2026 Australian Grand Prix - Melbourne, March 06 - 08

[IntrinsicVoid]

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

It's even worse on social media

And we have to praise him now magically?

[upsidedowntoast]

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

It's even worse on social media

f1twt was absolutely dragging George for saying "Ferrari will be 1st by turn 1" and calling him a snake, and then that was EXACTLY WHAT HAPPENED

the same thing happened when George predicted RB would win every race in 2023, Horner getting fired, Mclaren dominance 2025

literally every time he makes a prediction people assume the worst, that he's being a facetious PR robot...only for that prediction to pan out anywhere from 12 minutes to 12 months later

And we have to praise him now magically?

No one's saying anyone has to praise him or love him but sheesh people were calling him a terrible actor for...pointing out the very real strengths of other teams? Even if you have the best car you don't win by becoming complacent. On a track like Monaco (or any other track with limited overtakes and better harvesting ability) Ferrari absolutely can get into the lead with a good start and then win just by holding him off in dirty air.

[IntrinsicVoid]

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

It's even worse on social media

f1twt was absolutely dragging George for saying "Ferrari will be 1st by turn 1" and calling him a snake, and then that was EXACTLY WHAT HAPPENED

the same thing happened when George predicted RB would win every race in 2023, Horner getting fired, Mclaren dominance 2025

literally every time he makes a prediction people assume the worst, that he's being a facetious PR robot...only for that prediction to pan out anywhere from 12 minutes to 12 months later

Dude, go back to Bahrain testing and check what he said about how we should be scared from the RBPT energy deployment. Seriously we got bad case of amnesia for some people around here.

He’s downplaying it all the time, in combination with Toto they’re just insufferable actors from Hallmark.

[FittingMechanics]

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!

I do think Ferrari robbed us of an even better race. At least split strategies.

First part of the race was frenetic, cars alongside, etc. Seemed to work really well. If Pirellis were more durable that would be even better. Energy wise you can fight but your tires probably overheat.

Later on it was slightly worse, maybe they need to increase the overtake mode energy advantage. It is not free as you need to charge it so increasing the amount shouldn't really make passes too easy. Something to think about.

I kind of strangely liked it, much better than a battle who reaches DRS.

[Badger]

More or less the pecking order at the top was as expected since testing. Two tiers with Merc/Ferrari at the top followed by RB/McLaren. Ferrari and Mercedes are in a league of their own on the chassis though Ferrari clearly has a deficit on the PU.

[venkyhere]

LeClerc clearly showing better racecraft than Russel, IMHO.
But nothing can compensate for an illegal PU advantage. Look how bad a start Antonelli had, and still easily slotted into P2 (VSC probably advanced this by about 5/6 laps).

[erudite450]

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.

I always thought the criticism of McLaren was ludicrous. Shouldn't commentators and pundits be advocating against 1st/2nd driver nonsense? Criticising a team for giving their drivers equal opportunity is plain stupid.

[upsidedowntoast]

It's even worse on social media

f1twt was absolutely dragging George for saying "Ferrari will be 1st by turn 1" and calling him a snake, and then that was EXACTLY WHAT HAPPENED

the same thing happened when George predicted RB would win every race in 2023, Horner getting fired, Mclaren dominance 2025

literally every time he makes a prediction people assume the worst, that he's being a facetious PR robot...only for that prediction to pan out anywhere from 12 minutes to 12 months later

Dude, go back to Bahrain testing and check what he said about how we should be scared from the RBPT energy deployment. Seriously we got bad case of amnesia for some people around here.

He’s downplaying it all the time, in combination with Toto they’re just insufferable actors from Hallmark.

We don't know how good the RBPT deployment actually is (and it's different from the ICE where Mercedes have the advantage). Isack got P3 and Max probably could have qualified close to or ahead of Kimi if he hadn't crashed. He went from P20>P6 in only a few laps.

Melbourne is a very energy starved circuit which is the best case scenario for a strong ICE like Mercedes. At a denser track we might see a much more competitive Ferrari/Red Bull. At a track with limited overtakes like Monaco we might see Ferrari kill everyone off the start and hold the lead for the rest of the race. When Red Bull finally gets their car to minimum weight we might see them nab another few tenths.

Everyone is acting like the season is over at the very first race where deployments still aren't optimized yet and people still aren't used to the rules.

By the way, if they were saying the opposite, "yeah we're the best by a country mile", they would ALSO be slammed for being arrogant.

[jacme22]

Formula E race. They need to reduce the need for energy management somehow.

We also were close to disaster at the start, it’s not only less attractive racing it’s more dangerous too.

Regarding the pace. Peeking order as expected with one surprise. Well done audi.



https://x.com/F1BigData/status/2030522873077547386?s=20

[SealTheRealDeal]

The race was very exciting up until the first VSC. Kinda wish they'd been full safety cars to bunch the field back up and have the chaos of a safety car restart, but meh, I supposed that'd be "manufactured" entertainment.

[Kiril Varbanov]

I am amazed at how stiff Ferrari are about sticking to their strategy and not adapting to the circumstances, which would have surely given them a shot at the win.
Rocket start from LEC, awesome overtakes against Russell, especially at the dirty part, good race pace and then... no pit. Or pit at the most dumb window. It's going to be a long season, let's hope the rest can catch up.

[nitrotech]

So every manufacturer had atleast one failure each.

[upsidedowntoast]

Formula E race. They need to reduce the need for energy management somehow.

We also were close to disaster at the start, it’s not only less attractive racing it’s more dangerous too.

Regarding the pace. Peeking order as expected with one surprise. Well done audi.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HC3dwg0bkAI ... name=large

https://x.com/F1BigData/status/2030522873077547386?s=20

Race pace difference less than two-tenths. It is NOT the 2014 blowout people think it's going to be. That can be easily made up through strategy, starts, track differences, deployment differences, upgrades, etc.

[AR3-GP]

So every manufacturer had atleast one failure each.

Mercedes didn't have any failure in the race, but both Russell and Sainz have taken new energy store this weekend and Alpine have a lot of problems with battery during free practice.

[FittingMechanics]

I am amazed at how stiff Ferrari are about sticking to their strategy and not adapting to the circumstances, which would have surely given them a shot at the win.
Rocket start from LEC, awesome overtakes against Russell, especially at the dirty part, good race pace and then... no pit. Or pit at the most dumb window. It's going to be a long season, let's hope the rest can catch up.

Maybe a bit of "papaya rules" in them. McLaren used to frustrate me with these type of decisions, not splitting strategies. I think it was because of "fairness" but it hurt their campaign.

Strategy call to stay with both was very bad. If McLaren was faster or Max not out of position they could have lost P3 and P4.