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Oscar Piastri is days away from becoming the 15th Australian to start a Formula 1 grand prix.
The Melbourne-born 21-year-old will debut at the Bahrain Grand Prix with McLaren, taking over from fellow countryman Daniel Ricciardo, who will spend this season as a reserve driver with Red Bull.
Four Australians have won a grand prix in F1, with Piastri hoping to be the fifth by the end of his career.
Here is how Australia’s race winners fared in their debut grands prix.
Jack Brabham
Three-time world drivers’ champion Jack Brabham was one of the sport’s early superstars.
The man from Hurstville in New South Wales is the most successful Australian F1 driver, but his career did not start glamorously.
Entering the 1955 British Grand Prix — the sixth of seven races that season — Brabham could not make it to the chequered flag driving his Cooper Bristol.
He retired after 30 laps, receiving no classification.
He was not the only one to retire, with 16 of the 25 cars failing to finish the 90-lap grand prix.
Legendary driver Stirling Moss won the race for Mercedes-Benz.
Alan Jones
The 1980 world champion Alan Jones made his F1 debut at the 1975 Spanish Grand Prix.
Driving a Hesketh Ford, the race did not last long for the Melbourne-born star.
Starting 20th on the grid, Jones’s race would last just three laps before retirement.
The 1975 Spanish Grand Prix is one of F1’s most infamous and historical weekends.
Not only was it the debut for Jones, but it is still to this day the only race where a female driver scored championship points.
In a shortened race, Lella Lombardi driving for March came sixth and scored half a point.
The weekend was marred by tragedy when Rolf Stommelen crashed into a crowd, resulting in the death of four spectators.
Mark Webber
In his first race in F1, Mark Webber provided one of the great moments in the history of the Australian Grand Prix at Albert Park.
Making his debut for the lowly Minardi team, very little was expected from the boy born in Queanbeyan.
Webber qualified 18th of 22 cars and with only the top six scoring points during this era, it seemed far-fetched the Aussie would achieve that on home soil.
But in a race where only eight drivers finished, Webber could keep his car on the track.
He finished fifth, holding off a charging Mika Salo in the Toyota to give the home crowd an unforgettable moment.
Webber and his team were given permission to stand on the podium to celebrate the unlikely points finish.
The race is infamously remembered for a frightening moment at the start of the race, when Ralf Schumacher was launched into the air after crashing into the back of a Ferrari.
Daniel Ricciardo
Australia’s most recent winner of an F1 race made his debut at the 2011 British Grand Prix.
The Perth-born youngster was part of the Red Bull junior program and was allowed by the team to replace Narain Karthikeyan for the struggling HRT outfit.
There was no magic in his debut like Webber had nine years earlier, but Ricciardo completed the race, finishing 19th of the 24 starters.
Webber retired from F1 at the end of 2013 and was replaced at Red Bull by Ricciardo, who would go on to win seven races for the team and the 2021 Italian Grand Prix for McLaren.
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