Australia
WHAT THE TEAMS SAID
RACE REACTIONS FROM THE FORMULA 1 LOUIS VUITTON AUSTRALIAN GRAND PRIX 2025
Kick Sauber
Nico Hulkenberg
"That's an absolutely positive result for the team. It definitely puts a smile on my face. We didn't see that coming after our qualifying performance. Under the challenging conditions, we didn't make any mistakes and had a couple of good strategy calls. It was very difficult to keep that car on track and read the conditions. Street circuits under these circumstances are very unforgiving. You are constantly on the edge."
"Sometimes you got to be lucky. With others having some trouble, we stayed clean and rewarded ourselves with this nice six points."
Gabriel Bortoleto
"Unfortunately, the race didn’t end as we had hoped – which is a shame, as things were going quite well for me up until that moment. Once the Safety Car period ended, I found myself at the very back, tried to recover, but touched the kerb and ultimately ended up in the wall. We knew anything could happen in conditions like these; we gave it everything but pushed a little too hard.
"All in all, I think it’s safe to say my debut weekend went well aside from this, especially considering my qualifying result. It’s been a weekend of learning, getting to know the team and its dynamics even better. Now, I intend to keep working and improving as we look ahead to China."
Ferrari
Charles Leclerc
"It was a tough race and there are things we have to review and work on. We weren’t the fastest out there but in such weather conditions, there was a chance of scoring some big points which we didn’t capitalise on.
"There are two things we have to look into. The first is easy, [spinning at Turn 11] was my mistake. The second is something we will sort out as a team, looking into our decisions and making sure we make the right call if the situation comes up again.
"It’s a continuous process of improvement. We are disappointed but it’s good to know we’ll be back in the car in China to give it another go."
Lewis Hamilton
"Not the start we wanted but there’s lots to take away and work on. The start was okay, but I lost momentum out of Turn 1 on the outside of Charles and got stuck behind Albon for most of the race.
"The rain always mixes things up and strategy comes down to timing and a bit of luck. We took a gamble and made up places, but then boxing too late for Inters cost us, dropping us to the back of the top 10 with too much ground to recover.
"I struggled with the balance, but it was an important race for learning more about the car and in different weather conditions, as well as gaining more experience working with a new team. McLaren and Red Bull had serious pace, so there’s work to do, but we’ll dig deep. I’m looking forward to getting back in the car in China."
Alpine
Pierre Gasly
"After such a tough race in really challenging conditions, it is definitely a disappointing feeling to leave without scoring points. It was a lottery out there and I felt like we did well to stay in the mix for the majority of the race. The rain shower at the end ultimately decided things with some drivers benefitting from pitting earlier and others, like us, taking a gamble to go a lap or two later. That is the way it goes sometimes.
"I am pleased with the competitiveness of our overall package. We have shown we have strong pace and I am confident going into next weekend in China, so we’ll focus on the positives as a team and move on."
Jack Doohan
"It was an unfortunate end to an overall positive weekend. It was the result of a combination of factors which we will go over together as a team to learn from and ensure it does not happen again. It is a tough way to learn but I have digested what happened and put it behind me to focus on what is ahead. The positive learnings from the weekend outweigh the outcome.
"We will regroup as a team and aim to come back even stronger [in Shanghai]. Overall, the weekend has been great, the fans have been amazing, the atmosphere was incredible, and to have the opportunity to drive in front of a home crowd for my season debut has been special."
Racing Bulls
Isack Hadjar
"I feel embarrassed, and I can only learn from my mistake and apologise to the team. There were tricky conditions out there, and from the installation laps, I felt very low grip and poor confidence.
"In the formation lap, I tried to prepare the tyres as much as I could, but unfortunately, I had a spin and the car was unsavable; I just felt like a passenger before hitting the wall. Now I look ahead to be ready to race in China next week."
Yuki Tsunoda
"The timing of the pit didn’t go our way, it was too late and suddenly I dropped to P11 after the Safety Car. The pace was there and we didn’t make many mistakes, until the last bit of rain. I did what I can, I was pretty happy with how my performance was.
"We’ll definitely revise what happened and learn from this for the future. We need to make sure we’re not making the same mistakes, especially with the field being so tight this year, every single point is very important. It’s not ideal, but we can take a lot of positives; we had pace and if we can maximise performance, we can have a good race weekend, we’ll just have to keep performing like this and come back strong."
Haas
Esteban Ocon
"It’s really the performance we missed out on this race, if we had a little bit more we would’ve been in the mix for points. The cars were fighting in front and I was just there, there was no position for me to get inside the top 10, I just couldn’t keep up unfortunately.
"We need to give it a good look – it’s not what we’ve seen, so it’s quite unexpected to be where we are – but I’m sure we’ll turn it around."
Oliver Bearman
"The aim of today was to get the laps in and collect data. I’m quite happy with my performance, I felt like I executed things well.
"There are a few things where we lost a bit of time, but when you’re not fighting for points it’s the time to try things, and it just didn’t work this time – now on to China."
