Five Winners, Five Losers: Australian Grand Prix

Written by Peter Johnson, Edited by Marit Everett

The opening race of the season in Melbourne proved to be the traditional war of attrition, but who fared best on Formula One’s return?

George Russell picked up his sixth career win in Australia | Credit: Formula One

Winner - George Russell

It was a virtually perfect weekend for George Russell, who led home a 1-2 finish for Mercedes in Melbourne to justify the pre-season favourite tags attributed to him and his team.

Even Russell must have been surprised to have been run so close by teammate Kimi Antonelli in Qualifying, after the young Italian suffered an enormous shunt towards the end of FP3.

However, an 0.8-second gap to the leading non-Mercedes car, Red Bull’s Isack Hadjar, suggested the Silver Arrows would be in for a comfortable Sunday.

Russell leads the Drivers’ Championship for the first time in his career | Credit: Formula One

Comfortable wasn’t quite how it turned out, with Antonelli dropping several positions at the start and Russell locked in a titanic battle for the lead with Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc in the opening stages.

The race soon calmed down, and once both Mercedes drivers pitted into clear air under the first virtual safety car and the Ferraris failed to show the necessary pace on their new tyres, a 1-2 finish to open the 2026 campaign seemed fairly certain.

With victory at Albert Park, Russell becomes the first Mercedes driver to lead the Drivers’ Championship since Lewis Hamilton following the 2021 Russian Grand Prix. Given the team’s history of understanding and subsequently dominating new eras of regulations in 2014 and 2017, you’d be a brave person to bet against him staying there.

Charles Leclerc delivered a podium to conclude a very positive weekend for Ferrari | Credit: Formula One

Winner - Ferrari

Oh how Ferrari have yearned for a competitive car in recent seasons. Charles Leclerc mounted what could kindly be described as half a title challenge in 2022, while the team came close to Constructors’ Championship glory in 2024, but there has generally been little to enthuse the Tifosi for several years.

Pre-season optimism has, however, firmly translated into on-track performance, and Ferrari looked comfortably the second-quickest team in Australia. Even fourth and seventh place in Qualifying for Leclerc and teammate Lewis Hamilton did not appear to dampen spirits, and with the almighty launch the pair enjoyed off the start line, it is easy to see why.

A confident Hamilton, who we have not seen in such a buoyant mood really since 2021, will be a threat to anybody, while Leclerc will always wring the neck out of his Ferrari. With a turbo that gives the team a frightening advantage at race starts, and a generally solid foundation in terms of performance to build on, the Scuderia may genuinely be challengers this season.

Arvid Lindblad is the only rookie on the 2026 grid | Credit: Red Bull Content Pool

Winner - Arvid Lindblad

Arvid Lindblad became Britain’s 167th Formula One driver as he took to the start line on Sunday, but he certainly did his best to stand out from the crowd.

The rookie outpaced teammate Liam Lawson in every session bar Q3 and following a lightning start temporarily ran up in fourth place.

The 18-year-old reflected on a number of “pinch me moments” after the race, including a battle with his idol Hamilton in the opening stages.

A drive showing maturity beyond his years and a thoroughly deserved eighth-place finish brought the debutant four points, making him the third-youngest points-scorer in the sport’s history.

This kid is one to watch.

Winner - Ollie Bearman

In his season-and-a-very-little-bit in Formula One we have seen various forms of Ollie Bearman. There was the kid who claimed an astonishing points finish for Ferrari in Saudi Arabia in 2024 and finished fourth in Mexico last season.

However, there were also some poor moments from the young Englishman, including an embarrassing moment at last year’s British Grand Prix and a smattering of careless incidents throughout the season.

No longer a rookie, it is time for the man from Chelmsford to mature into a regular performer—to be fair, he had already shown signs of doing so with five consecutive top-ten finishes towards the end of last year. 

This form looks to have survived the winter and Bearman certainly went about business the right way in Melbourne, coming through the field from P12 and kicking the season off with seventh place and six points.

Isack Hadjar (bottom left) enjoyed an early battle among the front runners on his Red Bull debut | Credit: Red Bull Content Pool

Winner - Isack Hadjar

He may not have finished the race, but Isack Hadjar certainly made all the right noises in his first weekend as a Red Bull driver.

In the absence of Max Verstappen in the closing stages of Qualifying, the young Parisian had an instant opportunity to prove himself against his underwhelming predecessors, and did so emphatically.

Third place on the grid was surely more than anybody reasonably expected, and despite losing a couple of places off the start Hadjar was running a comfortable fifth until his engine conked out on Lap 10.

With Verstappen also coming from the back of the field, we are yet to see how close the Frenchman can get to his four-time world champion teammate, but the early signs are that he will be a more reliable performer than those who have gone before him.

Oscar Piastri crashed on the reconnaissance lap and failed to start his home race | Credit: Formula One

Loser - Oscar Piastri

The wait for an Australian to stand upon the podium at an official world championship Australian Grand Prix goes on. 

In fact, this miserable quirk in F1 statistics was a dead certainty to continue before the race had even got underway.

Oscar Piastri out-qualified his new world champion teammate Lando Norris on Saturday, with a fifth-placed grid slot giving him a platform to fight for good points in the Grand Prix.

However, an incident at Turn 4 on his reconnaissance lap, which the home hero described as a “combination of bad factors”, meant he never got the opportunity to try.

Following on from his tragic slide out of the podium places in last year’s rain-soaked race, the Aussie will have to dust himself down and wait a further year to avenge the curse upon home drivers in Melbourne.

Fernando Alonso was buoyed by his Qualifying performance on a difficult weekend for Aston Martin | Credit: Formula One

Loser - Aston Martin

It was inevitable that Aston Martin was going to be among the “losers” this week, so let’s get it over with.

Team Principal Adrian Newey broke the alarming news on Thursday that vibrations from the team’s new Honda power unit were so bad that drivers Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll were both concerned about sustaining permanent nerve damage in their fingers.

Newey also dropped the revelation that when Aston signed the new engine deal with Honda, he and owner Lawrence Stroll were unaware that the company had made huge cuts in personnel.

Stroll never took to the track for Saturday’s Qualifying session, while Alonso laboured but suffered an ultimately predictable Q1 elimination.

On Sunday, both drivers trundled about at the back, each eventually retiring from the race twice as Aston utilised the afternoon as an additional testing session.

Alonso did claim that once the team began to put some laps in throughout Practice, they found an additional two seconds in lap time—but he was still a good two-and-a-half seconds off Russell in Q1.

Newey also claimed that the Silverstone team’s chassis is among the best of the midfield, but whatever positives the team is clinging on to, the pressure is very much on Honda to find performance, and to do so quickly.

Formula One’s newest world champion had a frustrating start to the season | Credit: Formula One

Loser - Lando Norris

Just 91 days on from the highest point of his career in Abu Dhabi, the reality must be beginning to sink in for F1’s newest world champion that a second title looks unlikely this season.

All hope is not lost for McLaren—the team locked out the third row in Qualifying, but come Sunday the papaya car of Norris was distinctly slower than the Mercedes and Ferrari drivers ahead, while Verstappen finished hot on his heels despite starting in 20th.

Norris said he “learned through the race” and felt he was “a bit more competitive” towards the end of the 58 laps, but he and his team are clearly on the back foot.

On the evidence of the sole McLaren car running in the sole race so far this season, the back-to-back reigning constructors’ champions could well be the fourth-fastest team by a distance.

Of course, one race is not representative of an entire season, but McLaren will be among the more concerned teams, and Norris among the more concerned drivers, one race in.

Credit: Formula 1

Loser - Alpine

Tenth and last in last year’s Constructors’ Championship, Alpine were widely mooted to experience a surge through the field as Mercedes’ newest engine customer team.

While it is true that the Enstone team was far from the slowest in Australia, the team may well have hoped for more than the solitary point earned by Pierre Gasly.

Franco Colapinto continued to struggle, as he generally has throughout his short F1 career, with the Argentine qualifying 16th and finishing two laps down on the leaders in the grand prix.

It is clear that Alpine have made a step forward, but having made the switch to Mercedes power, (clearly the optimal position to be in) and having also thrown in their lot with the previous set of regulations extra early to focus on the new generation of cars, Flavio Briatore would surely have expected more instant performance.

Carlos Sainz was promised big things by Williams for 2026 | Credit: Formula One

Loser - Williams

Another team that promised big, but has also delivered very little is Williams. Like Alpine, the Grove team turned its attention to the new era of regulations long before the sport said farewell to the old ones.

Indeed, it was this hope for the future that sold Carlos Sainz on his move to the team at the end of 2024.

It is by now well-documented that the team missed the January shakedown in Barcelona and that the new car is overweight, but Australia was yet another reality check for a team that is under growing pressure.

Sainz didn’t even make it on track during Qualifying as he was harboring an ERS issue, having only navigated one of the three practice sessions without any issues. Alex Albon qualified an underwhelming 15th, two seconds from the front of the field.

The race was little more inspiring, with Albon finishing 12th and Sainz coming in as the penultimate finisher ahead of Sergio Pérez’s Cadillac, which was expected to be at the back anyway.

With Williams having publicly put its eggs in its 2026 basket so long ago, Team Principal James Vowles has serious questions to answer, not least to his two rather concerned drivers.