Formula 1 Qatar Airways Australian Grand Prix 2026Formula 1 

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I like to cheer for the underdogs but I'm stoked for Russel, he's one of the elite drivers. Ferrari look very close, Hamilton looks like he's back to his old self.

The gaps between the cars are huuuge, but it will get better.
 
KAlex122
Really hate the shown time differences on the left. I do like cumulative ones much more.
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I do not mind the distance from race leader.
I kinda like that as it at least shows you how far back someone is from 1st.
I hate the 1 decimal place they now use.
 
Congrats to George, Kimi, and Mercedes. They did everything they needed to.

First race of 2026, and Ferrari are already hard at work undoing all of Charles and Lewis's hard work.

Lando's pace has me worried for McLaren. Sucks for Oscar. I Hope to see some improvement.

Solid recovery from Max. Sucks for Hadjar.

Nice points for Bearman and Bortoleto. Audi should be pleased, despite the Hulk DNF.

Linblad was impressive!

Cadillacs driving like an 80s Deville.

Poor Aston...
 
If Ferrari didn't make questionable decisions with the pit stop under the VSC, I think they might have a real shot at winning this. Their lap times was more or less the same unless the Mercedes was just matching up the Ferrari lap times to keep them at bay.

From what I've seen so far, the racing doesn't seem too bad. I said before that the qualy reminded me of 2014, 2015 but the race didn't. Back then merc finished well over 30s ahead of the next non Mercedes car and that wasn't the case today. If Ferrari don't mess this up, they should be able to keep them on their toes. With that, my hope for the rest of the season is not completely crushed.

Looking at this super clipping thing though, I think the track that has the very long straights will be a problem for those cars... Monza, Baku, Jeddah I'm looking at you
 
I don't like the new F1TV presenter, she's kind of annoying. What happened to Laura Winter?
 
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Grayfox
I do not mind the distance from race leader.
I kinda like that as it at least shows you how far back someone is from 1st.
I hate the 1 decimal place they now use.
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That's what i meant. Time to race leader i like. That's what cumulative means in that sense, no?

When P3 is +14s and P4 ist +18s i can count the 4s myself. I don't need the extra between every place. But if P6 has one more pitstop than P1 i want to know if he's 25s off and not if he's 2+5+7+3+8 seconds off.
 
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That was actually pretty good
Considering how far ahead he was in Qualifying, the Prancing Honses really made George work for that W
 
AshenGraey
If Ferrari didn't make questionable decisions with the pit stop under the VSC, I think they might have a real shot at winning this. Their lap times was more or less the same unless the Mercedes was just matching up the Ferrari lap times to keep them at bay.
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That's assuming they both have similar tyre wear. For all we know the Ferrari would not have lasted as long as Mercedes on the hard tyre, but at this point that's just speculation.
Ferrari should've pitted one of the two cars, but I'm not sure if it would've made a difference in the end.

The gap between Mercedes, Ferrari and the rest is huge, though. Verstappen was on the same pace with Mercedes on brandnew tyres, while George's tyres were probably already 25 laps old at that time.
 
Very good race in my opinion, the early exchanges between Leclerc and Russel were superb, shows that these cars can follow closely with minimal impact Vs the previous generation. Other battles throughout the field showed that as well, 2-3 cars following closely for long periods of time.

The battery stuff didn't impact it as much as the doomers predicted, it's interesting seeing the offsets when drivers push and save but it all ends up with them coming close at different points. Let's remember as well that this circuit is terrible for energy management so the fact it wasn't terrible in race conditions, bodes well for the remaining races. Especially as teams get a handle on it.

Shame Ferrari didn't pit under VSC, the battle at the front would have been a lot closer if they had, however, their pace overall looks solid in race trim, Mercedes weren't pulling away massively and Leclerc had enough to keep Russel honest. Linblad looks to be the real deal, punchy, fast and not afraid to have a fight. Audi, solid, shame about Hulkenberg but the engine has good pace relative to the midfield.

All in all, as expected for me, a solid start to the new ruleset.
 
But the doom and gloom sayers were kinda right where they did mention the battery harvesting would kick in and the cars would slow down.
Wonder if disabling the harvesting under throttle when at the limit can be disabled so the cars dont just slow down so abruptly due to them harvesting and just let the car run with ICE at top rpm.
Its also crazy to see how fast those batteries charge.
Its more like a hybrid between a capacitor and a battery.
 
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Grayfox
But the doom and gloom sayers were kinda right where they did mention the battery harvesting would kick in and the cars would slow down.
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but did that impact the racing in a negative way? For me it didn’t. On the opposite even, it created good opportunities in different areas of the track as seen in the battle Leclerc vs Russell.
I’m positively surprised by the racing, let’s see how it will be on more energy friendly tracks
 
psychoazubi
but did that impact the racing in a negative way? For me it didn’t. On the opposite even, it created good opportunities in different areas of the track as seen in the battle Leclerc vs Russell.
I’m positively surprised by the racing, let’s see how it will be on more energy friendly tracks
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Wonder how the clipping will be if the battery was 5MJ instead of the 4MJ
That little bit extra might help negate it.
Weve yet to see how these cars will act on Monza, the track where you are at throttle most of the lap, energy conservation will be very important on it.
 
Grayfox
Wonder how the clipping will be if the battery was 5MJ instead of the 4MJ
That little bit extra might help negate it.
Weve yet to see how these cars will act on Monza, the track where you are at throttle most of the lap, energy conservation will be very important on it.
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Monza will not be as difficult as Melbourne/jedda because it has 2 hard braking zones into the first 2 chicanes where they can recharge massively. At least that’s what the teams are predicting so far.
It’s impressive how fast those batteries are charging
 
psychoazubi
but did that impact the racing in a negative way? For me it didn’t. On the opposite even, it created good opportunities in different areas of the track as seen in the battle Leclerc vs Russell.
I’m positively surprised by the racing, let’s see how it will be on more energy friendly tracks
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For me it did. I didn’t enjoy it as much as usual. But I’m old and my favourite session in F1 is Monaco qualifying, which F1 is getting further and further away from. So I don’t think I’m the target audience anymore
 
Some of you have never watched a Formula E race and it shows. This race was different yes, but to call it bad or anti-racing is completely wrong.
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jonoholland29
For me it did. I didn’t enjoy it as much as usual. But I’m old and my favourite session in F1 is Monaco qualifying, which F1 is getting further and further away from. So I don’t think I’m the target audience anymore
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Monaco qualifying should be even better this year, smaller, nimble cars, battery discharge shouldn't be a huge issue as the straights aren't long enough and there's enough braking to keep the battery in a relatively constant power state.

I'm seeing so many social media comments about how the racing was manufactured because of the battery regen/discharge and the boost mode etc, and I just don't get it, every single racing series has some form of manufacturing to enhance racing. To me, this felt way more natural than DRS overtaking.
 
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My first live race in a while and I must say it was pretty good. We will have to see what Max has got from a proper grid position but Russell looks strong this season.
 
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I was never part of the doom sayers. I had some reservations but I wanted to wait and see it how it goes for the first race and honestly, it was better than I thought it would be so bring on the rest of the season.

I think having the graphics of the battery and showing when the drivers deploy them during battle will do wonders because it gets you involve somewhat in the strategy the drivers are applying. Otherwise, I can see people not understanding what's really happening.

I do like the fact that you don't have to wait until a driver is within a second to see that a battle is or about to happen because of DRS. For me, the unpredictability of not knowing when the driver will attack because of battery management/strategy adds to the spectacle so for now I'll say, I'm happy with the new regs.

Questions I still have is how they going to manage that "super clipping" on tracks with super long straight because at the rate the cars slow down when that happens just seems very, very weird especially when you know the driver is still flat out.
 
MagpieRacer
Monaco qualifying should be even better this year, smaller, nimble cars, battery discharge shouldn't be a huge issue as the straights aren't long enough and there's enough braking to keep the battery in a relatively constant power state.

I'm seeing so many social media comments about how the racing was manufactured because of the battery regen/discharge and the boost mode etc, and I just don't get it, every single racing series has some form of manufacturing to enhance racing. To me, this felt way more natural than DRS overtaking.
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It’s definitely better than DRS - but losing so much speed was not exciting to me.

More overtaking does not equal better racing to me I’m afraid. You can have a race with zero overtakes and it still be entertaining in my eyes. Just like a 0-0 game of football can be an amazing game.
 
I just watched the race having managed to avoid spoilers all morning - pretty good, and a good result for Mercedes.

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I know it is largely antithetical to an F1 driver, but I was wondering why Leclerc and Russell couldn't have been more cooperative with each other in the opening laps and broken away from the field by exchanging the lead, rather than pointlessly fighting for position several times, letting Hamilton and Antonelli catch up with them.

Of course, a full safety car would take a lead off them anyway, but it just seemed to me that they could both have benefited from letting each other pass a few times each, rather than slowing each other down. I guess it is 'not F1-like' to do that, but it might happen quite a lot this season with the new cars...
 
Tired Tyres
My first live race in a while and I must say it was pretty good. We will have to see what Max has got from a proper grid position but Russell looks strong this season.
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Unless the RBR performs better at other tracks, RBR has nothing on both Mercedes and Ferrari.

P5 was the maximum result for Max today, even with a start within the top 10. Max' fastest lap was around the same pace the top 4 have been running for the entire race. Max finished nearly a minute behind George. That gap is absolutely massive.
 

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