How did each team fare at the Australian GP? | Race Report
Now that the first race of the new era is complete, we can finally see exactly what each of the teams is working with for the 2026 season...
Mercedes
Mercedes have had their dream start to the 2026 season with a 1-2 finish in Melbourne. There’s no doubt among the paddock that they currently have the fastest car and engine, and they executed the weekend perfectly to extract maximum points from the grand prix. Although they had far from an ideal start to it -Russell lost the lead to Leclerc and Antonelli dropped from P2 to P7 - indicating that the team have some work to do on their start procedure and formation lap optimisation. But overall the car was clearly very strong throughout the race and was able to hold up in battle, and the team and drivers all seem ecstatic with what they have produced.
“A great result for everyone at Lauda Drive and Morgan Drive to start the new era of F1 with a 1-2… The start was difficult; we didn’t do a good enough job of managing the limited energy around the formation lap and both drivers ended up with low battery on the line… There is still plenty that we need to improve on, but the team and drivers should be pleased with a great start to the season.”
- Andrew Shovlin, Mercedes Trackside Engineering Director.
Ferrari
After a fantastic start to the race for Leclerc - jumping all the way up from P4 to the race lead thanks to a strong start procedure and the SF-26’s smaller turbo that’s clearly advantageous to launches. Ferrari’s race starts will be one to watch throughout the season, especially in the earlier races as they seem to have it figured out before the majority of the other teams.
Even so, the team were open about feeling as though there’s a performance gap to the Mercedes ahead of them in qualifying, which this time could have largely resulted from the deployment issues they had over Q2. The red flag in Q3 compounded with those problems to mean they had little time to find their ideal setup over the session.
Despite that blip, the strong pace and reliability they’d shown over pre-season testing but also free practice in Melbourne came back to them in the race, allowing them to bring home as many points as they possibly could with Mercedes having taken the 1-2.
“From our side, third and fourth is a good result. We saw after qualifying that there was a performance gap and so this result was the best we could do today. We have a long season ahead of us and we must improve many aspects over the coming months… We can be positive, because we know where we need to improve, even if we know it will be a challenge.”
- Fred Vasseur, Ferrari Team Principal.
McLaren
A tough weekend for the reigning constructors’ and driver’s champions. Piastri’s race was over before it began as he spun on the formation lap and crashed into the barriers, so we were unable to see how he would have fared in grand prix conditions.
Norris however was open about the fact that McLaren have work to do to catch up to the front of the grid - but that this was where they had expected to be ahead of the weekend. He suffered more exaggerated graining than most of the front runners, with the exception of Verstappen who he battled over the closing stages, but McLaren were also quite open this weekend about them feeling at a disadvantage for power unit understanding as a customer of Mercedes.
The impact of these various issues left Norris to finish P5 finish, which sees the team collect just 10 points from Australia.
“We need to work hard to understand where we’re losing pace to the front runners, as well as understanding how we can approach the weekend better, but I’ve got full confidence in my team to be able to do that. It’s looking like it’s going to be a long, tough season, but we’re in a reasonable place to start from, and we’ll do the best we can.“
- Lando Norris
Red Bull
A tale of two halves at Red Bull - while Hadjar’s impressive qualifying session saw him line up P3 on the grid (the best qualifying result on debut for Red Bull since Verstappen achieved P4 at the 2016 Spanish GP), a reliability issue with his power unit on lap 11 meant he had to retire from the grand prix early. Up until that point though, Hadjar’s pace was strong despite losing a couple of places to the Ferraris at the start of the race.
Verstappen’s “very strange” crash in Q1 of qualifying, which came before he’d been able to set a lap time, meant he started from P20 on the grid. Even so, he was able to carve back through the field by keeping out of trouble in the early phase, doing some “decent overtakes”, as Max put it, before settling into his two stop strategy.
Verstappen was surprised by high degradation and graining on the hard compound which limited his climb up to the top spots, while he also cited battery issues at the race start - both a key issues for the team to understand heading into the next races.
“I had some issues at the start with the battery so as soon as the clutch was dropped, I had no power so that is something we need to understand… We settled into our own race but unfortunately had a little too much degradation; the tyre behaviour was surprising us as we had a lot of graining on the Hard compound, which of course compromised our stints and meant that we couldn’t really fight for more.“
- Max Verstappen
Haas
Haas were pleasantly surprised with how they performed in the grand prix. A reasonable qualifying session for the team meant they started P12 & P13 on the grid, but by running a race “focused on the basics“, as their team principal Ayao Komatsu said, they were able to finish the race in P7 & P11.
Esteban Ocon, who finished in the latter of those positions, had struggled with a lack of pace and rear instability following his positive start but also got caught up in a battle with his former teammate, Gasly, over the closing stages. He believed that without these issues, and that close battle, he could have joined Bearman in the points.
For Bearman, the opposite was almost true - he had a trickier start but showed solid pace, made some strong overtakes and brought home what could be a vital 6 points as the midfield battle no doubt tightens up.
“This journey has been hugely challenging, not just over the last few months, but throughout the development phase as we were working on the VF-25 and VF-26 in parallel, which wasn’t the case for everyone else… Today we focused on the basics, ran our own race, made the right calls at the right time and the pit stop crew delivered. The race was a brand-new challenge in terms of managing energy, which I think we handled as well as we could, learning with every lap. To come away with P7 for the team is unbelievable - only beaten by the top four teams, I’m so proud of everyone.“
- Ayao Komatsu, Haas Team Principal.
Racing Bulls
An impressive qualifying from both Racing Bulls drivers saw them achieve a double Q3 appearance to start the race from P8 & P9 respectively, with rookie Arvid Lindblad just one place behind his more experienced teammate.
But come the start and having “no power” as the lights went out left Lawson stationary on the grid and dropping out of the top ten, Lindblad on the other hand shot up to be battling for third place during the opening lap - getting his elbows out against Lando Norris, Isack Hadjar and Lewis Hamilton.
“The lights went out very quick, I thought I had nailed my reaction and the procedure so we’ll have to review it but the car didn’t move. I lost all power, and I couldn’t get power for another five seconds, I was just sitting there so it is pretty frustrating.“
- Liam Lawson.
Lawson’s start did cause some discussion around the safety of them under these new regulations, as his lack of power saw him sitting almost still on the grid while other drivers, particularly Colapinto, swerved to dodge his VCARB03. Ultimately, the places he dropped were too much to recover from despite very little pace disparity between the teammates, and he ended the day P13.
Lindblad however, continued fighting throughout the grand prix, and eventually finished in P8 - bringing home 4 hard-fought points. A truly impressive performance from the rookie in his first F1 race.
“[I] definitely showed people that if there’s an opportunity I’m going to get stuck in and I’m not going to hang about. I had a lot of fun. I enjoyed this weekend a lot. I think there’s a few things from the race today that I could’ve managed slightly better but in general, it’s been really positive… I think I’ve almost got the maximum out of the car in ever session so I’m looking forward to China now.“
- Arvid Lindblad.
Audi
A technical, telemetry-related issue on the way to the grid prevented Hulkenberg from starting the grand prix, leaving Bortoleto as the only Audi driver contesting the first race of their Formula 1 campaign. But he represented the German manufacturer brilliantly, bringing home P9 and earning the Audi marque their first points in Formula 1.
“Gabi delivered an outstanding drive today. It was a very mature performance from start to finish. The start wasn’t ideal, which we expected might be a challenge here, but he kept his composure, managed the race extremely well and showed great confidence throughout…
On the other side of the garage, it was obviously disappointing not to see Nico take the start. He was incredibly motivated for his first race with Audi Revolut F1 Team, so that was a difficult moment for him and for everyone in the team. Ultimately, leaving our first Grand Prix with P9 and points on the board is a fantastic way to begin our journey. It’s a historic moment for Audi Revolut F1 Team and something the whole team can be very proud of.”
- Jonathan Wheatley, Audi Team Principal.
Alpine
After an adrenaline filled start to his race after dodging the slow-moving VCARB03 of Lawson, Colapinto received a stop-and-go penalty from the FIA after they identified a member of the team was touching his car on the grid after the 15-second signal had been shown. Such a penalty is not easy to come back from, and he ended the day P14.
On the other side of the garage, Gasly fought hard up to and to hold onto P10 after having started P14 - earning the team a “hard earned point” to open their first campaign as Mercedes customers.
“That was a really hard-earned point today, which we can be pleased to achieve. It was certainly a long afternoon at the wheel! I had a good start off the line to gain a few positions and then some quite interesting battles on track. We had a bit of damage from some contact so we probably could not show our full potential as a result of that… Next week we have the Sprint weekend in China where we have to be on it straight away and up to speed quickly. I leave here happy so well done to the entire team.“
- Pierre Gasly.
Williams
Williams leave Melbourne empty handed after a tough weekend for both drivers. Albon was very open about the team’s issues, highlighting an overweight car, a lack of downforce and graining as being key issues behind the lack of pace for the Williams FW48.
Sainz essentially ran the race as a testing session after a front wing issue meant he lost aero balance and began aggressively degrading the tyres. Reliability issues throughout the weekend meant that he missed out on most of FP3 and all of the qualifying session.
“It was a long race for us today. Currently we are in no man’s land and not really fighting against the midfield, however our strategy was good, but it’s clear we are lacking pace. It’s obvious from lap times that we’re overweight and not producing enough downforce, and graining was also a problem for us today especially on the hard tyre. Realistically we know where we can find the lap time and the team are working tirelessly on an aggressive plan to get us closer to where we want to be.”
- Alex Albon.
Cadillac
Cadillac were happy to have successfully made it to the Australian GP just a year after the entry was confirmed, and to see one of their cars finish the race.
A fuel system issue for Bottas saw him retire early, but Perez was able to complete the full race distance, despite finishing three laps down - overall this was seen as a huge achievement for the team, who can now focus on adding performance to begin racing more competitively.
“I’m really happy with the performance of the team. We had some issues with Valtteri’s car, which was a real shame. It was great to see the Cadillac Formula 1 Team bring its first car home. We're up against incredible competition, who we have huge respect for, but I've got enormous belief in the team that we're building here. This is a really good start to our journey.”
- Graeme Lowdon, Cadillac Team Principal.
Aston Martin
In the face of the myriad of issues the team came into the weekend with, Fernando Alonso’s start to the grand prix was impressive as he gained seven places from P17 to P10 by turn 1. But he was then called in and the team ‘retired’ the car before being sent out again, that saw him complete a second, data gathering focused stint.
It was a similar story for Stroll who came in and out of the pit-lane, and did manage to significantly exceed the 25-lap limit Adrian Newey had placed on them prior to the weekend - doing 43 before DNF’ing.
The team used the race as an opportunity to gather data about their power unit issues specifically, and evaluate the solutions they and Honda had arrived in Melbourne with, which will help to inform their development heading into the next races so that they can start to build some reliability.
“Today was primarily an opportunity to learn more about the AMR26. Both cars took the start and, when it became clear we could not compete for points, we chose to pit and check the cars over. The team then asked Fernando to retire the car to preserve components. The data and learnings from this weekend will help us as we go into the next event.”
- Adrian Newey, Aston Martin Team Principal.