The Last Time We Raced Here: Australia Edition 🇦🇺

What happened last time the team turned up Down Under.

This

weekend

return

Australia

race

for

the

first

time

since

2019.

OK,

were

there

2020,

but

everyone

remembers

the

race

was

cancelled

due

COVD-19.

And

with

that

mind

thought

we’d

give

you

little

refresher

what

happened

when

raced

here

three

years

ago.

G'Day Max

New

Driver

Albert Park was the location for the season opener in 2019 and it was going to be the first race for the team with new driver Pierre Gasly. The Frenchman joined the team for the season and his appearance meant that it was the first time the team had raced in Australia without an Australian driver since 2006 – from 2007 to 2018 we had the services of Mark Webber and then Daniel Ricciardo.

New

Engine

Another new member to the team was our engine. After a 12-year relationship with Renault, the team decided to move in a new direction and partner with Honda. Toro Rosso had used them in the 2018 season and for 2019 we were going to use them in the back of our car too.

The Last Time We Were On Track Was Back In 2019

The

Race

Max qualified in P4 for race day behind both Mercedes’ of Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas, as well as Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel. Pierre was unable to make it out of Q1 and qualified P17.

At the start of the race Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc passed Max, but the Dutchman was able to get his position back quickly, where he stayed until the front runners started to pit. Max led the race on lap 24, but then pitted a lap later. He re-joined the action in P5, Leclerc pitted and that pushed Max back into P4.

On lap 31 Max was able to pass Vettel to move up into third, where he stayed until the end of the race, starting his season off with a podium and the first podium for Honda since 2008.

On Top Down Under

Pierre put in a solid performance as well, rising from P17 to P11 at the chequered flag, missing out by one place on collecting his first points for the team, on his debut.

So, without setting rubber on the track since 2019 and after our success in Saudi Arabia, the Team are keen to get back to Albert Park and on track. Free Practice One starts at 04:00GMT.