Chaos and Crashes: The First Races of 2025

Caryss Green, 25

The first race of the season was guaranteed to be chaotic, especially with 6 rookies on the grid and the rainy conditions. Ollie Bearman quickly became the first of the drivers to crash, after his early exit from FP1. Several other drivers followed suit during the race, with Carlos Sainz, Fernando Alonso, Jack Doohan, Gabriel Bortoleto, Liam Lawson, and Isack Hadjar all having early exits from the Grand Prix. Hadjar crashed on the formation lab before the race start. He was visibly upset, and Lewis Hamilton’s father, Anthony Hamilton, was seen comforting Hadjar afterwards.

The only rookies to finish the race were Bearman and Kimi Antonelli. Antonelli was the only rookie to not crash during the race weekend, and he even finished the race in P4, scoring 12 championship points for himself and Mercedes.

After starting on the front row in P2, Oscar Piastri nearly joined the long list of early exits after his car ended up in the grass on the edge of the track. Luckily, his home race didn’t end in a DNF as Piastri was able to reverse his car onto the tarmac and reenter the track. Although he rejoined near the back of the pack, Piastri raced his way back up into the points, finishing P9.

Piastri’s teammate, Lando Norris, won the Grand Prix, scoring 25 points and putting himself first in the World Drivers’ Championship standings, effectively ending Max Verstappen’s streak of leading the championship.

The final spot on the podium belonged to George Russell. Russell started beside Piastri in P2, but Norris was able to get by him during the race. Antonelli finished in 6th, scoring the Mercedes team more points in the championship.

Following the chaos that was the race in Melbourne, the Chinese Grand Prix had plenty of ups and downs of its own. Lewis Hamilton began the weekend on a high after he qualified on pole for the sprint race from which he earned his first victory with Ferrari. Hamilton then went on to finish 6th in the race on Sunday with his teammate Charles Leclerc finishing 5th. At the end of the race, both Ferrari cars were inspected, and on Hamilton’s car, it was found that the rear skid block was below the 9 mm thickness required. A document was released following the hearing stating “The plank assembly of Car 44 was measured and found to be 8.5 mm (LHS), 8.6 mm (car centerline), and 8.5 mm (RHS). This is below the minimum thickness of 9 mm specified under Article 3.5.9 of the Technical Regulations.” Leclerc’s car weighed in at 799 kg when the minimum is 800. Due to the breaches of the Technical Regulations, both Ferrari cars were disqualified. Similarly, Pierre Gasly’s car weighed in at 799 kg post-race, resulting in his disqualification as well.

Unfortunately for Liam Lawson, his poor showings in Australia and China were not the end of his misfortune. Lawson qualified P18 in Australia, and P20 in both the Sprint and the Race in China. Red Bull expressed their discontent for his poor performance and their desire for him to improve quickly, but after the first two races, the team decided that swift action was necessary. Yuki Tsunoda is to replace Lawson at Red Bull for the remainder of the season, putting Lawson into the VCARB seat. Although with Red Bull’s history with second drivers, Tsunoda may suffer the same fate.