Melbourne was a place of firsts and lasts for David at McLaren. David claimed a memorable first win in McLaren colours at the opening event in 1997 - our first triumph with Mercedes-Benz as our engine partner. A one-stopping David bested the two-stopping Heinz Harald Frentzen, and the Williams driver’s pursuit faded late on amid worsening brakes.

Six years later, David started down in 11^th on the grid, but in a chaotic race, several front-runners fell by the wayside through incident and accident, allowing David to climb up into the podium places. Leader Juan Pablo Montoya then spun through the first corner, gifting David the lead, which he retained through to the Chequered Flag. It was the 13^th win of David’s career, and it proved to be his last.

Under revised regulations in 1998, with narrower cars and the introduction of grooved tyres, the MP4/13 was the car to beat when the Championship arrived in Melbourne. Mika Häkkinen and David Coulthard were split by just 0.043s in Qualifying, but were seven-tenths clear of the rest of the field, and pulled away from the pack in the race.

But after making their pit stops, Mika surprised the field by coming in again, driving through the pit lane after being duped by a mysterious radio call. David led, but with two laps to go, he backed off along the pit straight, giving the lead and the win to Mika. It later emerged that David was honouring an arrangement that whoever led into Turn 1 would take the victory.

Lewis Hamilton announced his arrival in Formula 1 in 2007, taking the first of 202 podiums and counting on his debut, and a year later entered as one of the pre-season favourites. Lewis duly delivered on that expectation by claiming Pole position and subsequently heading the pack during a Grand Prix that veered between chaotic and crazy throughout, amid a spate of incidents and accidents up and down the field.

Lewis kept his cool across the course of the 58-lap race to open his title-winning 2008 account with victory, and such was the rate of attrition that only six drivers reached the end of the race.

Jenson Button had an excellent record in Melbourne, as three wins in four years testify. Having triumphed with Brawn GP in 2009, Jenson made it back-to-back Melbourne victories with us in 2010. On a gloomy, damp day in Melbourne, Jenson made an early call for slick tyres and, while a brief off-road incident suggested it was a premature call, his rapid pace thereafter proved he had made the correct judgement.

Jenson held second place, which became first when Sebastian Vettel suffered a mid-race mechanical failure. Two years later, Jenson claimed the lead from Lewis off the line and preserved that advantage throughout on a gloriously sunny afternoon, adding another Melbourne win to his collection.

After a few years of starting the season in Bahrain and a pandemic-induced opener in Austria, Melbourne returned as the first Grand Prix of the season in 2025. Showery weather greeted the paddock on race day, making it an afternoon of trying to second-guess the clouds and stay out of trouble. Lando led Oscar from Pole and the pair lapped line astern around Albert Park, before being caught out when an intensifying shower doused the final sector.

While a luckless Oscar lost crucial time, before heroically extricating his car from the grassy run-off, Lando was able to recover to the circuit and regroup. Lando reclaimed the lead and reeled off the remaining laps while keeping a rejuvenated Max Verstappen at bay, taking McLaren’s first Melbourne win for 13 years.