[11] Former four-time world champions Red Bull ran a car in black-and-white camouflage, that did nothing to disguise the fact that the Austrian team still struggled with problems concerning their Renault engines, doing the second fewest laps during the first test in Jerez.

[12] While Lotus, Toro Rosso and Sauber were considered to be contesting for points with considerable advances made over the winter, the new partnership between McLaren and Honda got off to a bad start.

Two weeks prior to the Grand Prix, McLaren announced that Alonso would miss the inaugural 2015 race due to a concussion suffered in a crash during pre-season testing at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya.

[17] Doctors advised Alonso not to race, avoiding further medical complications and his place was therefore taken by McLaren reserve driver, Kevin Magnussen,[18] who finished second on his debut at the same event in 2014.

[19] The new drivers to Formula One included the Toro Rosso duo of Carlos Sainz Jr. and Max Verstappen, Manor Marussia's Will Stevens – on a full-time basis, after one start in 2014 – and Roberto Merhi,[20][21] and Felipe Nasr racing for Sauber.

[22][27] A week before the start of the Grand Prix weekend, Dutch driver Giedo van der Garde launched legal action against Sauber before the Supreme Court of Victoria, to enforce a contract he entered into in June 2014 to drive for the team during the 2015 season.

[28] This action was based on an award that van der Garde obtained on 2 March 2015 through international arbitration in Switzerland, which he initiated after the team announced in November 2014 that their 2015 drivers would instead be Marcus Ericsson and Felipe Nasr.

On the same day, Sauber appealed the orders made against them and also publicly announced that they would not compromise the safety of the team or other drivers by putting van der Garde in the car, since the C34 chassis had only been tailored to fit Ericsson and Nasr.

[32] Lawyers representing Ericsson and Nasr further argued that van der Garde had not followed due process by failing to give their clients prior notice of his legal action.

[34] Some two hours after the court made its initial judgment in favour of van der Garde, the FIA published an entry list for the Australian Grand Prix that included both Nasr and Ericsson for Sauber following pre-event scrutineering.

[29] Nevertheless, based on media speculation about Bernie Ecclestone's intervention to avoid further negative publicity on the sport,[37] Ericsson and Nasr did participate in that afternoon's second practice session.

[38] On Saturday, 14 March 2015, the dispute reached a temporary resolution thanks to van der Garde announcing that he would forego racing in Melbourne,[39] with a view to finding a more permanent solution in the future.

[42] Mercedes confirmed their good form from pre-season testing and topped the time sheets by a considerable margin in the first two practice sessions on Friday, with Nico Rosberg fastest in both outings.

The McLaren cars of Jenson Button and Kevin Magnussen struggled as expected, following their lack of pre-season testing and failed to make it into Q2, just as Sauber driver Marcus Ericsson.

[46][47] The second session saw the Mercedes drivers doing only one timed run, which proved sufficient to proceed, while the Red Bull and Toro Rosso cars were split up, with Daniil Kvyat and rookie Max Verstappen failing to make it through.

[58][59] Hamilton maintained the race lead while saving fuel before increasing his pace until the end of lap 25, when he made a pit stop for a new set of the medium compound tyres.

[58][59] On lap 34, Max Verstappen retired from the race while running in sixth place after the rear of his Toro Rosso car was engulfed by smoke due to an engine failure.

[27][51] On lap 41, Räikkönen also retired at turn four after the mechanic was unable to fully tighten a cross-threaded left-rear wheel peg that had been embedded in a stub axle during a pit stop, causing his left rear tyre to come loose.

[62] Red Bull quarreled with their engine manufacturer Renault and lamented the dominance of their rivals, calling for the FIA to step in and apply rule changes to level the field,[63] fearing that the public would lose interest in the sport if nothing happened.

[64] Mercedes chief Toto Wolff reacted furiously, telling his rivals to "get your f*****g head down and work to sort it out", but later made it clear that he "didn't mean the f-word in relation to him" regarding the comments by Christian Horner.