A damp Albert Park, a Ferrari on pole and a McLaren driver who started 11th and left Melbourne leading the championship.
The 2003 Australian Grand Prix, held at Albert Park on 9 March 2003, was won by David Coulthard of McLaren from 11th on the grid. Juan Pablo Montoya finished second and Kimi Raikkonen third. The result left Coulthard leading the championship after the opening round of the season.
David Coulthard won the 2003 Australian Grand Prix from 11th on the grid, a result the qualifying order did not suggest after a damp and windy build-up at Albert Park. Michael Schumacher had taken pole for Ferrari, but a pit stop to switch from wet to dry tyres cost him the lead, and a loss of control by Juan Pablo Montoya on lap 48 handed the race to McLaren.
Who won the 2003 Australian Grand Prix?
David Coulthard won the 58-lap race for McLaren after starting from 11th. Juan Pablo Montoya took second for Williams and Kimi Raikkonen completed the podium. The victory was the thirteenth and final win of Coulthard's Formula One career, and it put him top of the drivers' standings after round one of the season.
Albert Park had been soaked by an overnight thunderstorm, and the rain stopped only about 15 minutes before the start. A strong wind dried the surface quickly, which made tyre choice a constant puzzle. Most drivers began on intermediate tyres, while Montoya and Panis gambled on dry grooved rubber.
Starting 11th, Coulthard left Melbourne leading the championship after Montoya lost control on lap 48.
Why was Schumacher the favourite?
Bookmakers in Australia and Britain made Michael Schumacher the favourite for the Melbourne race, the fourth consecutive time they had done so. The five-time world champion was also tipped to win the 2003 title, and Nigel Mansell, the 1992 champion, said his talent and desire made him hard to beat.
Schumacher himself expected the other teams to perform better than they had the year before, and he said competition would become harder. That expectation sat alongside a practice crash at Ascari on Saturday morning, after which he copied teammate Rubens Barrichello's set-up for qualifying.
What changed in the rules for 2003?
The FIA, under Max Mosley and with Bernie Ecclestone's support, changed the rules to cut costs and keep the title open. Points now went to the first eight finishers, and qualifying was split into two one-hour sessions for the first time since 1995. The Sunday morning warm-up was scrapped.
The aim was to keep the title battle open for longer, reward consistency and stem a fall in television viewing. The expanded points system, which rewarded the first eight finishers, applied from this opening round. Teams that agreed to limit their in-season testing were offered a two-hour session on Friday morning. Team orders that affected race results were banned, and parc ferme rules meant cars could not be changed or refuelled between Saturday qualifying and the race. A driver who used a spare car had to start from the pit lane.
New cars and the Friday private test
Ferrari brought a redesigned car, the F2002B, while McLaren's MP4-17D was far more altered, with a completely new rear end and changes at both the front and the back. The rear wing profiles were rounded at their tips, a solution Renault had used the previous season to limit vortex formation. BAR, Williams and Jaguar copied it.
The Williams FW25 was not the car it had tested in the winter, so the team carried its changes into the first race. Renault spent Friday's private session trying different ways to cool the R23, eventually fitting a chimney on the right side where the oil radiator sat. Nine drivers took part in the two-hour session, and Jarno Trulli was fastest at 1:28.125, with Mark Webber and Giancarlo Fisichella within a tenth of him.
How did practice shape the grid?
Practice was hard on the cars. Villeneuve's BAR engine failed 11 minutes into the first Friday session with flames licking the cockpit. Raikkonen crashed at Whiteford corner on Saturday morning, and Schumacher's Ferrari hit the barrier at Ascari with its nose cone and left-front wheel lost.
Raikkonen had set the fastest Friday time of 1:26.509 with five minutes left, 0.479 seconds ahead of Coulthard. Button was quickest in the Saturday morning session at 1:27.415, with Barrichello close behind, and Trulli set 1:26.928 in the final session. Barrichello then led the 15-minute warm-up at 1:27.738, and Coulthard had a right-rear puncture and then a fuel pump failure in the final session that morning.
The Friday top ten in the first session read Raikkonen, Coulthard, Trulli, Barrichello, Webber, Michael Schumacher, Alonso, Heidfeld, Montoya and Ralf Schumacher. Villeneuve and Button both suffered engine failures that day, and Fisichella's fuel pump failed, which meant three of the field's leading names spent their first hour in the garage.
Saturday morning produced its own problems. Montoya's oil valve malfunctioned, leaking oil into the airbox and sending smoke from the car, but his engine was left in place because it was undamaged. Pizzonia had a braking problem, spun backwards at turn three and returned to the garage unhurt.
Qualifying top eleven
| Grid | Driver | Session two note |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Michael Schumacher | Pole at 1:27.173, his 51st career pole |
| 2 | Rubens Barrichello | 0.245 seconds slower than pole |
| 3 | Juan Pablo Montoya | Lost time at turn one after a set-up change |
| 4 | Heinz-Harald Frentzen | Balanced car despite an error at the second chicane |
| 5 | Olivier Panis | Stable on a fuel-heavy car |
| 6 | Jacques Villeneuve | Faster BAR driver after running wide onto dust |
| 7 | Nick Heidfeld | Pushed the car to the limit without leaving the track |
| 8 | Jenson Button | Car became twitchy as the wind rose in warm-up |
| 9 | Ralf Schumacher | Slower Williams, lost time at turn one |
| 10 | Fernando Alonso | Lost the rear of the Renault between turns nine and 10 |
| 11 | David Coulthard | Ran slightly wide at turn one and did not recover |
Ferrari and Williams filled the first three places, with Schumacher and Barrichello on the front row and Montoya third. Coulthard, who would go on to win, started from 11th after running slightly wide at turn one in the second session.
How did the two qualifying sessions work?
Each driver recorded one timed lap per session, with session one on Friday afternoon and session two on Saturday afternoon. The first session ran in 2002 championship order, and the second in reverse of the first session's results. Barrichello was fastest in session one at 1:26.372, but Schumacher took pole in session two at 1:27.173.
Session one took place in cloudy but warm weather. Raikkonen was second, 0.179 seconds slower, and Villeneuve took third in the spare BAR car after his race car had failed in practice. Schumacher was fourth and Button was third at one stage before Villeneuve demoted him to fifth after a slow middle sector. Coulthard was sixth, Alonso seventh and Panis eighth.
Further down the session-one order, Da Matta was 11th and Heidfeld 12th, with Frentzen 13th after driving the spare car. Fisichella took 14th, Webber 15th and Ralf Schumacher 16th, and Firman was 17th. Verstappen's car stopped after his lap with a minor technical fault, and Wilson, the slowest driver in the field, finished 20th.
Session two was warm and sunny with patchy cloud, although light rain had fallen an hour before it began. Montoya lost time at turn one after a race set-up change but still took third, and Frentzen qualified fourth in a more balanced car. Panis, Villeneuve and Heidfeld rounded out the top seven.
Further down the session-two order, Trulli ran what looked like a heavy fuel load and dropped to 12th with heavy understeer, while Fisichella was the faster Jordan in 13th. Webber made an error at the first corner to take 14th. Da Matta missed the warm-up with a clutch problem and was 16th, Firman took 17th, and Pizzonia set the final timed lap of the session and qualified 18th after running wide at turn five.
Why did Raikkonen start from 15th?
Raikkonen had been second after session one, 0.179 seconds behind Barrichello. In session two he pushed too hard on his quick lap, put a wheel onto the grass towards the end of it and damaged his left-rear tyre, which burst on the cool-down lap. He had to drive the spare car and qualified 15th.
Minardi had a different problem. After reviewing its strategy with the FIA, owner Paul Stoddart told Verstappen and Wilson to finish their fast laps early and enter the pit lane, so that mechanics could work on the cars under the closed parc ferme regime. Both were allowed to start because of their session-one times, and Verstappen had qualified 18th in that session while Wilson was 20th.
How did the race unfold at Albert Park?
Schumacher led for the first six laps until a stop on lap seven switched him to dry tyres. The lead then changed seven times between four drivers, and Montoya led after the second round of pit stops until his loss of control on lap 48 let Coulthard through.
The race started at 14:00 local time under overcast skies. Verstappen began from the pit lane in the spare Minardi, set up for teammate Justin Wilson, because his race car had developed an oil leak during the installation period. Most of the field started on intermediate tyres, while Montoya and Panis were on dry grooved rubber.
The safety car was deployed twice in the race, one of those periods following an accident involving Barrichello on lap six. Montoya had led after the second round of stops, but he lost control of his car on lap 48 and first place passed to Coulthard.
Why did the result matter for the championship?
Coulthard left Melbourne with ten championship points, two ahead of Montoya and four ahead of Raikkonen. The result meant the championship already had a clear early leader after one round, and it gave McLaren a strong start to the title race.
McLaren led the World Constructors' Championship with 16 points, while Williams were second on nine. Fifteen races remained in the season, so an early lead was far from decisive.
Which rookies made their debut in 2003?
Four of the 20 drivers on the grid made their Formula One debuts in Melbourne:Cristiano da Matta, Justin Wilson, Antonio Pizzonia and Ralph Firman. Da Matta joined Toyota alongside Olivier Panis, Wilson partnered Jos Verstappen at Minardi, Pizzonia joined Jaguar with Mark Webber, and Firman took over from Takuma Sato at Jordan.
Da Matta came to Toyota as the 2002 CART FedEx Championship Series champion. His arrival meant the exit of Allan McNish, who had signed for Renault as third driver, and of Mika Salo, who had quit the sport. Wilson was the 2001 International Formula 3000 champion, and Pizzonia replaced Eddie Irvine and Pedro de la Rosa at Jaguar. Verstappen, who rejoined the series after a one-year absence, was the other partner at Minardi.
Why were the Albert Park barriers raised?
Albert Park's mesh fencing was made taller, rising from 2.5 m (8.2 ft) to a height of 4.75 m (15.6 ft), once marshal Graham Beveridge had died in a 2001 race accident. The weekend also staged V8 Supercars and Carrera Cup races, plus Formula Ford and kart events.
