In 2001, a number of 100 km (62 miles) sprint races were introduced to Formula 1 to establish the starting grid for the real race on the Sunday which traditionally covers a distance of over 300 km (186 miles).
One hundred kilometers seems like next to nothing but was almost twice the distance of the Australian GP that was run in 1991 thanks to the cloudburst that put a stop to the race: just 14 laps of the Adelaide track for a total of 52.9 kilometers with success for Ayrton Senna in a McLaren equipped with Brembo brakes which he had insisted on when he moved to the team with red and white livery but which were hardly used at all that day.
The effort required in this year's Australian GP which will be run over 58 laps is decidedly different. According to Brembo technicians, the Melbourne GP Circuit falls into the category of those tracks with medium difficulty for the brakes. On a scale of 1 to 5, it is rated 3 on the difficulty index.