2026 Australian Grand Prix - Melbourne, March 06 - 08

[F1Sara]

22.4 by Kimi

On 45 lap old tyres. Ominous, really.

[FittingMechanics]

Watching combination wolff-russell for a whole year? Sigh..

Btw Toto in Drive to Survive seemed to be saying he wouldn't allow inter team battles like McLaren did. If Mercedes is well ahead it could be very boring.

You all will be calling for Papaya rules to be back.

[renault rs26]

Well, dunno. The disgust, the boredom... After the initial fireworks, watching this artificial nothingness was like hoping a boner from watching a dildo and a masturbator performing some slick tricks... Errrm, no, thank you.

Still the best Australian gp since 2010.

[djos]

Honestly, that was a much better race than I was expecting.

The PU rules still suck, but the cars are much better to watch from a racing point of view IMO.

[AR3-GP]

The racing wasn't massively different to before imo. It's not like it's now an overtake fest. It's still hard to follow and hard to overtake. Same old same old. It is what it is.

[Badger]

Got lucky with Leclerc jumping Russell the start. Without that it would have been a very boring race. You saw at the end with Verstappen how hard it is to follow if you are similar to the car in front.

[Bence]

Well, dunno. The disgust, the boredom... After the initial fireworks, watching this artificial nothingness was like hoping a boner from watching a dildo and a masturbator performing some slick tricks... Errrm, no, thank you.

Still the best Australian gp since 2010.

Why exactly? This was a boring "something" and a race of management. I don't want spreadsheet racing but pure knife edge skills and stimuli.

[Matt2725]

The feed audio is awful.

[renault rs26]

Well, dunno. The disgust, the boredom... After the initial fireworks, watching this artificial nothingness was like hoping a boner from watching a dildo and a masturbator performing some slick tricks... Errrm, no, thank you.

Still the best Australian gp since 2010.

Why exactly? This was a boring "something" and a race of management. I don't want spreadsheet racing but pure knife edge skills and stimuli.

Because Melbourne never was great track for racing, it was always almost impossible to overtake.

[FrukostScones]

did anyone notice too that Mercedes warning lights were not active during the start procedure?

[upsidedowntoast]

Jesus there's even more Russell haters than Norris haters in here

[AR3-GP]

Not that it matters, but Mercedes had very weak starts. Hadjar would have led but Russell cut him off, then Leclerc passed both of them.

[SB15]

Jesus there's even more Russell haters than Norris haters in here

It's even worse on social media

[erudite450]

We will see the racing tomorrow. If the racing is exciting with lot of overtakes then we are stuck with this.

If it sucks then next rule set is much more likely to go in opposite direction, maybe no electrical components but sustainable fuels.

We haven't even seen the worst of these regulations. That will happen tomorrow. The cars will not be able to follow or race at all.

Nobody is ready for how flat the racing will be after getting used to venturi floors for 4 years. There was hardly any true overtakes in practice. Cars from the big 4 teams were having problems passing bottom 4 cars.

Flat floors , no wheel brows , no rear wing optimized for clean air. Minimal slip stream , no DRS, and an energy negative push to pass system.

The worst is yet to come. But hey, we can always watch F2. They still have venturi floors and the race yesterday was great because of it

I think you are wrong. 2025 cars were very bad for racing.

These cars will be able to have huge differences in power/speed on various spots on the track, it will lead to more overtaking but I bet you won't accept that as you'd see it as a gimmick.

Won't be too long for us to see that. Max starts from the back, perfect guy to showcase it.

You called it!

[Bence]

Still the best Australian gp since 2010.

Why exactly? This was a boring "something" and a race of management. I don't want spreadsheet racing but pure knife edge skills and stimuli.

Because Melbourne never was great track for racing, it was always almost impossible to overtake.

Then I'd spice up the first couple of laps by installing randomly fired rockets in the exhausts, where the drivers need to hang on for dear life because of the surprise thrust. There would be lots of overtaking! Would it be interesting? Artificial? Unnatural? Is it natural for a dominant driver to sit behind someone slower and whisper evening tales to the battery instead of using his natural speed, talent and competitiveness? Slow down to be faster. Ahem, not. Don't wanna see strategic turtles instead of rapid rabbits.