Grand Prix Melbourne 2024 LIVE updates: Race day arrives and the ...

The first time the world sees Lewis Hamilton race in the famous rossa corsa red of Ferrari will be at next year’s Australian Grand Prix, as Melbourne returns to the prized position of hosting the opening race of the F1 season.

Following Hamilton’s thunderbolt announcement last month that he was leaving the Mercedes team he helped take to eight straight Constructors’ Championships to join Ferrari, F1 has assured the Australian Grand Prix Corporation and Victorian government that the first race of 2025 will be held at Albert Park.

Lewis Hamilton’s first race for Ferrari will be at next year’s Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne.Credit: Eddie Jim

Although the release of the full F1 calendar for 2025 is several months away and subject to approval by the FIA’s World Motorsport Council, the Australian Grand Prix’s return to season pole position could be confirmed as early as this race weekend.

The scheduling was prematurely – and briefly – announced a month ago by the Australian Grand Prix Corporation before F1 urged them to retract their media statement.

Read the full story here.

The Christian Horner saga has fascinated the globe: a clash of sport, celebrity, ego and corporate governance with a very uncertain outcome.

Horner, the globally famous Formula 1 team principal who has guided Red Bull Racing to the most dominant winning run in the sport’s 75-year history, has not been heard from and rarely seen beyond his team garage at the Australian Formula 1 Grand Prix this week.

At the centre of a texting scandal that refuses to go away, he has largely confined himself to the exclusive gated community of the Paddock, observing practice sessions and chatting to Red Bull colleagues and motorsport legend Sir Jackie Stewart in the lead-up to Sunday’s race.

Red Bull Racing team principal Christian Horner.Credit: Artwork: Stephen Kiprillis. Photo: Getty Images

But Horner shunned the official Formula 1 team principals media conference, which included McLaren’s Zak Brown, RB’s Peter Bayer, Ferrari’s Frederic Vasseur, and Kick Sauber’s Alessandro Alunni Bravi, and of Red Bull’s 13 planned media conferences, he is scheduled to attend only one – on Sunday evening after the race has run.

The turmoil enveloping Horner and the sport was sparked in February, when it emerged that a female Red Bull Racing staff member had lodged a complaint with the team, alleging inappropriate, controlling behaviour by Horner. The details have not been made public and he has strenuously denied the allegations.

Read the full story by Stephen Brook here.

Racegoers are in for a classic autumn day at Albert Park and can expect partly cloudy conditions, with a forecast maximum of 21 degrees.

The weather bureau is predicting westerly winds of up to 20 km/h and UV levels are tipped to reach a high level of six, so don’t forget to slip, slop, slap if you’re attending the race.

Wondering what to wear? Style editor Damien Woolnough spoke to Australian Grand Prix regular, model and former event ambassador Brooke Meredith, who recommends streamlined separates and relaxed daywear.

“Sneakers are fine, denim can be your friend and a little bit of leather goes a long way,” she said. Check out other style tips here.

Meanwhile, the Good Food team has pulled together a list of the 10 hot new venues worth making a pit stop at this weekend, all just a bunny hop from the Albert Park circuit.

Gates at Albert Park opened at 8.30am, with diehard fans rushing to Melbourne Walk for a chance to glimpse their racing heroes up close.

Here’s a look at the colour and fanfare this morning.

Fans wait to greet the drivers at Melbourne Walk.Credit: Getty

Driver Yuki Tsunoda signing autographs on Sunday morning.Credit: Getty

Red Bull principal Christian Horner greets fans on the Melbourne Walk on Sunday.Credit: Getty

Fans clamour for the attention of drivers at Albert Park.Credit: Getty

For the next 14 years, Formula 1 is contracted to remain in Melbourne, extending to 42 years this city’s love-hate relationship with its rumbling, high-octane race weekend. It is an extraordinary tenure by contemporary F1 standards, one which, on the eve of his first grand prix in charge, gives Australian Grand Prix chief Travis Auld a chance to contemplate thorny, long-term issues confronting the financial sustainability and social licence of the event.

Auld wants to keep growing the Australian Grand Prix by drawing more people through the gate and spilling its festivities beyond the Albert Park fence line into surrounding suburbs which, thus far, have never seen much benefit from having the global F1 caravan parked on their lawn. He also understands that sharply rising costs associated with the race, although driven by factors largely beyond his control, are not sustainable.

New chief executive of the Australian Grand Prix Corporation, Travis Auld, at the Albert Park track.Credit: Joe Armao

“It’s an enormous opportunity because it allows you to lift your eyes and rather than plan event to event, think about where you want to take the event in five or 10 years’ time,” Auld says from his temporary office overlooking the Albert Park pit lane. “We now have the benefit of taking a longer view.

“There is a significant increase in our revenue and we are still trying to grow that and are confident we can grow that at this event. Then there is the cost base of building a circuit that can house and entertain 130,000 people each day for three and a half days.

“Coming out of COVID, like every other sporting entertainment organisation has experienced, like every construction business has experienced, the cost of doing business has increased. There has been a step change in the cost of doing business. The task for us now is to level out.”

Read the full story by Chip Le Grand here.

There was some drama at the track on Saturday night for the Red Bull juggernaut when Sergio Perez was slapped with a penalty for impeding Nico Hulkenberg during qualifying.

It cost Perez, who initially qualified third, three places on the grid, which was great news for Australia’s Oscar Piastri.

He moves up one spot to fifth for the start of Sunday afternoon’s race, behind Max Verstappen, Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz, Lando Norris and Charles Leclerc. Here’s Matthew Clayton’s news from qualifying.

Nineteen drivers will battle it out in the 58-lap race beginning at 3pm today. Here’s what you need to know ahead of the upcoming action at Albert Park.