AUSTRALIAN GRAND PRIX 2026
photo credit: formula1.com
THE MERCEDES IS A LITERAL ROCKET!
The Mercedes team start off the season with a front row lockout and a 1-2 finish. They were 8 tenths ahead of the Red Bull of Isack Hadjar in P3 while qualifying. Even in the race, they had so much pace that even after the huge tyre delta that Ferrari had, they still went on to win the race without breaking a sweat, George finishing P1 and Kimi in P2. It just confirms the power advantage that everyone suspected they had during testing. This year might be Mercedes' year with George's first WDC as predicted by many.
As for Ferrari, they had the best start out of all teams on the grid. Leclerc rocketed into the lead with his start and Hamilton in P3, even after starting from P4 and P7. Again a testing theory which proved to be correct. Leclerc and Russell had an amazing battle in the opening stages of the race, with Hamilton and Antonelli also joining it until it was ruined by the virtual safety car and both teams went opposite strategies. On paper Ferrari's strategy was better but Mercedes' pace and the time gained via them pitting under VSC conditions just pushed them over the edge to get the win. Regardless, a very good race for Ferrari, with the team learning a lot and even the drivers enjoying the new car and its handling.
Heading on to the defending World Champions, McLaren... they just did not have the race anyone would have hoped. Firstly Oscar crashed out on the way to the grid and then in the race Lando just did not have the pace and could not keep up with the leading two teams at all and finished a whopping 52 seconds behind George. Honestly, not McLaren would have hoped. In the end, Lando had to fight of Max, who started P20, which just further shows how terrible their pace was today. In all, McLaren have their work cut out for them and have to improve a lot before the next race to be even close to contention.
Red Bull... well they had a very mixed weekend, with problems surfacing first in qualifying for Max and then in race for Isack. In qualifying, Max's rear axled locked on braking before the first corner, sending him into a spin, hitting the barriers, which ended his qualifying in Q1. Regardless, Max recovered up to P6 but still not up to Max's level as he could neither overtake the McLaren nor did he have the pace of the leaders to catch up to them and put up a MAX VERSTAPPEN PERFORMANCE, to win it or reach the podium from the back of the grid or a relatively low position, like he has done many times in the past. On the other side of the garage, Isack had an incredible qualifying, outqualifying the McLarens and the Ferrari's and was having a good first race with Red Bull, until a power until failure which ended his race. Overall, Red Bull do not seem to be much far behind the leading two teams but surely they need to sort out their reliability issues which they keep on facing or else it can be catastrophic for the championship ahead.
The Racing Bulls look to be quite fast this season, with both their drivers qualifying behind the drivers of the top 4 teams and also displayed quite rapid race pace with Arvid Linblad battling the likes of Max Verstappen in his first F1 race ever. Arvid managed to finish in P8 to score his first ever points in his first race ever in F1, but on the other hand, his teammate, Liam had an awful race. He lost many positions at the start due to stalling the car and then just to make his struggles worse, his old rival, Sergio Perez made his race even worse, with pushing Liam off track and making the race more difficult for him. Overall, the VCaRB team have a lot of potential to build on this year.
The team battling VCaRB throughout this race, the ones who seem to be fighting them for P5 in constructors currently is Audi, who had a good qualifying with the drivers in P10 and P11 but as for everyone, reliability issues creeped in for them before even the race started and Nico lost telemetry data on the lap to the grid, which lead to his retirement before the race even started. Nonetheless, Gabriel Bortoleto scored the first points for the german outfit, finishing in P9. Audi seem to have hit the ground running but need to continue on this momentum in a season with new regulations.
Haas on the contrary were slower than the likes of Audi and VCaRB in qualifying but in the race, their race pace truly shone out with Oliver Bearman finishing in P7, ahead of all the other midfield cars. As for his teammate, Esteban, he also did not do too bad to finish in P11. Overall, some good points for Haas, a good way to kick off the new season.
A surprise this season is this Alpine. Contrary to last season, this season they seem to have the pace of the midfield cars with Gasly rounding up the points in P10. Sadly, Franco finished P14, due to his stop and go penalty, which was by mistake labelled as franco and go penalty during the race!
The other surprise was Williams, who seem to have lost the pace of last season and are relatively not as quick as the other teams and only managed P12 and P15 in the end. The need to improve a lot to even reach the level they were at last season.
The remaining two teams, Cadillac and Aston were a mess to say the least. Coming into the weekend both teams were unsure whether they would even finish the whole race distance and it showed.
Cadillac made Valtteri retire early and Perez was no where in terms of pace, with him being the only driver to be lapped thrice.
Aston Martin could not run the whole race with both cars due to the vibrations in the car they have been facing since testing, which might cause harm to the drivers. They were a team who had built up high expectations before the start of the season with millions of pounds invested in the team, new personnel hired and even changed in management, leaded by hiring the legendary aerodynamicist and car designer from Red Bull, Adrian Newey and making him the team principal. Regardless of this, they have started out the season with disappointment and are nowhere near the expectations nor the goals they set for themselves.
Overall, one of the most exciting starts of the season with overtakes galore, almost three times more than last season. The new cars have split the fans in two and even the drivers but these regulations are here to stay, hence the drivers and teams will have to learn to master them and the ones who are able to, will have the biggest advantage, which currently lies with Mercedes who have built a rocket ship to start off the season.
The next race, in Shanghai is completely different to the one in Australia due to the nature of the circuit, with fast, never ending corners and dreadfully long straight. This will mostly likely bring up a change in the order of the field once again as it is still early days for all the teams with these regulations. Hence, Mercedes winning or Ferrari or some other unexpected team is quite uncertain and only time will tell...
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