Round-up: MCL39’s tyre advantage, Lawson’s big break, Bortoleto debut and more

Comment of the day

Isack Hadjar was not short of readers defending him after his tearful reaction to crashing on the formation lap prompted criticism from Helmut Marko:

Are you saying Schumacher, Senna, Lewis, Seb, Mika were ‘softies’? Their mental ‘toughness’ were just a part of their mentality, it also came with all the other facets that made up their person, including vulnerability, jealously and fear.

We enjoy them as drivers because we live through their journey aside them, and they all became champions. Not ‘crybabys’.
@Bernasaurus

Social media and links

Race report (McLaren)

Andrea Stella: 'The gap we were able to open in the first stint, before the Safety Cars, demonstrated both that the car is competitive, but also that it is gentle on the tyres. It’s meeting the objectives we have set for ourselves over the winter.'

Lawson and Dixon: From NZ to the world stage (Honda)

'I was doing the Toyota Racing Series, it was my first season of it and going into those five weeks, I had no seat for the next year. I'd done one season of F4 in Germany and we had no plan. I couldn't afford F3, there was one or two seats left and we didn't have the money for it. So heading into that season I was like ‘we have to get something out of this!’ And after the first week we had a Red Bull contract.'

Supercars stand alone event for Albert Park (Auto Action)

'While a Formula 1 test might be off the table, it opens the door for a standalone weekend of car racing with a Supercars headliner as the likely way to make use of the Albert Park Circuit on the weekend before next year’s race.'

Billionaire climate campaigner Mike Cannon-Brookes defends buying private jet and sponsoring F1 team (The Guardian)

'My commitment to climate is as strong as ever. I’m still pretty damn focused on making an impact at a large scale, removing huge volumes of emissions through active investments and philanthropy... and have the proud scars to prove it.'

Turbocharging the F1 experience (News.com.au)

'Three days with American Express will set you back AUS $5,850, while going as a paying guest of an F1 team costs an eye-watering AUS $19,000 per person.'

Bortoleto’s F1 debut uncovered (Sauber via YouTube)

What a wild @F1 race. Never seen so many cars have such slow speed torque complications. Lando looks ready to be a WC. Yuki deserved a better finishing position. Kimi was mightily impressive in his debut in those conditions! #AustralianGP

— Jack Harvey (@jack_harvey93) March 16, 2025

My trackside view of Oscar Piastri’s INSANE last lap overtake in the 2025 Australian Grand Prix pic.twitter.com/dNWqYejshI

— Aarav (@_aarava) March 16, 2025

It’s all too much for our little Albert Park winner 😁🍾#AusGP #F1 @McLarenF1 pic.twitter.com/heAarxSzQD

— F1 Australian Grand Prix (@ausgrandprix) March 16, 2025

More drivers' photographs through the years here: https://t.co/g9HeJYgGbw

— RaceFans (@racefansdotnet) March 16, 2025

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Happy birthday!

Happy birthday to Oskar!

On this day in motorsport

• Born on this day in 1937: Mark Donohue, who finished on the podium in his grand prix debut in 1971, but died four years later after a high-speed crash in practice at the Osterreichring
• Born on this day in 1962: Volker Weidler, who never qualified in his 10 attempts with Rial in 1989, then shared victory at the 1991 Le Mans 24 Hours with Johnny Herbert and Bertrand Gachot in their rotary-engined Mazda 787B
• Born on this day in 1964: Alex Caffi, who raced in F1 between 1986 and 1991, peaking with fourth at Monaco in 1989 for Scuderia Italia
• Born on this day in 1982: Timo Glock, who raced in F1 for Toyota and scored a pair of second places, then was a race-winner in the DTM for BMW and now races sports cars