42):
But as I said, very early, we don't know what
all the other.
Speaker 4 (01:45):
Teams have in store yet Fresh feature a little bit
more later on.
Speaker 2 (01:48):
What do we know about Liam Lawson? Of course most
of New Zealand hanging on well I am anyway with
everything he does. This is huge for the young man
to not only get a seat in Formula One, but
to get a Red Bull seat, and what you're saying
before about Max Verstepen, he's basically driving Max's car, working
for him.
Speaker 4 (02:07):
Yeah, I mean it's always going to be tough, not
only the challenge of going up against Max, but as
you say, Max's car, it's been developed in a way
that we've learned from Sergio Paris's troubles the last year
really suits Max more than anyone else. So the challenge
isn't just to size up to Max, meticize up to
Max in his own car still they say with him,
and I think what was really interesting with the Red
Bull and we saw this on Liam's car now, using
(02:27):
what's called flow Viz paint. It's like a fluorescent oil
that illustrates the airflow over the car. You do see
it occasionally in practice, and it is the first round
of the season. There's still a lot of learning going on,
but it does demonstrate or illustrate rather the Red Bull
Racing isn't as confident with its car if it doesn't
fully understand its car package. And we could kind of
see that on track. You know, Max was the quicker
(02:49):
of the jew not that surprising, but even he was
running off into the gravel, kicking.
Speaker 3 (02:53):
Up stones at various points.
Speaker 4 (02:54):
We saw Liam right at the start rush against the wall,
no major damage done to that, but seem to be
running still this evaluation program. If you like this team
that still has a lot of honing of its car
to do, it knows that. So I think actually we
really won't see Red Bull ten probably until tomorrow, unless
they're really confident later today, because I think this still
really is them trying to figure out where that sweet
(03:15):
spot of the car is.
Speaker 3 (03:17):
There's a longer process than it is for McLaren and
Ferrari team.
Speaker 2 (03:20):
Michael Lemonata joins us from Fox Sport. He's named tividdan motormouth,
petrol head, whatever you want to call it. You don't
mind me saying that, do you? Michael know you don't
say big surprises out of FP one. Is there anything
that make your eyebrows sit back?
Speaker 3 (03:34):
Well? I mean William's pace was a big one.
Speaker 4 (03:36):
I was really hoping Carlos signs of top po ssession,
just because it would have made a better news story
immediately after FB one, but his pace was still really impressive.
Now he was actually the quickest driver after freeze is
in testing if memory does serve, But again, Priezas are
testing times are one thing.
Speaker 3 (03:52):
I don't think we're expecting.
Speaker 4 (03:53):
Them to be in the in the top among the
top four teams, but it's a really big statement of
intent because if we assume that the top four teams
and I mean the top eight drivers have a representative weekend,
nothing weird happens, there are only two places left to
score points, only two places left to break into Q three,
so that battle is actually really intense. We were thinking
it was going to be Williams and Alpine and maybe
(04:16):
Aston or Hass, but they were much more uncertained after testing.
Here's a big statement from Williams saying, no, it's going
to be ours. We're going to be the ones that
are going to be doing this. If they keep even
a semblance of that pace. Again, we don't expect them
to actually be competing for those top eight places. That
would be very impressive because let's not forget this team
finished ninth the Constructors Championship last year. They're a little
bit better than that. Looks they were sort of bumped
(04:37):
down the order by some misfortune, but really positive step
forward for a team that's not actually targeting performance this year,
they're targeting being ready for next year, really revolutionizing, modernizing
that team for the new rules next season. So this
should be a massive result if they could pull off
a comfortable or a confident double top ten Perier.
Speaker 2 (04:56):
And the Australian fans forgiven Liam Lawson for taking Ricardo's seat.
I mean they really to embrace them, now, do you think, Michael.
Speaker 3 (05:04):
I think so.
Speaker 4 (05:05):
Look be interesting. I think we'll learn more over the
course of the season. But I do get the sense,
and it is an interesting question because it's really around
this time that we do get the sense of the
general mood of the fans, but that people have moved
on from Daniel Ricardo calling it quits in Formula one,
if you like, I feel like Australia has made peace
with it. We have Oscar Piastri. Of course they're all
hoping can be a race winner and championship contender, but.
Speaker 3 (05:27):
I think Lea, it will be forgiven. I think it's okay.
Speaker 2 (05:30):
What we're really looking forward to is plainly race day.
Speaker 4 (05:33):
Now.
Speaker 2 (05:33):
It's been reasonably warm in Melbourne today. Tomorrow you're looking
at mid thirties yelch, and then it's going to hose
down on Sunday. It's going to throw the cat amongst
the pigeons, and from a New Zealand perspective, that's a
good thing.
Speaker 3 (05:45):
Liam likes the rain, yes, but so does.
Speaker 4 (05:48):
Max of course as well, so it could be a
good thing for Red Bull racing in general. If they
really are struggling, maybe they'll get a one two out
of considering that they weren't going to win this race.
The weather is typically Melbourne, but I would also cavet
that the forecast is typically Melbourne. Who knows if we're
going to get any of those numbers all those range.
It does look like thirty five to forty tomorrow, which
will be really hot. And let's not forget in qualifyings
when the team's set up there locking their car setups
(06:10):
rather for the race. They can't change them after qualifying,
so all of a sudden it does hose it down.
Like you're saying, that forecast rain has been an increasing
amount of rain as we get closer to the weekend,
so it does seem like that's probably going to happen.
Then we could find some teams having made the wrong
set up compromises on Saturday, So I think that's the
ideal setup. We'll get a picture of everyone's real pace
(06:31):
on Saturday finally gets some answers, then Sunday could be
a real mixed bag of teams making it up as
they go.
Speaker 2 (06:37):
Finally, Michael Watts with turned ten, there was a few
issues on that particular bend.
Speaker 4 (06:42):
It's super fast, that's the issue with so I've got
the issue. It's a great thing about turn nine and
ten that back Chicane. You're entering that Chicine at three
hundred and twenty kilometers an hour or something like that,
something absurd, and which means the exit is also super
fast and you need a lot of confidence to get
on the power on exit there we saw Oliver them
and LOUI wasn't even that he went over the grass
at first. He had a little snap exiting it that
(07:04):
send him over the gravel actually managed to say. But
in the gravel as well. It was where the gravel
joined back the timac. There's a little bit of a
lip there, like if you think of a sand trap
or something like that, and that sent his car out
of control quite a bit crash for I think we
can still call him. The rookies have three races last season.
But as Let's says, a rookies a new driver for
this season anyway, big one, big repair for half as well,
(07:25):
all of attendity's confidence.
Speaker 3 (07:26):
But the good thing is if.
Speaker 4 (07:27):
You're going to do it, you may as well do
it an FP one then when there's plenty of time
to make repairs. And he should be getting back out
this afternoon as well to make a end.
Speaker 1 (07:34):
For more from Sports Talk, listen live to News Talk
sa'd be from seven pm weekdays, or follow the podcast
on iHeartRadio.
You're listening to the Sports Talk podcast with Duncie Wildergrave
from News Talk ZEDB.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
Well, here it is Formula One season gets under way
twenty twenty five Albert Park. It is unrolled.
Speaker 3 (00:19):
What have we learned?
Speaker 2 (00:19):
If anything? We've got all of the cat and mouse
going on with pre season. Now we're starting to see
what the cars have laid down. What can you tell
us out of free practice one if anything?
Speaker 4 (00:31):
Yeah, I mean, if you're still early. But it is
a little bit more representative than anything we saw in
preseason testing, just because when we get into the rhythm
of a weekend, the cut and thrust of it, teams
start to run fairly similar programs, similar fuel loads, similar
engine usages, all all that kind of things.
Speaker 3 (00:46):
So it starts to become a little bit more easy
to compare.
Speaker 4 (00:50):
But that's it. You've got to take the times with
a grain of salt. But let's have a look at
them very quickly. And we saw Lando Norris top of
the order, and we feel like that's pretty representative. We
saw both McLaren sort of up there a Andugh Norris
very much at the top. Ferrari also looked pretty competitive,
not just because Charl Leclair was close on the soft tie.
He was about two tens off overall, but it was
actually runs on the medium tire where he looked actually
(01:12):
comparatively quick, so if the drivers had been on that
fast a tire. So it looks like McClaren ferrari A
emerging as the early favorites. I guess we expected, but
I don't think we've seen the fullhand from Mercedes or
Red Bull Racing either. And then of course Williams, I
don't think you're actually in the top four mix. We
heard from Team Visible James Vowels during the break between
practice sessions. He was saying, look, to break into the
(01:34):
top four would be too much. It is a really
positive sign though that they could be the team that
locks out those last two points paying position due to
the top ten.
Speaker 3 (01:42):
But as I said, very early, we don't know what
all the other.
Speaker 4 (01:45):
Teams have in store yet Fresh feature a little bit
more later on.
Speaker 2 (01:48):
What do we know about Liam Lawson? Of course most
of New Zealand hanging on well I am anyway with
everything he does. This is huge for the young man
to not only get a seat in Formula One, but
to get a Red Bull seat, and what you're saying
before about Max Verstepen, he's basically driving Max's car, working
for him.
Speaker 4 (02:07):
Yeah, I mean it's always going to be tough, not
only the challenge of going up against Max, but as
you say, Max's car, it's been developed in a way
that we've learned from Sergio Paris's troubles the last year
really suits Max more than anyone else. So the challenge
isn't just to size up to Max, meticize up to
Max in his own car still they say with him,
and I think what was really interesting with the Red
Bull and we saw this on Liam's car now, using
(02:27):
what's called flow Viz paint. It's like a fluorescent oil
that illustrates the airflow over the car. You do see
it occasionally in practice, and it is the first round
of the season. There's still a lot of learning going on,
but it does demonstrate or illustrate rather the Red Bull
Racing isn't as confident with its car if it doesn't
fully understand its car package. And we could kind of
see that on track. You know, Max was the quicker
(02:49):
of the jew not that surprising, but even he was
running off into the gravel, kicking.
Speaker 3 (02:53):
Up stones at various points.
Speaker 4 (02:54):
We saw Liam right at the start rush against the wall,
no major damage done to that, but seem to be
running still this evaluation program. If you like this team
that still has a lot of honing of its car
to do, it knows that. So I think actually we
really won't see Red Bull ten probably until tomorrow, unless
they're really confident later today, because I think this still
really is them trying to figure out where that sweet
(03:15):
spot of the car is.
Speaker 3 (03:17):
There's a longer process than it is for McLaren and
Ferrari team.
Speaker 2 (03:20):
Michael Lemonata joins us from Fox Sport. He's named tividdan motormouth,
petrol head, whatever you want to call it. You don't
mind me saying that, do you? Michael know you don't
say big surprises out of FP one. Is there anything
that make your eyebrows sit back?
Speaker 3 (03:34):
Well? I mean William's pace was a big one.
Speaker 4 (03:36):
I was really hoping Carlos signs of top po ssession,
just because it would have made a better news story
immediately after FB one, but his pace was still really impressive.
Now he was actually the quickest driver after freeze is
in testing if memory does serve, But again, Priezas are
testing times are one thing.
Speaker 3 (03:52):
I don't think we're expecting.
Speaker 4 (03:53):
Them to be in the in the top among the
top four teams, but it's a really big statement of
intent because if we assume that the top four teams
and I mean the top eight drivers have a representative weekend,
nothing weird happens, there are only two places left to
score points, only two places left to break into Q three,
so that battle is actually really intense. We were thinking
it was going to be Williams and Alpine and maybe
(04:16):
Aston or Hass, but they were much more uncertained after testing.
Here's a big statement from Williams saying, no, it's going
to be ours. We're going to be the ones that
are going to be doing this. If they keep even
a semblance of that pace. Again, we don't expect them
to actually be competing for those top eight places. That
would be very impressive because let's not forget this team
finished ninth the Constructors Championship last year. They're a little
bit better than that. Looks they were sort of bumped
(04:37):
down the order by some misfortune, but really positive step
forward for a team that's not actually targeting performance this year,
they're targeting being ready for next year, really revolutionizing, modernizing
that team for the new rules next season. So this
should be a massive result if they could pull off
a comfortable or a confident double top ten Perier.
Speaker 2 (04:56):
And the Australian fans forgiven Liam Lawson for taking Ricardo's seat.
I mean they really to embrace them, now, do you think, Michael.
Speaker 3 (05:04):
I think so.
Speaker 4 (05:05):
Look be interesting. I think we'll learn more over the
course of the season. But I do get the sense,
and it is an interesting question because it's really around
this time that we do get the sense of the
general mood of the fans, but that people have moved
on from Daniel Ricardo calling it quits in Formula one,
if you like, I feel like Australia has made peace
with it. We have Oscar Piastri. Of course they're all
hoping can be a race winner and championship contender, but.
Speaker 3 (05:27):
I think Lea, it will be forgiven. I think it's okay.
Speaker 2 (05:30):
What we're really looking forward to is plainly race day.
Speaker 4 (05:33):
Now.
Speaker 2 (05:33):
It's been reasonably warm in Melbourne today. Tomorrow you're looking
at mid thirties yelch, and then it's going to hose
down on Sunday. It's going to throw the cat amongst
the pigeons, and from a New Zealand perspective, that's a
good thing.
Speaker 3 (05:45):
Liam likes the rain, yes, but so does.
Speaker 4 (05:48):
Max of course as well, so it could be a
good thing for Red Bull racing in general. If they
really are struggling, maybe they'll get a one two out
of considering that they weren't going to win this race.
The weather is typically Melbourne, but I would also cavet
that the forecast is typically Melbourne. Who knows if we're
going to get any of those numbers all those range.
It does look like thirty five to forty tomorrow, which
will be really hot. And let's not forget in qualifyings
when the team's set up there locking their car setups
(06:10):
rather for the race. They can't change them after qualifying,
so all of a sudden it does hose it down.
Like you're saying, that forecast rain has been an increasing
amount of rain as we get closer to the weekend,
so it does seem like that's probably going to happen.
Then we could find some teams having made the wrong
set up compromises on Saturday, So I think that's the
ideal setup. We'll get a picture of everyone's real pace
(06:31):
on Saturday finally gets some answers, then Sunday could be
a real mixed bag of teams making it up as
they go.
Speaker 2 (06:37):
Finally, Michael Watts with turned ten, there was a few
issues on that particular bend.
Speaker 4 (06:42):
It's super fast, that's the issue with so I've got
the issue. It's a great thing about turn nine and
ten that back Chicane. You're entering that Chicine at three
hundred and twenty kilometers an hour or something like that,
something absurd, and which means the exit is also super
fast and you need a lot of confidence to get
on the power on exit there we saw Oliver them
and LOUI wasn't even that he went over the grass
at first. He had a little snap exiting it that
(07:04):
send him over the gravel actually managed to say. But
in the gravel as well. It was where the gravel
joined back the timac. There's a little bit of a
lip there, like if you think of a sand trap
or something like that, and that sent his car out
of control quite a bit crash for I think we
can still call him. The rookies have three races last season.
But as Let's says, a rookies a new driver for
this season anyway, big one, big repair for half as well,
(07:25):
all of attendity's confidence.
Speaker 3 (07:26):
But the good thing is if.
Speaker 4 (07:27):
You're going to do it, you may as well do
it an FP one then when there's plenty of time
to make repairs. And he should be getting back out
this afternoon as well to make a end.
Speaker 1 (07:34):
For more from Sports Talk, listen live to News Talk
sa'd be from seven pm weekdays, or follow the podcast
on iHeartRadio.
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