Ranked: The five best season openers of the 21st century
We have been treated to some outstanding season openers over the years.
Sometimes the Formula 1 season opens with a bang and as we near the start of F1 2025, we are taking a look at some of the best from years gone by.
2025 marks 75 years since F1 got underway so we are going back to the start of the 21st century and picking out our five favourite season openers.
The best F1 season openers from the 21st century
5.) 2002 Australian Grand Prix – Eight cars out in dramatic first corner pileup
While most on this list feature through great racing or driving excellence, 2002 has made it for a different reason – the shock factor.
Ralf Schumacher started in third behind his brother Michael but had a great launch and was soon up into P2, behind pole sitter Rubens Barrichello.
But as the Brazilian slowed to approach the first corner, Schumacher crashed into the rear of the Ferrari and was sent flying up into the air.
In a crash that has thankfully somewhat become a thing of the past, Schumacher flew at great speed across the tarmac before a hit into the tyre wall.
It proved to be just the first crash of a chain reaction though with carnage ensuing behind.
Felipe Massa, on his first F1 start, cut the corner only to T-bone Giancarlo Fisichella. The momentum of the crash saw Nick Heidfeld also taken out before Jenson Button, Olivier Panis and Allan McNish hit the broken cars.
A total of eight cars would go on to retire which allowed Mark Webber to secure fifth for the Minardi team in front of the driver’s home crowd, a remarkable result for the small team.
The race was won by Michael Schumacher and with a first podium for Kimi Raikkonen but it was an astonishing way to start the new season.
4.) 2021 Bahrain Grand Prix – The first taste of what was to come
By the 2021 season, just about everyone not associated with Mercedes was crying out for change.
The Silver Arrows had won the last seven Constructors’ titles while Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg had shared the Drivers’ titles so the sport was in desperate need of some competition.
But with new regulations coming in 2022, it was largely presumed that most of the teams would not put too much thought into 2021 and instead focus their efforts on the next season but Red Bull clearly did not buy into that way of thinking.
The first punch thrown was in quali. Having taken 10 poles the season before, Hamilton was the standout favourite but as the session went on, Verstappen continued to be a thorn in his side.
Q3 came and so did the final throw of the dice by the drivers. Moving to pole, Hamilton may well have thought he had got it done but Verstappen came in an astonishing 0.388 seconds ahead, an outstanding margin given Mercedes’ recent dominance.
Hamilton got the edge in the race itself but that pole followed by the small margin of 0.745 seconds between the two in the grand was a sign of how the dramatic season would play out.
3.) Australian Grand Prix 2003 – A strategists’ nightmare as Schumacher dominance is disrupted
Rain, different leaders and a surprise winner. The 2003 Australian Grand Prix had just about everything you could have asked for.
The background was it being the first race of a new era for F1 as qualifying had changed to one-shot with full race fuel loads and even if it had produced the familiar result of a Ferrari front row, the weather helped to spice things up.
A damp track made for plenty of strategists scratching their heads and there was action from the first minute as Barrichello jumped the start and crashed out. The next hour was a battle of strategies with Schumacher, Raikkonen and Juan Pablo Montoya all choosing vastly different times to pit for dry tyres.
But the formerly dominant Schumacher was not having it all his own way. He tried to get past Raikkonen on the first corner but ended up going over the kerbs and picking up damage which all but ruled out his chances of victory.
Raikkonen suffered a similar heartbreak when he was found to have broken the pitlane speed limit so the win suddenly swung back to Montoya.
However, he inexplicably spun at the first corner with 10 laps to go meaning David Coulthard came out of nowhere to take the lead and ultimately the win.
It was a much needed injection of life into F1 and Schumacher may have gone on to retain the title but it was a far more competitive season than the ones that preceded it.
2.) 2007 Australian Grand Prix – A star is born
Rarely has a rookie arrived with so much anticipation and duly delivered.
Lewis Hamilton was a name familiar to those in the junior ranks but a promotion to McLaren in 2007 could have been seen as a gamble.
At 22 years of age, Hamilton was paired up with newly-minted double World Champion Fernando Alonso and any idea that he would be happy playing second fiddle was quickly proven wrong.
It took just one corner for Hamilton to lay down his marker. Fending off an attack from Robert Kubica, Hamilton went round the outside to not only keep his spot but move past Alonso.
In the end, the Spaniard won out, pipping Hamilton to second with a few laps to go, but it was a clear signal of what was to come from the future seven-time World Champion.
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1.) 2009 Australian Grand Prix – Brawn surprise everyone as fairytale season begins
The best season openers are the one where the unexpected happens and there is no better example of that than 2009.
Brawn GP was a team on life support, purchased for just £1 but requiring every inch of Ross Brawn’s business acumen to keep afloat.
A hastily bought Mercedes engine in the back of it, the entry of the Brawn BGP 001 was largely seen as a gift to Brawn for his dedication to the sport over many decades.
How wrong that proved to be.
Testing was the first hint that something was going on in Brackley but it was not until the season opener in Melbourne when rumours became results.
Equipped with a double diffuser, Brawn obliterated the competition. Jenson Button took pole, six tenths off the nearest non-Brawn driver.
He converted the P1 into a win, flanked by Rubens Barrichello in second and it was the start of a fairytale year for the team.
The whole season was the stuff of legend but that first race remains one of, if not the, biggest shocks in F1 history.
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