The Athletic.

After five years of Michael Schumacher winning world championships, it would be all

change in 2005, and that became clear from the very first weekend of the new season,

when qualifying gave us a mixed-up grid,

and Giancarlo Fisickella got to deliver on Renault's pre-season promise

by taking victory and getting to celebrate the win on the same day

for the first time in his career.

Fernando Alonzo capped a great day for Renault with a charging drive

from deep in the field to claim a podium.

Rebel Racing made an excellent first impression on its F1 debut,

while Michael Schumacher had a weekend to forget in what would soon become a season to forget.

And in classic F1 fashion, there were huge political battles going on off track,

with everyone seemingly at war with

somebody else behind the scenes and the FIA trying to keep a lid on everything. So joining me,

Glenn Freeman, to look back at the 2005 Australian Grand Prix, we have Mark Hughes and Matt Beer.

Mark, you were in Australia for this weekend, So tell us, when you think back to the

2005 season opener, what's the first thing that comes to mind? First thing that comes to mind

is an awful long time ago because I really had to, I really had to think quite hard.

And then when I started reading up on it, I think, oh, yeah, yeah, it started triggering some

things. And I think the thing that most stood out for me was that first qualifying session, which

began sort of dryish and got progressively wetter. And so it was the, because it was the first weekend of the,

the twin qualifying sessions on separate days with the

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