2026 - Race 1 [Australia]

[F1nKS]

Race Week - and oh the story lines!

Is Aston Martin in trouble? Are they really doing the formation lap and then quitting?
Will McLaren repeat?
Was Mercedes sandbagging?
Will the doom-mongers be right or wrong about 2026?

[Steve Boyd]

Race Week - and oh the story lines!

Is Aston Martin in trouble? Are they really doing the formation lap and then quitting?
Will McLaren repeat?
Was Mercedes sandbagging?
Will the doom-mongers be right or wrong about 2026?
Way off topic but - they really need to re-run "Soap" somewhere I can watch it!

[airshifter]

I think AM will call it quits early in the race. Alonso said the vibrations are so bad that he doubts he could do 25 laps without risking long term nerve damage. Newey might find himself in the hot seat quick, and reports claim that he wanted Honda to change a LOT of stuff for packaging reasons. He may have forced some issues on Honda's end. For his sake I really hope not, but I remember him causing cooling issues with RB due to being really hard about bodywork packaging.

As for sandbagging, we will hopefully find out of any of them were doing it. I suspect maybe they were. I'm expecting qually times and race times to be near 2022 levels, with qual being closer and race times lagging by maybe a second or second and a half. I don't think it's nearly as doom and gloom as some are expecting. But we will find out soon!

[denkimi]

I think AM will find some fix that will make the vibrations bearable for the pilots.

[Matthew]

Mercedes didn't do great in FP1 but I won't be surprised to see them finish 1-2 in the qualifying.

[airshifter]

I'm waiting to see who drops the sandbags in P3 and qually. I think some are already uncorking things a bit from P1.

[Nitrodaze]

Mercedes dumped the sandbags and whooped the grid with a massive 7-tenths gap to the nearest team. It would seem we are set for a runaway championship with Mercedes winning the constructors' title and George Russell winning the driver's title. Might as well hand them the trophies now, I think.

I was hoping for a much closer battle, but the gap is surprisingly big. Finding 7 tenths is not going to be easy. Some caveat to this is that Verstappen did not make it to Q3 to give us a clearer indication of how much closer is the Redbull. Also, the Ferrari had battery deployment issues in Q3, hence we did not see the true outright pace of the Ferraris.

The other surprising things were, firstly, the FIA removed straight mode for sector 3, which may have affected battery energy harvesting for most cars. However, the gap of the sharp end of the grid from the midfield was staggeringly above a full second.

It is turning out to be a very bad start to this new regulation era. It is not achieving close racing, and it has not been successfull from prevent one team from running away with the championship titles it would seem at this stage.

[Nitrodaze]

Mercedes dumped the sandbags and whooped the grid with a massive 7-tenths gap to the nearest team. It would seem we are set for a runaway championship with Mercedes winning the constructors' title and George Russell winning the driver's title. Might as well hand them the trophies now, I think.

I was hoping for a much closer battle, but the gap is surprisingly big. Finding 7 tenths is not going to be easy. Some caveat to this is that Verstappen did not make it to Q3 to give us a clearer indication of how much closer is the Redbull. Also, the Ferrari had battery deployment issues in Q3, hence we did not see the true outright pace of the Ferraris.

The other surprising things were, firstly, the FIA removed straight mode for sector 3, which may have affected battery energy harvesting for most cars. However, the gap of the sharp end of the grid from the midfield was staggeringly above a full second.

It is turning out to be a very bad start to this new regulation era. It is not achieving close racing, and it has not been successfull from prevent one team from running away with the championship titles it would seem at this stage.

Stars of Qualifying were the Mercedes pair. Hadjar delivered in the absence of Verstappen. He is going to be impressive this season. Lindblad makes it into the top ten on his debut race. What a talent in the making? What about AUDI getting into the top ten with Bortoleto in their debut race also? Audi is poised to be the surprise of the season as they may end up further up the contructor's table than most expected them to be. Aston Martin showed that there is tons of potential in that car if they can find a solution to their engine integration issues.

Disappointers of Qualifying:
Ferrari faultered when it mattered but may have a better showing in the race come sunday. Haas and Alpine faultered for reasons unclear. Williams were surprisingly mondane. It is going to be a tough season in the midfields by the look of things.

So we have seen the first qualifying, and it looks like the FIA has work to do. Mercedes looks ominous, and that may only intensify the engine protest. Ferrari race operation still needs work. Redbull is much stronger than they make out. McLaren also have head scratching moments ahead.

[Nitrodaze]

Mercedes dumped the sandbags and whooped the grid with a massive 7-tenths gap to the nearest team. It would seem we are set for a runaway championship with Mercedes winning the constructors' title and George Russell winning the driver's title. Might as well hand them the trophies now, I think.

I was hoping for a much closer battle, but the gap is surprisingly big. Finding 7 tenths is not going to be easy. Some caveat to this is that Verstappen did not make it to Q3 to give us a clearer indication of how much closer is the Redbull. Also, the Ferrari had battery deployment issues in Q3, hence we did not see the true outright pace of the Ferraris.

The other surprising things were, firstly, the FIA removed straight mode for sector 3, which may have affected battery energy harvesting for most cars. However, the gap of the sharp end of the grid to the midfield was staggeringly above a full second.

It is turning out to be a very bad start to this new regulation era. It is not achieving close racing, and it has not been successfull from prevent one team from running away with the championship titles it would seem at this stage.

Stars of Qualifying were the Mercedes pair. Hadjar delivered in the absence of Verstappen. He is going to be impressive this season. Lindblad makes it into the top ten on his debut race. What a talent in the making? What about AUDI getting into the top ten with Bortoleto in their debut race also? Audi is poised to be the surprise of the season as they may end up further up the contructor's table than most expected them to be. Aston Martin showed that there is tons of potential in that car if they can find a solution to their engine integration issues.

Disappointers of Qualifying:
Ferrari faultered when it mattered but may have a better showing in the race come sunday. Haas and Alpine faultered for reasons unclear. Williams were surprisingly mondane. It is going to be a tough season in the midfields by the look of things.

So we have seen the first qualifying, and it looks like the FIA has work to do. Mercedes looks ominous, and that may only intensify the engine protest. Ferrari race operation still needs work. Redbull is much stronger than they make out. McLaren also have head scratching moments ahead.

[F1nKS]

It is turning out to be a very bad start to this new regulation era. It is not achieving close racing, and it has not been successfull from prevent one team from running away with the championship titles it would seem at this stage.

I agree. Runaway championships are not good for F1 in the long term. We will see how the racing goes, but it is a very uninteresting start.

Maybe if Max hadn't crashed out, it might have been different. Hadjar had been running about 0.5-0.6 behind Max, so Max might have been within 0.2 of Mercedes.

It could become a little more interesting if Russell and Antonelli scrap over being top dog. They might as well - the talk will quickly become about whether Max is going to Mercedes. If that becomes a storyline in the silly season, then one of them has nothing to lose (and it might be your only chance to be a champion).

[F1nKS]

Unamamed team principal:

the rules are “complete sh*t”.

The headline coming out of qualifying are:


F1’s new era of regulations is off to a very rocky start, and there’s no quick and easy fix to rectify what may become apparent as a major blunder.


F1 drivers eviscerate new cars at Australian GP - what's going wrong, and is there a quick fix?

The opening qualifying session of a brand-new regulation era in Melbourne should have been a showcase for the sport's future. Instead, it produced a largely uninspiring hour of running and a wave of savage criticism from the sport's own drivers immediately afterwards. Saturday fell flatter than even the most pessimistic critics had feared.


Norris, Verstappen and Hamilton slam ‘worst’ F1 cars after torrid Australian GP qualifying


Formula 1 boss hits back at Verstappen, Hamilton over rule criticism

Formula 1 CEO Stefano Domenicali has hit back at drivers criticizing the sport's new regulations, saying it is "wrong" for the likes of Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton to speak negatively about F1.


Norris: It sucks F1's traded best car for worst in 2026


Charles Leclerc joins in 2026 car criticism with a heavy verdict

Let's hope the racing is better than expected.

[F1nKS]

Piastri crashes on the recon lap to the grid...

[F1nKS]

So far, the racing action has been pretty good.

[F1nKS]

It was an interesting race until Ferrari blew the pit call.

Mercedes is definitely much faster than everybody else.

Ferrari's starting ability is impressive.

Looks like Red Bull and Mclaren are about the same.

[Nitrodaze]

It was an interesting race until Ferrari blew the pit call.

Mercedes is definitely much faster than everybody else.

Ferrari's starting ability is impressive.

Looks like Red Bull and Mclaren are about the same.

The Ferrari failure started in Qualifying. Their poor preparation meant the drivers could not get the best that the car had to offer in qualifying which meant they qualified out of their true positions on the grid.

The great start, then put them in 2nd and 3rd, which also indicated they were in the race for the win with some clever thinking. Then came the Hadjar VSC, which should have been an opportunity for Ferrari to use both cars to attack Russell with a split car strategy, but the Ferrari pitwall had a surprising brain faze and left both cars out.

It is very clear that Ferrari still does not have the right people in their race operations to win championships. They were not brutally honest in looking at their race operations and making the necessary changes to have people with a proper, aggressive winning mentality running their race weekend.

Even a very race-busy Hamilton could see the strategy which the dumbasses on the Ferrari pitwall could not see. They may learn from this race, but I seriously doubt it. This sort of thing is not learnt, it it is usually in the blood. It is in the seat of your pants instincts. And guys on the Ferrari pitwall do not have it.

[Nitrodaze]

AUDI thrills again. Bortileto is proving to be a star of the future if given a race-winning car. Audi is in a better place than we expected. Finishing 9th in their debut race exceeded their wildest expectations, given their preseason testing performance.

Linblad continues to shine and is already putting pressure on Hadjar for the second Redbull seat at the very first race. What a brilliant drive from Verstappen. From dead last to 6th was a brilliant demonstration of his immense talent. It sort of made me question what would have happened if he had not crashed and started the race in the second row next to Hadjar. Seeing how close Ferrari got to Mercedes would suggest that the battle for the race may have been a lot more complicated for Russell with Verstappen in the mix.

Haas finally came good and finished where we expected them to finish races at these early races. Bearman has now established himself as the lead driver of the team. For some unknown reason, Ocon is not able to get his racing back to his best form. He is better than what we are seeing.

The Aston Martin woes now look ugly. Williams has clearly missed the mark this season and questions would be asked before long as to why it got its 2026 season of to such a bad start.

The Cadillac can smile a little as they finished the race with one car ahead of the stricken Aston Martin pair. Perez is leading the team with some great performances.

I think Hamilton was faster than Leclerc in this race. From 7th to within 2-tenths of Leclerc at the end of the race suggests that he may have finished ahead of Leclerc if the had started next to each other. And the battle with Russell may have been more intense with two Ferrari directly on his heels.

One thing is certain: the Chinese GP is going to be a much better race. Probably a more trickier race for Mercedes with a closer Ferrari and Redbull pair.

[Nitrodaze]

Is the regulations sh*t as some are saying? It is not looking pretty in Melbourne, but that is due to the nature of the track. It would not look pretty at Monza, Jedah and possibly Baku and Montreal. It is too early to write off the regulations, we have to see what the nature of the racing is going to look like at the twisty tracks where battery harvesting can produce sufficient power levels for each full lap of racing.

If the Mercedes cars cannot be tamed at these races, then we can conclude that the season is a bust.