2004 Australian Grand Prix

2004 Australian Grand Prix
Race 1 of 18 in the 2004 Formula One World Championship ←  Previous race Next race  →
Race details [1] [2]
Date	7 March 2004
Official name	2004 Foster's Australian Grand Prix
Location	Albert Park Circuit, Albert Park, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
Course	Temporary street circuit
Course length	5.303 km (3.295 miles)
Distance	58 laps, 307.574 km (191.118 miles)
Weather	Dry and cloudy Air temperature 20 °C (68 °F)
Attendance	121,500 [3]
Pole position
Driver	Michael Schumacher	Ferrari
Time	1:24.408
Fastest lap
Driver	Michael Schumacher	Ferrari
Time	1:24.125 on lap 29 (lap record)
Podium
First	Michael Schumacher	Ferrari
Second	Rubens Barrichello	Ferrari
Third	Fernando Alonso	Renault
Lap leaders

The 2004 Australian Grand Prix (officially the 2004 Foster's Australian Grand Prix) ^[4] was a Formula One motor race held on 7 March 2004 at the Albert Park Circuit. It was Race 1 of 18 in the 2004 FIA Formula One World Championship. Michael Schumacher won the race for Ferrari from pole position in dominant fashion, ^[a] with his teammate Rubens Barrichello finishing behind him in second. This 1–2 finish gave Ferrari a strong 9-point lead in the constructors' standings after just one race. Williams and Renault each had both cars finish in the points while McLaren, a team that had enjoyed success in years preceding this, only managed one point, with David Coulthard finishing a lapped 8th. ^[7] The 1-2 finish for Schumacher and Barrichello was the first one-two finish for their Ferrari team since the 2002 Japanese Grand Prix. ^[8]

This race marked the first time since the 2001 San Marino Grand Prix that cars competed without using fully-automatic gearboxes and launch control, ^{[9] [10] [11]} which were both banned by the FIA after the 2003 season. ^{[12] [13] [14]} The use of traction control was still permitted by the FIA, and would continue to be used over the next three seasons, until being banned for the 2008 season. ^[15]

This race also marked the 150th Grand Prix race for the McLaren and Mercedes engine partnership since 1995 and the F1 debut of Jaguar driver Christian Klien.

Report

Background

The 2004 Australian Grand Prix took place at the 5.303 km (3.295 mi) Albert Park Circuit in Albert Park, Melbourne, Victoria on 7 March 2004; it was the first round of eighteen in the 2004 Formula One World Championship and the ninth staging of the World Championship Australian Grand Prix at Albert Park. ^{[1] [2]} The Porsche Michelin Carrera Cup, the Cleanevent Nations Cup, the Formula Ford Track Attack, the Cleanevent Historic Touring Cars, the REV GT Kart Challenge and V8 Supercars held support races during the weekend. ^{[16] [17]}

The event included ten constructors, each with two race drivers. ^[18] Anthony Davidson (British American Racing; BAR), Björn Wirdheim (Jaguar), Ricardo Zonta (Toyota), Timo Glock (Jordan) were the four drivers who drove a third car in only the Friday practice sessions. ^[19] Bas Leinders was entered as Minardi's third driver but was denied an FIA Super Licence by the FIA for his lack of running in an Formula One car. ^[20] Ferrari brought their new F2004 car to the race, unlike what the marque had done in the previous two years. Renault focused on reducing the size of the asymmetrically-mounted radiating masses on its R24 car. ^[21]

Friday drivers

The bottom six teams in the 2003 Constructors' Championship were entitled to run a third car in free practice on Friday. These drivers drove on Friday but did not compete in qualifying or the race.

Constructor	Nat	Driver
BAR-Honda		Anthony Davidson
Sauber-Petronas		-
Jaguar-Cosworth		Björn Wirdheim
Toyota		Ricardo Zonta
Jordan-Ford		Timo Glock
Minardi-Cosworth		Bas Leinders

Qualifying

Qualifying resulted in a Ferrari one-two, with Juan Pablo Montoya third on the grid for Williams. Gianmaria Bruni, Christian Klien and Olivier Panis all failed to set a qualifying time. ^[22]

Race

At the start, Alonso was up and away and ahead of Button and looking for a way to deal with Montoya while Jarno Trulli went from ninth on the grid to be fifth out of the first corner. He was aided in his task by Montoya, who went howling down to Turn 1, braked just a hint too late and Montoya was jumped by the Renault of Fernando Alonso as he tried to stay ahead of the surging Alonso. He went off and Alonso had to put some wheels on the grass to avoid a disaster. Montoya went back to seventh. That condemned the Colombian to an afternoon stuck in traffic and put paid to any challenge there might have been for Alonso. Behind all this there were a few wheels off the grass as others sorted themselves out (notably both Saubers) while Takuma Sato bumped the rear end of Trulli's Renault, slightly (but significantly) damaging both cars.

The Ferraris were gone already and as the afternoon developed all that Fernando Alonso could do was to watch the rears of the two red cars as they disappeared from his view. It did not take long. By the fourth lap they were two seconds ahead. By the eighth lap they were five seconds clear and after that Alonso had nothing to do. No one else could keep up with him. Sauber's Giancarlo Fisichella had a long battle for position in the midfield with Jordan's Nick Heidfeld. Fisichella passed Heidfeld, who later dropped out of the race with a transmission failure. Heidfeld was involved in an incident in the pit lane where the mechanic Matt Deane and refueller Mick Gomme were hit by the car and suffered some bruising. ^[23] Montoya attempted to regain the place by going around the outside of the Spaniard into the first turn, but outbraked himself and ran wide. This dropped him behind his teammate Ralf Schumacher, who'd qualified 8th. Despite repassing Ralf Schumacher on-track, the Colombian ended up behind him again by the race's end in fifth place. The race proved that Ferrari once again had a dominant car, with Michael Schumacher winning from teammate Rubens Barrichello in Ferrari's first one-two since Japan 2002, while the rest of the field was over 20 seconds behind. Schumacher led every one of the 58 race laps. ^[24] At the start, Montoya was jumped by the Renault of Fernando Alonso.

Fernando Alonso gave Renault a podium with third place, while Jenson Button got BAR off the mark with sixth. Jarno Trulli finished 7th in the Renault and was the first lapped runner. McLaren seemed to be less competitive than in recent years, with Kimi Räikkönen becoming the first retirement of the year, dropping out with an engine problem, and with David Coulthard picking up just 1 point in eighth place. ^[7]

Classification

Qualifying

Pos	No	Driver	Constructor	Q1 Time	Q2 Time	Q2 Gap
1	1	Michael Schumacher	Ferrari	1:25.301	1:24.408	—
2	2	Rubens Barrichello	Ferrari	1:25.992	1:24.482	+0.074
3	3	Juan Pablo Montoya	Williams-BMW	1:25.226	1:24.998	+0.590
4	9	Jenson Button	BAR-Honda	1:25.898	1:24.998	+0.590
5	8	Fernando Alonso	Renault	1:25.928	1:25.669	+1.261
6	14	Mark Webber	Jaguar-Cosworth	1:26.232	1:25.805	+1.397
7	10	Takuma Sato	BAR-Honda	1:26.737	1:25.851	+1.443
8	4	Ralf Schumacher	Williams-BMW	1:25.445	1:25.925	+1.517
9	7	Jarno Trulli	Renault	1:27.357	1:26.290	+1.882
10	6	Kimi Räikkönen	McLaren-Mercedes	1:25.592	1:26.297	+1.889
11	12	Felipe Massa	Sauber-Petronas	1:26.833	1:27.065	+2.657
12	5	David Coulthard	McLaren-Mercedes	1:25.652	1:27.294	+2.886
13	16	Cristiano da Matta	Toyota	1:28.274	1:27.823	+3.415
14	11	Giancarlo Fisichella	Sauber-Petronas	1:26.286	1:27.845	+3.437
15	18	Nick Heidfeld	Jordan-Ford	1:27.469	1:28.178	+3.770
16	19	Giorgio Pantano	Jordan-Ford	1:29.156	1:30.140	+5.732
17	21	Zsolt Baumgartner	Minardi-Cosworth	1:32.606	1:30.681	+6.273
18	17	Olivier Panis	Toyota	1:27.253	No time 1
19	15	Christian Klien	Jaguar-Cosworth	1:27.258	No time 2
20	20	Gianmaria Bruni	Minardi-Cosworth	1:30.912	No time 2
Sources: [25] [26]

Notes

• ^1 – Olivier Panis did not get time in Q2 due to electronics problems.
• ^2 – Christian Klien and Gianmaria Bruni did not get time in Q2 due to hydraulics problems.

Race

Pos	No	Driver	Constructor	Laps	Time/Retired	Grid	Points
1	1	Michael Schumacher	Ferrari	58	1:24:15.757	1	10
2	2	Rubens Barrichello	Ferrari	58	+13.605	2	8
3	8	Fernando Alonso	Renault	58	+34.673	5	6
4	4	Ralf Schumacher	Williams-BMW	58	+1:00.423	8	5
5	3	Juan Pablo Montoya	Williams-BMW	58	+1:08.536	3	4
6	9	Jenson Button	BAR-Honda	58	+1:10.598	4	3
7	7	Jarno Trulli	Renault	57	+1 Lap	9	2
8	5	David Coulthard	McLaren-Mercedes	57	+1 Lap	12	1
9	10	Takuma Sato	BAR-Honda	57	+1 Lap	7
10	11	Giancarlo Fisichella	Sauber-Petronas	57	+1 Lap	14
11	15	Christian Klien	Jaguar-Cosworth	56	+2 Laps	19
12	16	Cristiano da Matta	Toyota	56	+2 Laps	13
13	17	Olivier Panis	Toyota	56	+2 Laps	18
14	19	Giorgio Pantano	Jordan-Ford	55	+3 Laps	16
Ret	12	Felipe Massa	Sauber-Petronas	44	Engine	11
Ret	18	Nick Heidfeld	Jordan-Ford	43	Transmission	15
NC	20	Gianmaria Bruni	Minardi-Cosworth	43	+15 Laps	20
Ret	14	Mark Webber	Jaguar-Cosworth	29	Transmission	6
Ret	21	Zsolt Baumgartner	Minardi-Cosworth	13	Electrical	17
Ret	6	Kimi Räikkönen	McLaren-Mercedes	9	Engine/Spin	10
Source: [27]

Championship standings after the race

Drivers' Championship standings Pos Driver Points 1 Michael Schumacher 10 2 Rubens Barrichello 8 3 Fernando Alonso 6 4 Ralf Schumacher 5 5 Juan Pablo Montoya 4 Source: [28]

Constructors' Championship standings Pos Constructor Points 1 Ferrari 18 2 Williams-BMW 9 3 Renault 8 4 BAR-Honda 3 5 McLaren-Mercedes 1 Source: [28]

• Note: Only the top five positions are included for both sets of standings.

Footnotes

1. Michael Schumacher had his fourth career grand slam and his second for Ferrari, ^[5] having taken pole position, the fastest lap, and won the race by leading every lap. ^[6]

References

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2. "2004 Australian Grand Prix". Motor Sport . Retrieved 10 March 2026.
   "2004 Australian Grand Prix results". ESPN. Archived from the original on 28 December 2009. Retrieved 4 November 2025.
3. "Motorsport Results". Austadiums. Retrieved 10 January 2016.
4. "2004 Foster's Australian Grand Prix - Race" . Retrieved 2 January 2021.
5. "Michael Schumacher – Grand slam". StatsF1. 15 August 2004. Retrieved 13 April 2022.
6. Wood, Will (11 April 2022). "Leclerc emulates Schumacher with Melbourne grand slam as Verstappen lucks out again". RaceFans. Collantine Media. Retrieved 28 April 2022.
7. "McLaren knows its weaknesses". Motorsport.com. 9 March 2004. Archived from the original on 6 June 2011. Retrieved 28 April 2022.
8. "Ferrari-one-two-STATS F1". www.statsf1.com. Stats F1. Retrieved 15 August 2022.
9. "Traction Control to Stay in F1 in 2004 - F1 - Autosport". autosport.com. Retrieved 12 November 2020.
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11. "Knutson: F1 shifting gears, literally". ESPN.com. 22 February 2004. Retrieved 12 November 2020.
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13. "F1 2004 - Australian GP Highlights (Greek Subs)". YouTube . Archived from the original on 5 December 2021.
14. "YouTube, a Google company". YouTube . Archived from the original on 21 November 2020.
15. "Traction control banned in F1 beginning in 2008". Autoblog. Retrieved 12 November 2020.
16. Wilkins, Robert (4 March 2004). "Australian GP - experience it first hand in 2004". Crash. Retrieved 10 March 2026.
17. "Australian F1 Grand PrixThe Program". The Advertiser . 6 March 2004. p. 124. ProQuest   355634829.
18. "Formula One 2004 Australian Grand Prix Information". Motorsport Stats. Retrieved 10 March 2026.
19. Baker, Andrew (6 March 2004). "Filling the Friday void". The Daily Telegraph . p. S12. Retrieved 10 March 2026– via Newspapers.com.
20. "Minardi Fail to Secure Leinders a License". AtlasF1 . Reuters. 5 March 2004. Retrieved 10 March 2026.
21. Piola, Giorgio (9–15 March 2004). "Tanti profili avanzat" [Many Advanced Profiles]. Autosprint (in Italian) (10): 38–39.
22. "2004 Australian Grand Prix starting grid" Archived 6 June 2011 at the Wayback Machine Motorsport.com Retrieved 28 December 2007
23. "Jordan Mechanics Uninjured after Pitstop Incident". Autosport.com. Retrieved 20 October 2021.
24. "Dominant Australian GP win for Schumacher" Archived 6 June 2011 at the Wayback Machine Motorsport.com Retrieved 28 December 2007
25. The Official Formula One Season Review 2004
26. "2004 Australian Grand Prix - Saturday Qualifying Results". Formula1.com. Formula1.com Limited. Archived from the original on 23 January 2015. Retrieved 27 December 2015.
27. "2004 Australian Grand Prix - Race Results". Formula1.com. Formula1.com Limited. Archived from the original on 16 November 2014. Retrieved 27 December 2015.
28. "Australia 2004 - Championship • STATS F1". statsf1.com. Retrieved 7 March 2019.

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