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.