The 2003 Australian Grand Prix (formally the 2003 Foster's Australian Grand Prix) was a Formula One motor race held at the Albert Park Circuit, Albert Park, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia on 9 March 2003. It was the first round of the 2003 Formula One World Championship and the eighth World Championship Australian Grand Prix at Albert Park. McLaren's David Coulthard won the 58-lap race after starting in 11th position. Williams driver Juan Pablo Montoya finished in second and Coulthard's teammate Kimi Räikkönen took third.
Ferrari's Michael Schumacher, the World Drivers' Champion, took pole position after setting the quickest lap time in the second qualifying session.The circuit was damp after an overnight rainstorm but quickly dried due to a strong wind. Schumacher led the race for six laps until a pit stop on lap seven to switch from wet to dry tyres. The lead changed seven times between four different drivers. Montoya led after the second round of pit stops, but lost first place and the race victory to Coulthard when he lost control of his car on lap 48. The safety car was deployed twice during the race, including an accident involving Ferrari driver Rubens Barrichello on lap six.
The victory was the 13th and last of Coulthard's Formula One career and it meant he left Australia as the World Drivers' Championship leader with ten championship points. Montoya was two championship points behind in second, and Räikkönen was another two points back in third. McLaren led the World Constructors' Championship with 16 championship points while Williams were second with nine championship points with 15 races remaining in the season.
Background
The 2003 Australian Grand Prix took place at the 5.303 km (3.295 mi) Albert Park Circuit in Albert Park, Melbourne, Victoria on 9 March 2003; it was the first round of sixteen in the 2003 Formula One World Championship and the eighth staging of the World Championship Australian Grand Prix at Albert Park. The Carrera Cup, the Cleanevent Nations Cup, the Formula Ford Track Attack, the REV GT Kart Challenge and V8 Supercars held support races during the weekend. The track's mesh barriers were raised from to after marshal Graham Beveridge's death in an accident during the 2001 race.
Out of the 10 teams and 20 drivers on the starting grid, four drivers made their debut. The 2002 CART FedEx Championship Series champion Cristiano da Matta joined the Toyota team alongside Olivier Panis. The two replaced Toyota's 2002 lineup of Allan McNish, who moved to Renault as third driver and Mika Salo, who left Formula One. At the Minardi team, 2001 International Formula 3000 champion Justin Wilson joined Jos Verstappen, who rejoined the series after a one-year absence. The third rookie driver in the 2003 driver lineup was Antônio Pizzonia, who joined Jaguar to partner former Minardi racer Mark Webber; both replaced Eddie Irvine and Pedro de la Rosa. The last rookie competitor was Formula Nippon driver Ralph Firman, who replaced Takuma Sato at Jordan.
At the front of the field, many were tipping Ferrari driver and five-time world champion Michael Schumacher as the favourite to win the 2003 World Drivers' Championship. Bookmakers in Australia and the United Kingdom installed Michael Schumacher as the favourite to win the Australian Grand Prix for the fourth consecutive time. He said he was expecting other teams to perform better than the season before, "It will automatically become harder because other teams hadn't done a great job last year, and I am pretty sure they will do a much better job this year and therefore competition will become harder." Nigel Mansell, the world champion, said Schumacher's high level of talent combined with his strong desire to succeed, would make him quite difficult to beat.
The Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA; Formula One's governing body) president Max Mosley with Formula One head Bernie Ecclestone's support imposed sporting regulation changes in an attempt to reduce costs in Formula One, make the series more competitive, and stem the decline in television viewing figures. The championship points system was expanded to include the first eight finishers to try and keep the title battle open for as long as possible and to reward consistency. For the first time since , qualifying was separated into two one-hour sessions, conducted on Fridays and Saturdays, with cars running one at a time for one quick lap. Drivers had to start the race with their second qualifying session fuel loads and tyres. The Sunday morning warm-up session for teams to fine-tune their vehicle settings was ended and cars were placed under parc fermé conditions, preventing significant changes to cars or refuelling between Saturday qualifying and the race. On Friday morning, a two-hour test session was held for teams that agreed to limit their in-season testing programmes, and team orders that affected race results were prohibited. Spare cars could only be used if Formula One technical delegate Charlie Whiting was convinced a damaged chassis was irreparable in parc fermé; drivers who did use spare cars would be required to start the race from the pit lane.
Both Ferrari and McLaren delayed the debut of their new car, with Ferrari introducing a redesigned version called the F2002B and McLaren introducing the drastically altered MP4-17D, which included a completely new rear end and several aerodynamic changes to both the front and rear. Among these was the adoption of revised rear wing profiles that were no longer rectangular but rounded at the ends, a solution introduced by Renault in the 2002 season to limit vortice formation, which was copied by British American Racing (BAR), Williams and Jaguar. The new Williams FW25 differed significantly from the car used in winter testing. The gearbox and rear suspension used in testing on the hybrid variants of the FW24 car were installed, while the solution planned for the FW25 was temporarily discarded. Renault used Friday morning's private test session to evaluate various methods for cooling the R23 car's body and aerodynamics, eventually choosing for a solution that included a chimney on the car's right side, where the oil radiator was.
Private test session The first two-hour private test session was held on Friday morning in sunny weather. Although the track surface gave minimal grip for cars, there were small offs into the grass but no one spun. Nine drivers participated in the session. Renault driver Jarno Trulli was fastest with a lap time of 1:28.125, ahead of Webber and Jordan's Giancarlo Fisichella; all three drivers were within one-tenth of a second of each other.
Practice and warm-up sessions There were three practice sessions preceding Sunday's race: one 60-minute session on Friday and two 45-minute sessions on Saturday. The first practice session was held on Friday morning in dry and hot weather. McLaren's Kimi Räikkönen set the fastest lap of 1:26.509 with five minutes remaining, 0.479 seconds ahead of teammate David Coulthard. Trulli, Ferrari's Rubens Barrichello, Webber, Michael Schumacher, Renault's Fernando Alonso, Sauber's Nick Heidfeld, and the Williams duo of Juan Pablo Montoya and Ralf Schumacher followed in the top ten. Several drivers went off the track during the session. The engine in Jacques Villeneuve's BAR car failed 11 minutes in and he pulled off with fire licking the cockpit. His teammate Jenson Button also had an engine failure while Fisichella's fuel pump failed.
The second practice session was held on Saturday morning. The track was slick and dirty from overnight rainstorms, but it dried quickly. Button lapped fastest at 1:27.415 towards the conclusion of the session, going almost two-tenths of a second faster than second-placed Barrichello. Ralf Schumacher, Michael Schumacher, Trulli, Coulthard, Montoya, Alonso, Webber and Villeneuve rounded out the top ten. Montoya's oil valve malfunctioned, leaking oil into the airbox and emitting smoke. His engine was not replaced because it was undamaged. Michael Schumacher lost control of his Ferrari in Ascari corner, removing the nose cone and left-front wheel against the barrier. Pizzonia experienced a braking issue and spun backwards at turn three near the sports centre. He returned to the garage and exited his car unhurt. With ten minutes left, Räikkönen lost control of his McLaren at the fast right-hand Whiteford corner, severely damaging the car's left-front corner. Räikkönen was unhurt, but officials stopped practice for nine minutes as marshals secured his damaged car on the grass verge. Villeneuve stopped at the end of the session with an hydraulic system mechanical issue.
The final practice session was held later that morning in cool, cloudy weather, with the majority of teams experimenting with fuel loads and car settings in preparation for the second qualifying session that afternoon. Räikkönen sat out the session as McLaren were working on his car, while Michael Schumacher's Ferrari was repaired. Trulli was fastest with a 1:26.928 lap set with five minutes remaining. Button's fastest time remained unchanged, dropping to second. Alonso, the Ferrari duo of Michael Schumacher and Barrichello, the Williams pair of Montoya and Ralf Schumacher, Heidfeld, Couthard and Da Matta completed the top ten. Coulthard had a right-rear puncture and returned slowly to the pit lane before experiencing a fuel pump failure upon entry. A 15-minute warm-up session saw Barrichello lap fastest at 1:27.738, followed by teammate Michael Schumacher, the Renaults of Alonso and Trulli, Coulthard, Villeneuve, Ralf Schumacher, Räikkönen, Button and Panis.
Qualifying