1999 Australian Grand Prix

The season opener marks the 50th world championship season in Formula One history. McLaren arrive with the new MP4/14, designed by Adrian Newey — the car is widely regarded as the fastest on the grid, with Häkkinen and Coulthard lapping over a second clear of the rest of the field in practice. Reliability is a separate question.

Entrants

British American Racing makes its Formula One debut with Jacques Villeneuve and Ricardo Zonta. Pedro de la Rosa (Arrows) and Marc Gené (Minardi) also make their Grand Prix debuts. Alessandro Zanardi returns to the grid for Williams after five years away — his last F1 race was with Lotus in 1994 before his CART championship years.

Gené set a qualifying time 0.039 seconds outside the 107% limit. The stewards granted him permission to start based on his free practice times.

Practice

McLaren dominated all three practice sessions, with Häkkinen and Coulthard trading fastest laps throughout. In Friday’s second session, Häkkinen spun and crashed at the final corner, bringing out the red flag; the McLaren was badly damaged and his session ended there, though he was unhurt.

Saturday’s final session was interrupted when Wurz spun into the tyre barriers, bringing out another red flag. Several drivers — including Sauber’s Diniz and Alesi, plus Zanardi, Zonta, and de la Rosa — spun or stopped on track during the weekend, with many attributed to the reduced grip from the new four-groove front tyres. Häkkinen’s final session pace left him 2.2 seconds clear of third place.

Michael Schumacher was only seventh in the final session, more than 1.5 seconds behind the McLarens, after technical problems limited his running on Friday.