The chequered flag dropped at the curtain-raising Australian Grand Prix, and George Russell — arms aloft, voice cracking — comes over the radio, doing his best impression of teammate Kimi Antonelli. “Woooo! Very nice, very nice! I like this car, I like this engine!” The Mercedes garage, already white-knuckled from a week where Antonelli destroyed his chassis in practice, and Toto Wolff rebuilt it from Lego two hours before qualifying, erupts.
This is what three years of sitting on the sidelines while McLarens and Red Bulls streak clear does to a team. The Silver Arrows went 1-2 in Melbourne — Russell leading Antonelli home by 2.9 seconds, Leclerc a stranded 15.5 adrift in P3, Hamilton festering in P4 in the wrong overalls — and it felt like tectonic ground shifting. Russell’s pole had beaten the field by eight-tenths. Ferrari had no single-lap answer. Verstappen didn’t make it out of Q1.
Mercedes Sees Off Ferrari’s Bright Start
Of course, the Scuderia would fight back on race day. Ferrari has somehow developed a car that accelerates unlike anything else off the line, and that helped Leclerc jump from P4 to the lead into the first corner, while Hamilton made a similar leap from P7. But Ferrari will forever be Ferrari, and when the virtual safety car came out on lap 11, they made the catastrophic error of not pitting either of their cars. Mercedes pitted both, and it was that move that duly won them the race.
Online betting sites already had G-Russ listed as the favorite to win the World Championship this season. Post-Melbourne, those odds have been slashed dramatically. The latest live betting odds at Bovada currently list him as an odds-on 5/7 frontrunner to secure his maiden crown, and those odds will shorten even further if he can reel off another victory in China.
But despite Mercedes’ dominant victory Down Under, opening day 1-2s are genuinely rare — Sunday was the 22nd in the sport’s history. But what were the four most recent? Let’s take a look.
2024 Bahrain GP — Red Bull: Verstappen & Pérez
Two years ago, Max Verstappen was over 20 seconds clear after 57 laps as he began his three-peat attempt. Sergio Pérez’s Turn 4 switchback completed a clinical 1-2, Sainz and Leclerc sandwiched in P3 and P4, looking like they’d arrived at a different sport. It was 2023 reloading.
Then Australia detonated everything. Carlos Sainz’s appendicitis surgery two weeks prior triggered a scarcely believable fairytale win. McLaren started upgrading aggressively, reeling in the Red Bulls, and by summer, the RB20’s reliability gremlins had handed rivals the delta they needed. Verstappen still won nine races, but had Lando Norris managed to convert his opportunities, he may well have taken the fight to the Flying Dutchman.
In the end, Verstappen clinched the title in Las Vegas after a stunning last-to-first triumph in Brazil, while McLaren stole the Constructors’. Bahrain’s dominant margin didn’t materialize, with Pérez’s quiet disintegration ensuring that the team crown was surrendered. Red Bull haven’t reigned as Constructors’ kings since.
2023 Bahrain GP — Red Bull: Verstappen & Pérez
If you want the one season where the opening 1-2 nailed a prophecy precisely, it was in 2023. Verstappen lights-to-flag, 3.5 seconds clear before lap five; Pérez threading past Leclerc with a DRS-assisted Turn 1 move on lap 26. Leclerc’s power loss on lap 41 handed Alonso P3 and removed Ferrari’s last threat. Ominous barely covers it.
What followed was unprecedented: Verstappen winning 19 of 22 races, Red Bull taking all but one. The title wrapped early as Super Max finished with over twice as many points as his nearest competitor. Pérez glimpsed relevance in Saudi Arabia, then vanished, but his efforts still ensured that Red Bull were the grid’s dominant force… and by some distance.
2022 Bahrain GP — Ferrari: Leclerc & Sainz
2022 teased the title fight that fans had longed for. Max Verstappen, fresh off his maiden triumph the previous season, vs Ferrari’s chosen one, Charles Leclerc. The two did battle in the season opener in Bahrain with Il Predestinato passing the reigning champion twice to claim victory. Sainz’s three-stop overcut vaulted him from P3 to P2 as Verstappen’s steering imploded on lap 55 — both Red Bulls DNF’d. Ferrari’s house was on fire. Leclerc won Australia too, and his championship window swung wide open. Then, the wheels came off.
Everything that could go wrong did go wrong for Leclerc and the Scuderia. Engine penalties. Strategy brain farts — Monaco is still a fever dream for that Pit Wall. Verstappen surged; the RB18 proved categorically faster across the long haul. The title was claimed with room to spare, Leclerc a distant P2 in standings. Arguably the greatest ‘what if’ opener of all time.
2019 Australian GP — Mercedes: Bottas & Hamilton
Bottas’ T1 lunge from P2 was clean, overtaking teammate Lewis Hamilton and never looking back. The British GOAT would then fall victim to Vettel pitting on lap 14 — a reactive Mercedes stop wrecked his tyre offset and surrendered track position. Verstappen claimed P3 for Honda’s first Red Bull podium, a detail that aged fascinatingly.
Then Hamilton absorbed the season like a man possessed — 11 wins, the sixth title sealed at Austin via P8 in chaos. Bottas, brilliant in Melbourne, finished runner-up, ahead of the Ferraris, but still some way behind his more illustrious teammate. Hybrid-era cold maths: one partner carries the other’s statistical destiny, always. The opener gave Bottas his day. Hamilton took the year.
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