2012 Qantas Australian Grand Prix Preview

After 12 days of pre-season testing and months of preparation by the various teams’ and drivers’, the opening race of the 2012 Formula 1 season is now upon us. Once again, the season will begin in Australia on the 5.303km Albert Park temporary street circuit.

Since Albert Park began hosting the Australian Grand Prix in 1996, it has been the opening race of the season each year except for the 2006 and 2010 seasons when the Bahrain Grand Prix was the opening race of the season. Beforehand, the Australian Grand Prix was the closing race of the season when it was run on the daunting 3.780km Adelaide street circuit from 1985 to 1995.

Both circuits have hosted classic races, making the Australian Grand Prix both a superb start and end to a Formula 1 season. The weather can sometimes throw a surprise, with the 1989, 1991 and 2010 races all notable for being rain affected.

With Caterham replacing Jarno Trulli with Russian Vitaly Petrov for 2012, this years Australian Grand Prix will be the first race without an Italian driver since 1973. The 2012 race will also be the first time in the history of F1 that six former and current World Champions’ have lined up on the grid together with Sebastian Vettel, Fernando Alonso, Jenson Button, Lewis Hamilton, Michael Schumacher and Kimi Raikkonen. Incidentally all six drivers’ have won the Australian Grand Prix before.

The Australian Grand Prix dates back to 1928, when Arthur Waite won what was known as the 100 Miles Road Race in his Austin on the Philip Island circuit. The race wasn’t known as the Australian Grand Prix at the time, and didn’t assume the name until some years later. The 2012 race however will be the 77th Australian Grand Prix in history, and has been won the most times by Lex Davison (’54, ’57, ’58, ’61) and Michael Schumacher (’00, ’01, ’02, ’04).

After the dominance of Red Bull last season, many believe the field will be much closer come March 18th. The midfield teams look very closely matched, with Caterham now knocking on the door and potentially battling for points in 2012. With the Australian Grand Prix usually throwing up surprises throughout the weekend, a podium for any of these so-called “midfield” teams could well be on the cards. After all, Renault (now known as Lotus) achieved 3rd place last year with Vitaly Petrov.

This season’s race sees two DRS (Drag Reduction System) zones, which will be located down the start/finish straight and the run down the turn 3, with the detection zone being turn 14.

Ex-F1 driver Johnny Herbert will be the driver steward for the weekend, a role which has been part of the sport since 2010. Herbert won several races throughout his career, and took part in the same role twice last year at the Australian and Indian Grands Prix.

With pre-season testing offering us with no clear indication as to who looks prepared the best for the season-opener, FP1 will be our first true sign of who’s got their car right and who’s got their car potentially wrong. I simply can’t wait, 2012 has all the ingredients to be an absolute cracker!

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