2026 Australian Grand Prix - Melbourne, March 06 - 08

[mzso]

The back and forth with "you have more power", "I have more power" was actually quite entertaining, until Ferrari gave up the race.

[morefirejules08]

The back and forth with "you have more power", "I have more power" was actually quite entertaining, until Ferrari gave up the race.

I was thinking the same, I was quite enjoying the race until Ferrari screwed it up

[gandharva]

2014 vibes all over again. But worse.

Toto probably should have been a bit more sporting and shared the full trick with the customer teams... Instead we’re back to a situation where one team seems to have unlocked something the others simply don’t have yet.

Beside that, what we’re left with, are cars that often look like they’re not even being driven flat-out by humans anymore, but rather by quirky energy deployment strategies. Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for electric vehicles, but this is supposed to be racing and not a technical feasibility study. From a spectator point of view it makes the racing incredibly frustrating to follow. You see two cars close together, but you have no idea which mode they’re running, who is saving energy, who is deploying, or whether the fight you’re watching is even real.

If Verstappen hadn’t at least provided a few overtakes to watch, I probably would have switched the TV off after 15 minutes.

Honestly, disappointed as hell with this opener.

[Madhouse]

What a crap show.
The race wasn't as bad as qualy but jesus... once the race settled down, it was clear the drivers/teams were learning all the same tricks, it canceled out any real overtaking.

[DGP123]

Yeah, first half was good, but the second half of the race was a disaster. It’s a bit gimmicky with these power struggle antics of overtaking & defending, but at least there was some action & no drs trains. Graphics on deployment and battery life need improving.

Shame about the Merc advantage, but there are positives to take. It’s certainly not the write off people were painting after Q.

[ChrisM40]

Ferrari weren’t ever winning this regardless of strategy, their only chance was doing what they did. Merc are clearly faster, then Ferrari, then McLaren/RB.

I suspect McLaren will out develop RB and be clear third or second by the summer break. The car seems advanced but in an early iteration. I dont think RB have said what happened to Hadjar, but it didnt sound like ICE failure, he lost drive.

I quite enjoyed the race honestly.

[Badger]

Yeah, first half was good, but the second half of the race was a disaster. It’s a bit gimmicky with these power struggle antics of overtaking & defending, but at least there was some action & no drs trains. Graphics on deployment and battery life need improving.

Shame about the Merc advantage, but there are positives to take. It’s certainly not the write off people were painting after Q.

Largely because of incompetence from George. He lost the start and then cruised by Leclerc after a few laps. Then for some reason once he had established a one second gap he pressed the derate button on the back straight (losing like 20 kph), he lost so much time that by the time they got to T9 Leclerc cruised around the outside. He basically made a mistake (being too eager to top up the pack) which invited Leclerc back into the fight and that's why we got the show we got. It wasn't because of the cars.

[McL-H]

Folks at the FIA are currently thinking the only thing that’s missing is Fan Boost.

[mzso]

Ferrari weren’t ever winning this regardless of strategy, their only chance was doing what they did. Merc are clearly faster, then Ferrari, then McLaren/RB.

I suspect McLaren will out develop RB and be clear third or second by the summer break. The car seems advanced but in an early iteration. I dont think RB have said what happened to Hadjar, but it didnt sound like ICE failure, he lost drive.

I quite enjoyed the race honestly.

Pfff... Nope. Don't make lame excuses for them. They could, and should have taken advantage of the VSC like everyone else. Especially after Mercedes already did. That was the only logical and safest thing to do. Keep them behind and don't allow them to go fast and enjoy any pace advantage. Hold out while they eat up their tires, then settle down.

At least McLaren had the good sense to hire Red Bulls chief of strategy. Ferrari is still pushing this clown show.

[De Wet]

What a joke F1 has become. This is what happens when you allow EU manufacturers to run the sport with that idiot Dominicaly...

[hollus]

Awesome!

I want to lay alternative markers for immature cars at the beginning of the last regulation cycle. In 2022 Malbourne was the 3rd race, so the cars were a bit less green, but 1st race, 3rd race... same same enough.

Pole lap in 2022: 1:17:868 by Leclerc.
Fastest lap in the race: 1:20:268 by Leclerc.

In my opinion, Melbourne 2025 should be compared to Melbourne 2029 or at least 2028, after everyone has had 2 cycles of re-designing their cars including the successful tricks from the other teams.

And now complete:

Pole lap in 2022: 1:17:868 by Leclerc. ---> Pole lap in 2026: 1:18:518 by Russell.
Fastest lap in the race: 1:20:268 by Leclerc. --> Fastest lap in 2026: 1:22:091 by Verstappen.

As expected, more different in the race where they are unlikely to deploy 8 MJ in free air.

So 0.7 thenth in Q, 15 tenths slower inthe race.
But yes, together with the treade off of corner speed for straight line acceleration, they feel a tad slower to the (my) eye.

[LM10]

Mercedes is much faster on all corners

This comparison is useless as RedBull is not the second fastest car out there, but Ferrari is. If not for deployment issues which Ferrari had from Q2 on, they would have easily finished as second fastest.

Ferrari in Q2 was faster than Mercedes in all corners as can be seen on telemetry data and was hugely losing out on the straights relative to Mercedes.

Not so much. Red Bull is second fastest. Premier #1 driver Leclerc and has-been Lewis just got out qualified by a first year at Red Bull driver, Hadjar. Go ahead and blame deployment, blame this, that, and the other circumstance. Keep living in denial. Next race Max will also out qualify Leclerc even with proper deployment. Watch. Ferrari fans are living in denial right now of what is actually happening. It is what it is.

Wow, this post looks even more stupid now - as expected.

[LM10]

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

Crying like a baby for a completely normal move by Leclerc - despite sitting in a hugely overpowered car on top of that - is not the best thing to do in the first laps of the first race.

[basti313]

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

Crying like a baby for a completely normal move by Leclerc - despite sitting in a hugely overpowered car on top of that - is not the best thing to do in the first laps of the first race.

Well, there is a reason that no one likes Russel. He is the most dishonest person on the grid.
The big issue is now that we have his walkthrough, we will be invaded by a Russel fan base...wonder how many here change to team George...

[Unc1eM0nty]

Much better race that I expected, I wasn't expecting much, and lets face it this track has never given us much racing action in the past.

The Mercedes tyre preservation is almost as impressive as their outright pace. Had Ferrari pitted along with Mercedes I don't this it would have made any difference to the result, we would have seen more action though so they robbed us of a better race.

Its early days, the non works teams should make big gains on battery deployment now they have real world data