Big Storylines That Will Shape the Season Opener | 2025 Australian GP Preview

[00:00:00] Guys, this is a big moment. We've waited for Formula 1 to kickstart their season in Australia for years now. This is the true home of the first race of the Formula 1 calendar and we're back. F1 is going racing for the first time in 2025 at Albert Park, Melbourne and that Sundaram is just perfect. I'd say the perfect way to begin, in my opinion, one of the most perfect looking seasons in all of Formula 1. Eight potential winners this year, so many drivers competing for race wins.

[00:00:29] Lewis and Ferrari, Carlos and Williams, so many chopping and changing in terms of teams and drivers. I love this. This is just the way a Formula 1 season should begin and the hype is real for all of it. Oh, absolutely. It takes me back to my childhood days where Australia would always be the season opener and that's what I always remember it as. Australia is coming back as a season opener after nearly five years since 2019.

[00:00:52] But the interesting bit is, you know, throughout last year, there were barely any changes in the driver lineup and everyone expected it to be yet another Max Verstappen Red Bull dominating season. Something just turned on its head. Now everyone's talking about 2025, everyone's talking about how close it's going to be. There's as many as six rookies that's going to be on the grid. So, so many things have changed midway from 2024 to 2025. I am super excited to see what happens this weekend.

[00:01:17] And it's the 75th season in the history of Formula 1. You know, a sport that actually has... Yeah, okay. Sundaram always has a stat there. But anyway, I'll go with the official term. It was called the F1 75. Not because it is Mohamed Ben Salaam's favorite number. No, no, no. It was not because it is Stefano's favorite number because they claim till Sundaram says so. But anyway, it's the 75th season in the history of Formula 1.

[00:01:46] But I stand corrected or Sundaram will correct all of us. I can't stand a stat being wrongly mentioned. And I've literally been getting frustrated every time I see 75-75. The 75th season in Formula 1 happened last year. There were no celebrations for that of any sort. This is the 76th season in all of Formula 1. Many people still call it the 75th World Championship. That's not the case. It's the 75th anniversary later on this year, somewhere in May. 13th of May.

[00:02:13] I've touched 75... 13th of May. So, Formula 1 is still 74 years old. Coincidentally, it happens to be my wedding anniversary as well. Coincidentally. I promised you it was a coincidence. You picked a good day for that. Hey, but if Formula 1 can get it wrong, so can WWE. I remember WrestleMania 25. They call it the 25th anniversary of WrestleMania. Whereas that should have been WrestleMania 26. So, it's weird. Sports can get things confused. But they are excused so long as the action in the show is good.

[00:02:42] And this year, Formula 1 has so many interesting talking points heading into the first race of the season. Here are the 5 big things you need to know about the Australian Grand Prix. Starting off with the changes. And there are so many teams and drivers trying new combinations and just adapting to a new environment. Lewis and Ferrari being the biggest and boldest one. And trust me, we will touch upon that later in the episode in more depth. But there's Carl Oster-Williams. There's Ocon de Haas. There's Behrman now driving for Haas for full time.

[00:03:10] Kimi Antonelli in Mercedes. Isaac Hadjar at Visa Cash App Racing Bulls. Am I forgetting any, Kunal? Or is this... Jack Doon. Jack Doon. Yes, we are forgetting him. Because there's a good chance that this might be his first and last of Shreeling Grand Prix. So, I don't know how to take that. You know, I think you're spared for forgetting if you've forgotten anyone. Just because you remember Racing Bulls' full name. I'm never going to say the sponsors' names. But either way.

[00:03:36] What I'm looking forward to is actually the class of 2025 picture. Which you always see at the opening round of the season. And then I would love to compare that with the class of 2025 in Abu Dhabi. Because at least three or four drivers are in the mix for changing teams mid-season. Getting dropped. Being picked. Etc. Etc. So, that's one thing I'm looking for. And, you know, depending on who you ask, you have either four or five or six rookies.

[00:04:01] But I think Lewis Hamilton, Carlos Sainz, Nico Alkenberg, basically every driver changing teams are also rookies, so to say. Yeah, exactly. And there's not just the rookies and the teams and drivers changing teams to watch for. Because even within the teams, there's lots of dynamics that will now be different. McLaren, for instance, Sundaram. Lando Norris challenged for the World Championship last year. Or so we think he did. In reality, we all know it wasn't much of a championship challenge. But this year, it's a fresh start.

[00:04:31] And we don't know who is the number one driver at the team that's walking into this season as the Constructors World Champions. And who looked the most impressive in testing too. So, that to me is also a big, big thing. Who starts off the season on the front foot? And hence, who gets all the preferential treatment from McLaren as we go deeper in the year? I think it's going to be the case for as many as three teams. So, McLaren, Ferrari. To some extent, you're going to probably ask that question for Mercedes as well.

[00:04:58] I think Red Bull is the only team where you have a clear hierarchy between the number one and number two driver. But then at the start of every season, it's always going to be about who performs better for the first five, six races. Or probably even longer. And then you choose who's going to be your preferred driver. But in my opinion, Lando Norris is going to be very happy with the way how the last season ended for him. Sure, he was chasing his first win at the first half. There was a little bit of inconsistency somewhere in between. But he's kind of built himself to take poles consistently.

[00:05:28] And the fashion in which he ended the season from pole to finish at the most crucial juncture of McLaren's history in recent history, actually. He actually put a spotless race throughout. And they won the championship. So, I think he's going to be very confident with his chances for this year. The momentum is going to be very, very high. So, I am curious to see what Lando Norris and Oscar Piasti can bring in together this year. They're going to bring in a lot of papaya rules on the radio. I really hope.

[00:05:57] Which means that they are neck to neck. But truth be told, you know, Lando has been sounding confident. He's gone and in front of the fans, in front of the media said, I want to claim this championship. It's his best chance given that McLaren seemingly have the edge. But does he really have it in him mentally to do that? I'm sure he's worked over it on the weekend. He's worked over it through the winter. But literally, he has to go all guns blazing from Australia itself. And can you imagine a 24 race calendar?

[00:06:26] But if you falter, if you take pole but lose the lead on the opening lap of the race, again, he's going to have to work even harder on getting things right for 25. So, that's what I'm looking forward to this weekend. But there are more fun things as well. There are a few drivers who've been swearing on and off everywhere, whether it's in car, in the press conference. Will the FIA open their swearing jar account, okay, this weekend itself?

[00:06:53] Because, you know, the FIA now has a very severe financial penalty leading up to a race ban if you swear and use expletives, you know, in official sessions or official press conferences. I'd love to see if somebody even accidentally goes there because you could. You could have an accident on track. You know what we should do? You could have an accident on your mic. Yeah, exactly. And which is why we on the Inside Line F1 podcast will be the protectors of decent language.

[00:07:22] And we will keep track of every single swear word mentioned by a Formula 1 driver this year. And what the find for that was to see if the FIA are actually doing a good job. Because the drivers wanted accountability. The FIA wanted lack of swearing. We'll fill in the gap. We'll do it for you, FIA. We're the secret saviors. And speaking of the FIA, one more thing I am keeping a very keen eye on. Mohamed Ben Sulaim and his comments in the media. Because today, he's actually secured the one big goal that he was working towards relentlessly

[00:07:49] for the last few years, which was getting an 11th team in Formula 1. Let's just see how proud he will be and how badly he will puff his chest in the media. Because we know Ben Sulaim. And if there's anyone who loves to blow his own trumpet, it is him. So there's a lot going to happen this Australian GP. Along with FP1 as well, Kunal, isn't it? There's a lot of interesting things happening there. So, of course, teams have to run rookies in FP1. But, you know, if there are six rookies coming in, even though I don't think...

[00:08:17] I know that Behrman is not counted as a rookie officially. If you've done two or more races, you're not a rookie. So is Liam Lawson. But the likes of Hartjar, the likes of Jack Doohan, the likes of Gabriel Bortoleto. When they do FP1, the team will actually be striking of one out of the two FP1s that that particular driver is also going to do. So the rookies will be, you know, coming handy in two ways.

[00:08:42] Not only, you know, filling in for a race driver's seat, but also for a rookie's FP1 seat as well. Yeah, exactly. And that's one small thing that you should keep an eye out on this weekend. But before we proceed to the track characteristics and the other major stories and our hot takes and predictions, and also Lewis Hamilton, we must ask you to subscribe. Because a lot of our viewer base actually watches a lot of our content, but doesn't bother to click the subscribe button. So how else will you know if any other cool videos coming up?

[00:09:10] That's your cue to go and hit the subscribe button and also the bell notification to know when the Inside Line F1 podcast is posting next. That's what you have to do now. In return, right? We must tell you what to expect from this race. Starting out with the track characteristics and Melbourne. There's always an air of excitement around Melbourne Sundaram because the characteristics of the circuit are just so unlike any street circuit. Yes, we've got long straights and fast corners. We've got a lake in the middle. The tire degradation is not that high.

[00:09:40] There's lots of... There's a bit of track evolution, but not too much compared to other street circuits, which means it's largely down to how strategically you can manage out the tires. And in a two-stopper, it's very tricky to tell who can actually get the upper hand. Like last year, Carlos Sainz won, but that also came down to the fact that Max Verstappen had an issue with his battery pack. Well, absolutely. So Albert Park in that regard is very different from other street circuits. It's a semi-permanent circuit. I wouldn't call it a street circuit as such.

[00:10:07] You have four DRS zones here, which is something that you don't see at any other track, let alone street circuits. But the fact is that the track is very, very narrow. But over time, it does tend to favor the drivers who start on the front row statistically as well. But the big talking point over the past couple of years has been the number of overtakes. Since between 2017 to 2019, we barely had five overtakes on average at this track.

[00:10:34] But that's kind of risen to 23 overtakes ever since they made that little change in configuration to the track. So definitely overtaking is a lot more easier right now with that fourth DRS zone. But degradation is going to be another talking point. Since it's a street circuit, since the temperatures are going to be a little cooler, the track temperature is not going to be as compared to other race circuits. Tyres can slide around, degradation can be a big talking point,

[00:11:01] and you have to keep an eye out on all the teams and how they fare as well. Guys, one second. What are you guys actually talking about? Because this race is supposed to be an extremely hot race, or there's going to be thunderstorms, which means the rookies will be challenged. You know, Lewis Hamilton in a Ferrari in the rains is going to be epic to watch out for, including, you know, Max Verstappen in that Red Bull in the rain, should the rain come on the Sunday. But I remember from last year, we had that graphic of the four teams that won,

[00:11:31] which team actually won when it was really warm. And guess what? That was McLaren. So advantage McLaren yet again. But I know that Ferrari, this is actually a Ferrari circuit. Two out of the last three races that we've had here have been won by Ferrari. Of course, one caveat being that, you know, Max Verstappen actually had a retirement last year as well. And in fact, both the Ferrari drivers have scored off, you know, Carlos Sainz being the former Ferrari driver, having scored, you know, a point there as well.

[00:11:59] But all in all, it's a beautiful circuit to go out to. Semi-permanent street circuit, as we call it. 11-hour time difference between the racetrack and the bases where the teams will have remote operations. So, you know, jet lag, dealing with time zone differences, etc., becomes another challenge for all the teams. We constantly hear these things of how, you know, simulator drivers spend the whole night at the simulator back in the base so that the team could make changes as well. And in fact, track evolution is very high.

[00:12:29] Since now F3 and F2 also visit this race weekend. So you guys were right, before F3, F2 came, track evolution was not as high. The circuit would go back to being green. But now with F3 and F2 racing, track evolution is fairly high to look forward to as well. But one of my favorite things is the pit lane speed limit. Cars are actually spending just about 13 seconds at pit lane speed limit, which means there is an incentive to make an extra stop if one has to.

[00:12:58] And Pirelli are yet again bringing one of their softest tire compounds to this race, just as they did last year. But Sundaram, you said four DRS zones. And I'll tell you what I'm thinking of. I'm already thinking of the first mini DRS controversy coming up this race weekend itself. The FIA will be monitoring things, especially on Ferrari and McLaren's, you know, rear wing with the mini DRS flaps. But also the flexi wings at the front, which we will see flexing,

[00:13:27] are going to stop flexing a few races in the season as well. It's a beautiful fast and flowing circuit with, you know, medium to high downforce. In fact, lots of fast flowing corners, especially the ones from 10, 11, 9, 10 and 11. So look out for that. Lots of overtaking opportunities out there. And the S at the end, man. That left-right, I can't even call it a chicane, but that quick section of corners that we have at the end before the double right-handers. Beautiful. That is what Melbourne is all about.

[00:13:56] And just wait for all the videos to come up from the fans to show you just how fast a Formula One car can get through that race. It's unbelievable. Speaking of fast though, the big question for this weekend is how fast does Lewis Hamilton actually adapt to Ferrari? And not just, not just in terms of the team environment, because keep all the pleasantries aside, keep all the PR aside, keep all the photo shoots and all the magazine interviews aside. It all boils down to one big question.

[00:14:25] How competitive can Lewis Hamilton actually be in the car? And for me, that's going to be the big story to watch for this weekend. Even though someone else might end up winning the race, and even though we might see 50 crashes or a red flag, or I don't know, rain coming in as well, the headlines will still be on Lewis Hamilton. So we must talk about him for a second. And my big question in all of it is, just how quickly does he learn? Because Lewis Hamilton is known to be someone whose style of learning is very different to others.

[00:14:53] As James Rawls mentioned on the High Performance Podcast, lovely interview by the way. Lewis's way of learning is by making a mistake, and then working backwards now that he's found the limit. So it might take him a lot of time, and he might not have as many consistent laps, but ultimately he knows the limit. And once he gets there, we know that Lewis Hamilton has an eighth gear that nobody else ever can get to. And that to me is going to be just such an exciting thing to watch. Just how close is he to Charles Leclerc on the very, very first day.

[00:15:21] And then there's also other things around it, Kunal, because he's in a team with Charles Leclerc, who's the prince of Ferrari, and we're all assuming that Lewis is going to be the slower one in the first race, but we're not quite sure of what the gap is going to be at the end. Again, that's, you know, I love this. New season, new assumptions. Lewis Hamilton opening race of the season is going to be slower than Charles Leclerc. Well, why not? You know, there are two assumptions to be made. Either he's slower or he's faster. You made one.

[00:15:49] But I think eventually what will happen is what his gap is to Leclerc. So whether he's slower or whether he's faster, so long as they've had clean runs, if the gap is within a tenth, tenth and a half, or at best two tenths, I think it's going to be a very successful debut at Ferrari, even if he doesn't win. Although, you know, I think Raikkonen and Alonso, the two drivers recent times who won on their Ferrari debut, if Lewis Hamilton can win on debut,

[00:16:20] it could very well be, you know, that's the most successful way of measuring his success. But yeah, talking of gaps to Leclerc, a couple of tenths here and there, whether he's ahead or behind, it's just a couple of tenths that will define that. Okay, that means Lewis is comfortable even on single lap pace against a driver who's really well known for his single lap pace. Good question. Sundaram, where do you think Lewis has to finish? At least for this to be counted as a successful weekend.

[00:16:49] I'd say third. No, I think generally, even if he finishes in the top four or five, I think he's going to take the positives out of it because the thing is, for him, it's a lot more, I think it's arguably his biggest change in his F1 career. He's not just changing engines, but he's changing teams, team culture. And there is so much more that you have to really get accustomed to when you're joining Ferrari from whichever team you're joining. So it's, of course, going to be a big challenge for him, but if he's competitive, and like Kunal says,

[00:17:19] you know, a tenth or two, it's ultimately going to be how close he is to Leclerc and the others. I doubt you can really put, a podium is going to be a great win. A podium is going to be a very positive one. But the interesting thing is, Lewis Hamilton has, just switches on around certain tracks. Silverstone, he does that. He does that in Hangar Oring. And Australia is also one of those tracks. Not on race day though, but in qualifying. Because he's taken eight pole positions around Melbourne, which is the second most that he's taken at one track. Hangar Oring,

[00:17:48] he's had nine pole positions. Interesting fact is, whenever Australia has hosted the season opener in the hybrid era, there's only one pole sitter. There's always been just one pole sitter, and that is Lewis Hamilton. Will he put his car on pole this time? It's difficult, but if he puts it on pole, people are going to go crazy. Yeah, and to add to that, Lewis Hamilton is a great adapter to new machinery. Think about the greatest rookie season in Formula 1 history. Who delivered it? Who was fighting for a world championship

[00:18:17] in their first year in Formula 1? There was none other than Lewis Hamilton. That was 2007 when he was with McLaren, and he won a race, I think eight or ten races into his Formula 1 career. Then, 2013, he joined Mercedes after leaving McLaren. The very successful McLaren. And most people said, that's a crazy move. Why would you do that? Why would you join a mid-table team instead of staying at McLaren, who have been world champions for such a long time? Their answer was what they were building for the future, and Lewis Hamilton ended up winning a race by the mid-season mark

[00:18:47] yet again. It's clear, Lewis in a new car, it's not going to be too much of an issue. I think it's just a matter of time, and it will be phenomenal to see where exactly he can be at the end of this race. But if there's one thing going against him, Kunal, it's the lack of testing time. He only did one in a, what, a day and a half in testing, and that's not enough for anyone, let alone, I mean, if you're a rookie, that's terrible, but if you're an eight-time world champion like Lewis, that still stings you. Actually, you know, I have a different view on that because Ferrari have thrown everything

[00:19:17] they could at Lewis Hamilton in pre-season. and all the TPC tests that they're allowed the number of kilometers, they maxed it with Lewis Hamilton. Lewis Hamilton's driven, I think, three generations of Ferrari cars. In fact, at the event they did in Milan, he drove the Sebastian Vettel Ferrari car as well for doing donuts and the road show. So I think they've thrown everything at him. They've given him all the TPC mileage, so much so that any of the Ferrari juniors wanting to do TPC

[00:19:47] this year probably don't have the mileage remaining anyway because Ferrari's decided to give that to Lewis. So, you know, frankly, Lewis's start at Ferrari while everyone's going to be scrutinizing every point of data they can get from Australia. The key thing to remember is that how well he feels settled in, right? There will be a gap to Leclerc, like I said, whether he's ahead or behind, but what do I mean by settling in? How are they reacting

[00:20:16] to his, you know, qualifying position? There are lots of times we've seen Leclerc being like, why was I sent out mid-pack? Okay, how well do they time out his releases in qualifying? How do they give him the maximum chance to get in as many laps towards the end? Or how do they deal with mixed weather conditions? Since that's coming, we've often laughed on Ferrari's pit lane calls and their strategy and so on. So, how they fit in well. Remember, Lewis is not somebody who's new to this. He's probably seen them

[00:20:46] on social media much as we have, and when he was a Mercedes driver, he's probably had a laugh as well. So, he would have gone through with his team understanding that why did that mistake happen or why was that call taken? And he would have sort of worked on building what he would call it as his trust level with his set of engineers and mechanics. All of that is going to be tested. All of that is where he eventually, you know, his comfort level with his team is where we should, we'll never see it

[00:21:15] from the outside, but that's what he's going to be, you know, sort of building on from the inside so that he gets a better start into the season as a whole. It's 24 races that he's going to be doing that. And I'm actually looking forward to some of the fun things. Could Lewis Hamilton drive into the Mercedes pit box? You know, he's done that before. When he moved to Mercedes, he drove into the McLaren pit box. And if Ferrari actually fight for the win, this is the controversial part. Could they be using team orders,

[00:21:46] right? If Lewis is, you know, second and Charles is just leading, could they tell Lewis do not attack because they want to bank in the one and two? It could well be happening. You know, a team's wanting one and two finishes could, you know, either use team orders or say keep it clean, guys, and so on. So could that be something? And I'd love to see how Leclerc is handling the pressure because I think in the car, he's not going to be, he's going to be unfazed by whoever his teammate is. But, you know,

[00:22:15] every time a Ferrari driver's on stage, there are claps. And if that Ferrari driver's Lewis Hamilton, there are two X the claps. Okay, so from being the prince of Ferrari, suddenly the emperor is here. How will Leclerc take that and could that impact him in the car as well? The emperor or the don? What are we calling him? I think the don. Don of Ferrari, you know? I'd love the don as well. I'd love that photo shoot he did with the F40 and Enzo's home. And yeah, that's more like it. But no,

[00:22:44] it's taken us 23 minutes to talk about Charles Leclerc, which means that on the 23rd minute, we're also going to talk about Max Verstappen then because we can't ignore our driver's world champion for that long. And I find it incredible that this weekend, amidst Lewis Hamilton's debut in Ferrari, we're also going to see Max Verstappen at Red Bull Racing and it'll be phenomenal to see just how everything mixes and merges around, which then leads us to also a few questions that we've gotten on social media and we'd love to answer them.

[00:23:13] This one is from Pogo Wheels. Let's just get to it before we get to our small news of the week from Formula 1, which is a fun segment we're willing to introduce as well. Pogo Wheels has asked us, Do you think McLaren will still be the team to beat? Where do you think Red Bull will stand? And also, as a pundit, what are the challenges and difficulties you guys face at the starting of a Formula 1 season? I think, I think it's a good one. Let's answer the last one first because it also gives us a chance to give a life update of sorts.

[00:23:43] This year, Kunal's going to be broadcasting in the Wireplay studios as an F1 pundit, as always. He's going to be on TV for most of the races talking to you about Formula 1 and giving insights. Sundaram's numbers are always going to be on social media and he's, of course, part of the WTF1 talent group. He's also doing so many incredible things and Sundaram, there's one piece of news that we're waiting for you to share but I don't think now is the right time or now is the right platform. So, I'll wait for you to break whatever has to be broken and we'll get to that later.

[00:24:13] There is no news. There is no news. There is no news. I have no clue what you're talking about. There is no news at this point. At this point, yes. It sounds like I'm dismissing rumours like how Bollywood folks do it. Strictly, we're just friends. We're just good friends. No, but there's no news at this point at least. If at all there is one, I won't shy away from announcing it. But you are going to Bahrain and you're going to be attending a lot more races this year while providing stats to so many other racing championships as well. I hope so. I can.

[00:24:43] So, I am going to Bahrain. That's the one thing that's finalized. I'll see what else turns out this season. No, it's going to be phenomenal and this year, we're also getting a chance to be having Hindi commentary in India and this is courtesy of FanCone and I get the opportunity to host that. I'm going to be the commentator for Formula 1 in India. It's a culmination of a lifelong dream in which both of these gentlemen have also helped me so much to get here. So, for us preparing, I mean, I can tell

[00:25:12] on behalf of all three of us, we're always, always talking about Formula 1. Like, even in the winter, there wasn't a single day when we weren't talking about Formula 1 or what to do this year or who's going to be good or what the big storylines are going to be and Sundaram's always researching the numbers in the back. Kunal and I are always looking at the news and trying to figure out different ways or different guests so we can get on the show to talk about it. So, I don't think that preparation is any hard, right? Is it Kunal? Because this is just our life. We live and breathe Formula 1 every single day. We do and congratulations

[00:25:42] on your appointment for being one of the voices of F1 in India with the official broadcaster. It's a dream you've been seeing since you were 8 years old and I will always remember the day when your dad wrote to me when you were 8 years old saying, my son wants to be a broadcaster and I said, please just let him go have fun. So, you've had all the fun on the mic, several thousands of hours on the mic commentating with lots of virtual networks, the Indian Racing League and everything else that's come your way including WWE as well. So, congratulations,

[00:26:12] very proud and I think this is where I'm going to test a Riverside recording tool update that we have. After two years, we finally used it. It's madness. It is madness. But there's going to be more reasons to celebrate. But that's to answer your question, Bogo Wheels. It is our life and we're always doing Formula 1. So, for us, there aren't any challenges and difficulties apart from finding time

[00:26:41] for other things in life because Formula 1 is always the first thing we're doing. I'll tell you the challenge. The challenge is finishing our episode within a prescribed time limit. That's almost never happened. Yes. So, that's one challenge. Yes. Which is why we should answer your question and it's a good one. Do you think McLaren will still be the team to beat? Where do you think Red Bull will stand? And this question actually, very conveniently takes us on to my favorite segment

[00:27:10] on the Inside Line F1 podcast and it's bold of me to say my favorite even though it's the first time we're introducing it. It's time for hot takes and predictions because it'll be easy for us to say, oh, Red Bull will be great and McLaren will be decent and so on and so forth. Let's just put our money where our mouth is. Let's just call the predictions and let's actually see which team we think is going to be right at the very top and this time there are added stakes to it because the winner of our prediction competition throughout the entire season is going to get a crown and a sash

[00:27:39] because prediction competition winner and you're the king so you need to get something like that. So, we will start with you Sundaram then. This is a question from our friend Pogo Wheels. McLaren, Red Bull, who do you think gets it? Who do you think firstly gets Paul in Australia? Paul in Australia will be McLaren. That's what I feel. I think it could be Lando Norris but I just have this feeling that they might not win the race. It might be Charles Leclerc and Ferrari. It might be George Russell. Maybe if Max Verstappen finds some pace

[00:28:09] over there, it might be him. I have a feeling it might not be McLaren on race day. I would pick a Ferrari on pole. I can't pick which driver. It'll be something if it's Lewis and Ferrari on pole. It'll be madness. You know, Carlos Sainz said every race is a home race if you're a Ferrari driver and Lewis is somebody who loves the adulation of the public and if that public adulation, he's going to face that 2x, 5x than he's ever done that before. He's ever faced before now that he's a Ferrari driver. Could that get him there? You never know.

[00:28:40] But Oscar Piastri, you know, it's his home race. He knows his gap to Lando Norris last year was the longest that he could have towards the end of the season. So I would say it'll be a Hamilton versus Norris versus Leclerc versus Piastri. And if it's cooler conditions, maybe Red Bull in the mix as well. But for the race win, I get a feeling it's going to be a Ferrari driver. It's a Ferrari circuit. All in all. And

[00:29:10] if Ferrari versus McLaren is tight, I get a feeling the Ferrari drivers are just going to come out on top. One second. I don't like the sound of this. Guys, we're meant to pick one prediction. Not two. Like, we're meant to have one driver, not one driver within the two drivers of a certain team. Let's just put our neck out there. Come on. And you have the numbers to back it up, Sundaram. You have the numbers to back up your predictions. We don't. Absolutely. But I'm specifically asking about one thing. Do you think Oscar Piastri is going to be on the podium this weekend? Yes.

[00:29:40] And or not? Yes. Yeah. Because if he does that, he's going to be the first Australian to be on podium, on the podium at his home race because Australian drivers have taken four titles, 43 wins, and 132 podiums or probably more in Formula 1. But none of them have managed to do it on home soil. Daniel Ricciardo was on the podium back in 2015, 2014, but he got disqualified after he was on the podium. I think they exceeded their fuel flow limit.

[00:30:08] So if Oscar Piastri or Jack Doohan stands on the podium, it'll be the first time an Australian does it on home soil. Mark Webber has never done it. What? It's also Liam Lawson's home-ish race, right? Let's see if that's... Home-ish. Home-ish. Yeah. But I'd love to get a pecking order. One thing difficult as a Pandit opening race of the season is reading the pecking order. Nobody can do that. Okay. And that's... Somal, your prediction is pending by the way. I see you've run away

[00:30:38] from predictions since Carlos Sainz. Everyone's prediction is pending. Nobody's told me who's going to win the race and who's going to be first in qualifying. Okay. I'll start this one. I'm going to say even though I'm an Oscar Piastri fan and I love his grit, I think this is Lando Norris' year and he begins it in style. Lando for the pole and Lando for the race win. It's bold. It is a prediction though. How is it bold if you put the fastest driver in the fastest car from pre-season testing on... I don't know. It's bold to put him for the race win

[00:31:08] after he bottles up all the opening laps. Fine. I give that to you. Okay. Sundarab. I'm going Lando with pole and Shah Leclerc with the race win. I'm going Leclerc with pole and Piastri for the race win. Nice. Wow. Which means that Parikshit has got to pick. Parikshit is our producer by the way who's just telling us in our ear that we've got to wrap up the episode. It's 30 minutes already and on his behalf I'm just going to say Lewis Hamilton to win because one part of the brain

[00:31:37] is always connected to the part that's going to... What am I saying? Let me articulate this correctly. One part of our brain is always linked to the heart and the heart will always say Lewis and Ferrari they've got to win on their debut. So yeah, Parikshit has said Lando Norris for pole and Lewis Hamilton for the win. So three of us are thinking by our mind one of us is thinking by our heart. I love that balance. That's the way to go. But very quickly guys if we have to pick a hot take and this is something we're trying out this year what would that hot take?

[00:32:07] No, no. Before that, I'm surprised no one's mentioned Max Verstappen at all in our final predictions. It's my hot take. Okay, let me get to it then. Hot take. Go for it. If Max does not win, if Max does not win for the first time in literally three years, someone else is going to be leading the driver's standings. Over a thousand days, consecutive days that too, he's been at the very top of the driver's championship and if he does not win this race,

[00:32:36] someone else is going to finally stand atop on the driver's standings. Okay, now let's move to Kunal's hot takes. Yeah, my hot take is that if it rains, Max is in contention for the race win because rains, I think 60 odd percent chance. But I'm putting it out there. But could this already be that weekend where Red Bull, Max don't fire, they realize their issues are more symptomatic and there's a larger issue and it's actually not symptomatic and it's the first non-Adrian new car since whatever, 15,

[00:33:06] 18 years. You guys know the math. Could this be that first weekend already when Max Verstappen leaving Red Bull for Mercedes just starts happening? Oh, yeah, that could be interesting, you know. There's just so much happening. That's, but you can never count Max Verstappen outright. He's Max freaking Verstappen. He's always going to be up there which is why my hot take is actually contradicting that because I've used my,

[00:33:35] I've used my brain for my bold prediction so for my hot take I'm going to go with my heart completely. I think Red Bull Racing are struggling, are going to struggle to have, okay, let's just start from the scratch. I think Red Bull Racing are going to struggle to have a car in the top three of any consequential session which means qualifying and the race. So I'm saying no Red Bull Racing car will be on the podium or also in the top three in qualifying which sounds crazy considering the domination they've had but I've not seen much to convince me otherwise

[00:34:04] so we'll see, we'll find out. We'll find out. I'm not going to put a lot of logic into my hot takes this is what I feel. Liam Lawson goes out in Q2, Kimi Antonelli qualifies in the top five, Oliver Baiman makes it into Q3. No chance. No chance. It's supposed to be hot. It's supposed to be a hot take so I'm going all in. I put another hot take Carlos Sainz to get out qualified by Alexander Albin because I think Australia is another Albin circuit.

[00:34:33] He loves this for some reason but they're going to be very, very close. Again, guys, do not worry if your favorite driver is out qualified or out, you know, just see what that gap is. That gap is so crucial. If it's a couple of attempts here and there, that's fine. It's just the first race of the season. There's 23 other races to have weird hot takes for. Exactly. And this might just be the closest Formula 1 season ever because the rules are not changing that much. Lots of new drivers have come in into new teams and are going to challenge the established pecking order

[00:35:03] and the regulations being similar has also allowed more teams to get closer to the top teams which means Formula 1 is going to be crazy this year and there's every reason for you to watch the Australian GP and if you'd like it, watch it in Hindi with us as well. It'll be phenomenal. But this has been us on the Inside Line F1 podcast and we're going to see you on Sunday afternoon for our post-race review show. Two and a half hours after the race, we're going to be live with an episode on the Inside Line F1 podcast so make sure you've subscribed to our YouTube channel

[00:35:32] and also the podcast on any audio platforms that you're listening watching and listening guys. We'll see you on Sunday. Bye-bye.