Hamilton against Versaben … The Battle of Generations reaches Australia in the opening race

Louis Hamilton is seeking to leave his immediate imprint against the world champion in the last four years, Dutch Max Versaben, when the British driver crowned seven international titles is his first appearance with Ferrari in the Grand Australian Prize for a new record season of 24 races, this week.

Former Mercedes driver Hamilton aspires to achieve his eighth world title, a record, and his first since 2020, after the Dutch and his team, Red Bull, surpassed him in the past years.

His amazing move to Ferrari after 12 years of success with Mercedes resulted in the rejuvenation of the 40 -year -old driver’s youth, and he is keen to apply the lessons learned from 162 rolls of experiments on the Sakhir circuit in Bahrain last month on the race conditions.

“I am very excited about running the first race in Melbourne. I am not standing waiting to participate in races with them,” Ferrari said, adding: “The passion here is unparalleled. They have everything they need to win the world championship, and it is only related to collecting all the pieces together.”

Hamilton tasted the taste of winning twice before on the rapid and rugged Albert Park circuit with McLaren and Mercedes, but not since 2015.

Ferrari’s performance was better, as the unbridled horse team won four of the last six races in Australia, among them last year when Spaniard Carlos Science, who was replaced by Hamilton, ranked first, ahead of his teammate Charles Localmeer from Monaco.

Versaben started from the first place but failed to finish the race in Melbourne last year, where he was forced to return to his team after four rolls and smoke escalated from his car due to a brake malfunction in the second lap.

This was a simple exception to the Dutchman who won his fourth world title two races from the end of last season, ahead of the British McLaren driver Lando Norris.

Versaben, 27, is now seeking to become the second driver after German Michael Schumacher wins five consecutive world championships.

The Dutchman was keen to reduce expectations, and told the Dutch media: “I do not think we are able to compete to win Melbourne now.”

He added, referring to the experiments in Bahrain: “If we look at the times of the rolls, I think McLaren is the most likely candidate team.”

He continued: “On our part, things did not go smoothly, but on the other hand, we have some ideas to improve performance.”

New faces
Versaben is now participating in Red Bull with Liam Lawson after the departure of the Mexican Sergio Perez, who did not perform well, as New Zealand is one of six drivers who are in their first appearance in the full season in Australia.

The Australian’s attention will be directed towards Jack Duhan, son of Mick, the world champion five times in “Moto GB”, who will take his first appearance at home with Alban.

The other four drivers are the young Italian Andrea Kimi Antonelli, who solved a replacement for Hamilton in Mercedes, the British Oliver Berman (Haas), the Brazilian Gabriel Portolo (Supi), and the French Isaac Hajjar (Rising Bulls).

Versaben’s caution comes in the wake of the Norris challenge last year when he led McLaren to her first title for manufacturers since 1998.

As expected, McLaren’s performance was quickly in Bahrain, where Norris and his Australian colleague Oscar Bayasteri are keen to provide a distinguished performance this week.

The British said: “This ring was good for us in the past, and we hope that we will continue our momentum from 2024 to this year.”

He added: “We have had a fruitful test, but we will not know our position until the official experiences on Saturday.”

Norris has warned that he expected to be teams other than McLaren, Raed Bull, Ferrari and Mercedes, more competitive this season.

He said: “I think this season will be very exciting, with a lot of close races. There will be fierce competition.”

Melbourne returns to her traditional position as an editorial of the season for the first time in five years, as the organizers expect more than 450,000 spectators through the Albert Park gates.

The city hosted the first major prize race almost every year since the Australian race moved from Adelaide in 1996, but it has not done so since 2019 after the Kofid’s pandem was supported by hosting the opening race to Bahrain.