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Television Schedule

• Free Practice 1: Thursday, 6:30 pm PT, ESPN News
• Free Practice 2: Thursday, 10:00 pm PT, ESPN2
• Free Practice 3: Friday, 6:30 pm PT, ESPN News
• Qualifying: Friday, 10:00 pm PT, ESPN
• Race: Saturday, 10:00 pm PT, ESPN

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Australian Grand Prix Quick Facts

• Location: Melbourne, Australia
• Track: Albert Park Circuit
• Track Type: Temporary Street Circuit
• Turns: 14
• Lap Length: 3.28 Miles
• Race Length: 58 laps
• Fastest Lap: Charles Leclerc 1:20.260 in a Ferrari, 2022
• Qualifying Record: Charles Leclerc 1:17:868 in a Ferrari, 2022
• Most Wins by Constructor: 11 – McLaren
• Most Wins by a Driver: 4 – Michael Schumacher

As a temporary circuit, the track will be very slippery and lacking in grip at the start of the weekend. But the track should evolve each day and offer more grip as the rubber gets laid down.

As a temporary facility, Albert Park has historically been quite bumpy. But the new asphalt laid down last year has reduced the bumps a bit, arguably contributing to increased speeds.

The circuit itself has a lot of slow corners that require high downforce and mechanical grip for acceleration onto the straights.

Traction is important to get good exit speed onto the short straights and out of the corners, and any cars that struggle under braking will have slower lap times.

Braking and lateral forces on the driver are just average, too, putting greater emphasis on car setup than pure driver talent.

The overall traction of the circuit is poor, scoring a two out of five on Pirelli’s traction scale. The left rear tire will get worked the hardest, so monitoring the degradation there will be an indicator of when the tires are in need of a change.

The speeds at Albert Park, on the other hand, could be faster than ever this year.

The FIA has authorized the use of four DRS Zones on the track for the 2023 edition. The Drag Reduction System (or “DRS”) is the part of the rear wing that opens to allow substantially quicker speeds and passing.

The teams could see top speeds approaching 212 miles per hour this year.

Along with the resurfacing in 2022, the layout itself was changed. While the traction rating is still pretty low, the new course last season did offer an increase in overtakes.

The race had 34 on-track passes last year compared to just 12 in the 2019 edition.

The modification reduced the lap distance by almost 92 feet and allowed Charles Leclerc to set new track records.

The second sector of the circuit was the main beneficiary of the redesign. That section produced a higher number of overtakes and should once again be a spot for passing to occur.

A car setup biased towards traction can be particularly helpful on the exit of corners, resulting in increased chances of a successful overtake on the circuit’s short straights. Especially in Sector Two.

And with a high degree of track evolution expected (marked four out of five in Pirelli’s classification), the teams that hit the mark on the first day of practice might not be the ones at the top come to the end of the race.

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Speed Points