Martin Brundle warns of ‘wild’ start to F1 2026 season.
Formula 1 could be braced for a “slightly wild” start to 2026 as drivers grapple with battery harvesting, boost management and inevitable reliability gremlins.
3 Mar 2026
Michelle Foster
PlanetF1.com

Martin Brundle expects unpredictable opening to F1 2026 “It’s a dramatic change, the biggest ever in Formula 1, and we’re right at the very beginning of it,” Brundle told Sky F1. “Teams have got to find ways of replenishing the battery and for it to not dominate the lap so much, but I think they’ll quite quickly do that and migrate together in terms of how they want to charge and use their power.”

“But, in the beginning, it’s going to be slightly wild. We’re going to get unreliability as well, much more than we’ve seen in the last few years, when the last hybrid engines became bulletproof, really, and so did the cars. I think you’ll not think you have won a grand prix until you literally see the chequered flag.”

“We’re going to see a lot of variability but we’re in a massively better place than we were in 2014 when the hybrid engines first came in because only Mercedes got it right then and everybody else was floundering around. This is much closer.”

“Slightly wild”;

https://www.planetf1.com/news/martin...f1-2026-season


Jos Verstappen says ‘everyone laughed’ when Max Verstappen warned them about 2026 F1 rules
3 Mar 2026
David Comerford
F1 Oversteer

Why the Australian Grand Prix could be a farce. In an interview with Viaplay, via RacingNews365, Max’s father Jos Verstappen said that these complaints weren’t taken seriously at the time. In fact, ‘everyone laughed’. Verstappen feels that his son has been proven right by pre-season testing and accused the sport’s bosses of ignoring their drivers.

“They simply don’t listen,” he said. “Max was already negative about certain things based on the data, but everyone laughed at him at the time. Now they see the results, and everyone can see it. They should listen to the drivers more often, but they don’t.”

‘Could be a farce’;

https://www.f1oversteer.com/news/jos...2026-f1-rules/


Charter flights put on as F1 bosses try to keep Australian Grand Prix on track
3 Mar 2026
PA News Agency
News Shopper

Formula One has kept Sunday’s season-opening Australian Grand Prix alive by using charter planes to fly hundreds of affected members of the sport’s travelling circus to Melbourne. Following the travel chaos caused by airspace closure in the Middle East, the Press Association has been told that two chartered aircraft departed London on Monday night.

A British Airways plane, which stopped at Singapore, and a business-class only Air X flight via Tanzania, carried staff from 10 of the grid’s 11 teams as well as F1 officials to Australia. The eleventh-hour flights were coordinated by sports travel agency, Travel Places. The affected personnel are due to land in Melbourne on Wednesday morning, 48 hours out from the opening practice session of the season at Albert Park.

Roughly 2,000 people work at every F1 race, and it is thought at least a quarter had been due to travel to Australia via travel hubs such as Doha and Dubai. However, the conflict in the Middle East caused hundreds of staff to re-route or take chartered flights. One leading UK-based team told PA that more than 50 per cent of its travelling staff had been affected.

‘Charter flights put on’;

https://www.newsshopper.co.uk/sport/...nd-prix-track/


Why Red Bull are the biggest wild cards for the 2026 season
3 Mar 2026
Jaden Diaz-Ndisang
Last Word On Sports

According to some engineers int he paddock, Red Bull could be the benchmark in terms of harvesting energy. Upon realising how competitive their engine was, Laurent Mekies’ personnel swiftly turned it down. Over the remaining weeks of testing, the RB22 was consistently at the bottom of the timing sheets.

Of course, this deliberate attempt to conceal performance did not go unnoticed by rivals. Mercedes have been particularly vocal about their suspicions regarding the Austrian team’s true speed. Suggestions that Red Bull’s engine could be the best on the grid – though perhaps just mind games – are evidence that the Austrian squad are already giving rivals headaches. Whilst it is impossible to say exactly where Red Bull sit in the pecking order, one thing is certain. The RB22 is seen as a threat.

Putting engine performance to one side, Red Bull’s 2026 challenger also impressed with its aerodynamic characteristics. The RB22 was a compliant and consistent machine in testing, demonstrating a strong platform to start these regulations. Perhaps unsurprisingly, Max Verstappen is convinced that Mercedes have a huge amount of performance in reserve: “I can tell you one thing. Just wait until Melbourne and see how much power the suddenly find – I already know.” The Dutchman is not the only person to make this kind of suggestion about the Silver Arrows. Looking to the entirety of 2026, the Austrian team fancy themselves to beat their rivals in a mid-season development race.

‘One thing is certain. The RB22 is seen as a threat.’;

https://lastwordonsports.com/motorsp...e-2026-season/


Adrian Newey made a sarcastic dig about Honda’s 80hp deficit as Aston Martin face reliability crisis
3 Mar 2026
Kyle Archer
F1 Oversteer

Adrian Newey has sarcastically claimed Aston Martin’s Honda engine is not powerful enough to charge the battery. Aston Martin have sent chief strategy officer Andy Cowell, who Newey has replaced as team principal for the 2026 season, to Japan to help Honda fix their engine. But Autosport reports that ‘time is running out’ for Honda to find ‘basic reliability’ before looking for performance.

Newey is far from happy with the situation, and is even said to have ‘sarcastically’ taken aim at Honda by suggesting that the Japanese brand’s new V6 engine is not powerful enough to recharge the battery. Honda’s engine is thought to lack 80hp when it is charging the battery. Honda’s problems also ensured Aston Martin were unable to gauge the actual performance levels of the AMR26 over the two three-day tests in Bahrain. The Silverstone team will now head to Melbourne largely hoping to just avoid their image being undermined even further.

‘Honda’s 80hp deficit’;

https://www.f1oversteer.com/news/adr...bility-crisis/


‘Things might bubble over’: Davidson fears Alonso’s frustration
03/03/2026
Phillip van Osten
F1i.com

Davidson highlighted the gravity of the situation. "They're in a technically challenging position right now, as a whole collective,” he explained in an interview with RacingNews365. “Fernando is very much part of that team, and will be working in the background, trying to get things up to speed, quite literally, and [for the car] to be more reliable."

"He's not blessed with a huge amount of time on his side anymore, and as a driver that's been there and done it, it all might become too frustrating, perhaps," Davidson noted. While the prestige of the project is clear, the current setbacks are impossible to ignore.

"But he's a hard worker, and I'm sure he wants, more than anybody, for this to succeed as an operation, and on paper, you'd have to say that all the ingredients are there. So give it time, and I'm convinced that it will come good, but it comes back to my first point. Time isn't really on his side."

‘Things might bubble over’;

https://f1i.com/news/560022-things-m...ustration.html


Honda preparing Aston Martin updates for the Australian GP with ‘no 100% guarantee’ they will work
3 Mar 2026
Ben Evans
F1 Oversteer

Adrian Newey has his work cut out, while Fernando Alonso must be wondering when, if ever, his luck is going to change in Formula 1, 20 years on from his second championship victory. Both Aston Martin and Honda know they can’t afford to slow down the work they’re doing behind the scenes, and journalists Kemal Sengul and Thomas Maher have shared more details about what both parties are planning on bringing to the Australian Grand Prix this weekend.

‘No 100% guarantee’;

https://www.f1oversteer.com/news/hon...hey-will-work/


Aston Martin and Adrian Newey are racing to sort out a dud car as F1 season begins
3 March 2026
ASSOCIATED PRESS
MailOnline

The big problem is that there isn't one big problem. The Honda engine seems to lack power, but Aston Martin's exclusive works relationship with the Japanese auto giant means there's no other team with a Honda engine to compare it with, or learn from.

The Aston Martin is also unreliable and undercooked after arriving late to the first test and missing valuable time due to breakdowns. Battery problems limited testing time in Bahrain as Honda worked on the issue. Aston Martin also seemed to have gearbox trouble and a shortage of parts.

‘Racing to sort out a dud car’;

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/wires/ap...on-begins.html