Australian GP track undergoes major change ahead of 2025 race after FIA investigation launched
Australian Grand Prix organisers have implemented a key change to the Albert Park circuit ahead of the 2025 F1 season getting underway in Melbourne this weekend.
The Grand Prix returns to its previously traditional season-opening slot for the first time since the planned 2020 race was postponed and then cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Upon its return to the calendar in 2022, it was pushed down to the third Grand Prix of the season.
In 2024, the race was won by Ferrari's Carlos Sainz, with team-mate Charles Leclerc in second and McLaren's Lando Norris in third.
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However, the ending of the race was overshadowed by a last-lap incident involving George Russell and Fernando Alonso.
Russell struck the back of Alonso's Aston Martin into turn six, and subsequently hit the barrier on the left-hand side of the track.
Whilst the impact didn't look to be particularly severe, it was enough to send Russell's Mercedes across into the centre of the track and a red flag had to be waved.
Alonso was subsequently given a 20-second penalty by the race stewards after he was deemed to have driven in a 'potentially dangerous' manner in braking earlier for the corner - which he argued was done in order to approach the corner differently to previous laps and to get a better exit, as he would have been defending from Russell on the DRS straight.
And in practice, Alex Albon had a heavy crash at the same part of the track, with the end result being that his Williams team could only field one car in the race.
The then FIA race director, Niels Wittich, launched an investigation into the two incidents after the Grand Prix, and concluded that changes needed to be made to the profile of turn six before the 2025 race.
The alignment of the corner had initially been redeveloped for 2024 as part of major track changes, with the result being a longer DRS straight into the fast right-hander of turn eight.
But the chief events officer of the Australian Grand Prix, Tom Mottram, told Speedcafe that the organisers and the FIA have now come to an agreement on a significant adjustment that should stop cars from coming back onto the circuit after they hit the left barrier.
Mottram explained: "What we've done, and where we've landed with the FIA, is there's no changes to the driver's right at all on turn six. It's really all happening on drivers' left.
"There's about a 90-metre kerb along there [on corner exit]. What it's been in the past is about 50-odd metres of that was a bevel kerb, which is more on the entry to 7.
"What we've done now is actually just agree with the FIA that we change that whole kerb to a negative kerb the whole way, so you're not having that kind of accelerating off that kerb once you hit the bevel."
Organisers have also added 'half a metre of concrete verge' before the gravel trap, and moved the TecPro barriers back by two metres away from the track to avoid future potentially dangerous incidents.
Ryan Smart