Everything you need to know about F1 Australian Grand Prix Albert Park Melbourne: TV, times and more

Australian race fans will have plenty to occupy them when the F1 circus comes to Melbourne over the coming days, with Melbourne’s Oscar Piastri set to tackle the Albert Park track for the first time while Max Verstappen seeks to continue his seemingly unstoppable march to a third world title.

The Red Bull star’s car has so far been streets ahead of his competition in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia, and looks set to once again dominate down under in what is being billed as the fastest Grand Prix Melbourne ever.

However, the grid’s oldest and most experienced driver is a dark horse to take the chequered flag as his team prove to be a huge surprise packet. 

Daily Mail Australia has broken down everything you need to know ahead of the action kicking off on Friday.

When does the action begin? 

Reigning world champ Max Verstappen lifts the winner’s trophy in the season’s first race at Bahrain – and he’s at very short odds to do the same thing in Melbourne on Sunday

The cars will take to the track when the first practice session runs from 12.30pm to 1.30pm (AEDT) on Friday. That’s followed by second practice from 4pm to 5pm.

Saturday’s F1 action kicks off with the third practice session from 12.30pm to 1.30pm, with qualifying beginning at 4pm and winding up at 5pm. 

Last year Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc took pole position from Max Verstappen in second and Red Bull teammate Sergio Perez in third with the session suffering from some drama when Fernando Alonso crashed and forced the action to be red-flagged. 

But the Prancing Horse’s chances of starting from the front row of the grid look to be a long shot this year, even though they were the closest team to Red Bull in qualifying trim in the season’s first race at Bahrain. 

How do I watch practice, qualifying and the race?

Enough Aussies to fill the MCG several times over will tune into their home GP over the weekend (pictured, AFL stars Callum Wilkie and Jye Caldwell pose with an F1 car at Melbourne’s famous stadium)

The GP is on both free-to-air and pay TV.

Channel Ten’s coverage begins at 11.30am (AEDT) on Friday, with the telecast starting at 10am on Saturday and 8.30am on Sunday. It’s also available on the broadcaster’s streaming service, 10 Play.

The race will also be televised on Fox Sports and the Kayo streaming service.

His McLaren is one of the worst cars in the field, but that couldn’t stop Oscar Piastri from qualifying eighth in Saudi Arabia in a sign his talent can’t be dimmed by bad machinery

What should I watch out for this year?

In three words: Piastri, Piastri, Piastri.

Australia’s last F1 world driver’s champion, Alan Jones, is so impressed with the 21-year-old that he believes he’s capable of taking out the title – and he’s not alone, with several other respected F1 judges showering the Aussie with praise.

His McLaren might be one of the worst cars in the field, but Piastri gave a great illustration of his talent when he managed to qualify eighth on the grid for the year’s second race in Saudi Arabia.

He hasn’t lapped the Albert Park Circuit in an F1 car yet and even if he does qualify well, the British team are struggling badly for race pace and are suffering reliability issues, so just finishing in the points would be a big win.

On the opposite end of the scale you have the Red Bull team. Their car is so strong Lewis Hamilton declared it the fastest he has ever seen after Perez and Verstappen romped to a 1-2 finish in Saudi Arabia two weeks ago.

Many experts believe reliability problems or a crash are the only things standing in their way as they seek to duplicate that result in Melbourne.

Fernando Alonso has stunned the field by finishing third in the first two races of the year in his amazingly quick Aston Martin – and he shapes as Red Bull’s biggest threat in Melbourne

However, should an accident or mechanical gremlin strike Christian Horner’s drivers, the Ferraris of Leclerc and Carlos Sainz aren’t best placed to take advantage like they were for much of last year – that falls to Fernando Alonso and his amazing Aston Martin.

The oldest driver in the field is in the most surprising car in the field, with the green machine’s qualifying and race pace leaving the rest of the paddock in a state of shock as they made an incredible leap in performance during the offseason.

The Spaniard finished third in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia, leaving him trailing Verstappen and Perez in the driver’s standings with Sainz languishing 10 points behind him.

What happened last year?

The 2022 Grand Prix was the Charles Leclerc show from start to finish as the Prancing Horse star dominated qualifying and the race to extend his driver’s championship lead to 34

Leclerc dominated the 2021 Grand Prix, leading for all of the 58 laps to finish 20 seconds clear of Perez after Verstappen was forced to retire with a mechanical issue on lap 39 while he was in second.

George Russell’s Mercedes finished third with his teammate Hamilton in fourth, but their cars were miles off the pace in an ominous sign of what was to come for them for the rest of the season.

Leclerc’s victory put him 34 points ahead of Verstappen for the driver’s title, but the race was the high point of the season for the Italian team, which was smashed by Red Bull, their own reliability problems and head-scratching strategic decisions for the rest of the campaign.

Carlos Sainz had a horror race after struggling in qualifying, falling from ninth on the grid to 14th from the start before losing control and beaching his car in the gravel on just the second lap.

The circuit

Piastri (pictured racing in Saudi Arabia) and the rest of the field will have an extra DRS zone at their disposal this year, which should make the race the fastest ever in Melbourne

Albert Park – which first hosted the Aussie GP in 1996 – is 5.278km long, with the full race distance coming in at just over 306 kilometres over 58 laps.

Leclerc set the lap record of 1.20.260 last year after the circuit was resurfaced, with the widening of turn six and removal of the chicane at turns nine and 10 contributing to his lightning pace.

This year’s running should be quicker still thanks to the addition of a fourth DRS zone, with the change leading many to predict it will be the fastest race ever seen on the track.