The 2026 F1 season was set to start with chaos. New rules, unfamiliar cars and an overhauled power unit formula meant the destroyers had a field day in the weeks leading up to Melbourne. What they got instead was one of the more compelling season openers in recent memory, and two teams that separated themselves from the rest of the field as if they were racing in a different series.
Mercedes and Ferrari weren't just good in Australia. He was in a class of his own. When the dust settled at Albert Park, the Silver Arrows were 1-2 and the Scuderia were P3 and P4. Everyone else was left to sort out the scrap. Here's who had reason to smile — and who's already struggling.
Winner: Race Start | A beautiful mess that wasn't dirty at all
Going in, the biggest unknown was not which team had the fastest car. It was whether anyone would actually be able to pass Turn 1 without taking damage. The 2026 rules introduced a fundamentally different start procedure – drivers get a five-second warning via blue flashing panels instead of traditional lights – and a lot of smart people spent a lot of time warning F1 that things could go sideways in a hurry.
He didn't. What fans got instead was a truly epic opening sequence. Charles Leclerc started from fourth on the grid and was leading before most people had time to process what had happened. George Russell found himself holding off Lewis Hamilton while chasing the Ferrari from the front. Multiple position changes in the first two laps, real wheel-to-wheel contact between cars that mattered, in an era of spec-adjacent racing and processions, it felt alive.
The new rules did not create any security headaches. They created a race.
Winner: George Russell mercedes
"Feels incredible. It was a very tough battle at the start. We knew it was going to be challenging. I went to the grid, I looked at my battery level, I had nothing in the tank, I had a bad start and then obviously had some very tough battles with Charles, so I was really happy to cross the finish line."
This is what it feels like to win the first race of the new F1 era. Russell came in as the bookies' favorite for the championship in 2026, a tag he wore brilliantly and then went out and justified it on Sunday. He took pole, survived a chaotic early battle with Leclerc, executed a brilliant one-stop strategy and crossed the line 2.9 seconds ahead of his teammate.
"It wasn't a straight afternoon, but this win feels pretty sweet."
It was not just a victory. The way Russell managed the threat of Leclerc on those early laps, trading positions, conserving tyres, staying out of trouble, showed maturity. Yes, Mercedes had the faster car, but Russell still had to drive it. He did it.
Winner: Kimi Antonelli | mercedes
Stop and appreciate what this kid did in 48 hours in Melbourne. His car broke down in the final practice session on Saturday morning. Their mechanics had hours to repair it from total damage. He then qualified second, was sent to the stewards twice in separate events, and finished second in the race despite falling to seventh place at the start. He spent the middle of the afternoon methodically picking his way back through traffic.
"It was very intense, I was very nervous, very stressed going into the session because at one point it felt like I couldn't make it... We couldn't even set the car, we just walked out of the garage."
Nineteen years old. 2nd place in its first race of the brand new regulation era. Mercedes has a problem and the problem is that both of their drivers are very, very good.
Winner: Charles Leclerc | ferrari
He made his fourth start. He took the lead after the first corner. It's not luck, it's the launch system of the Ferrari SF-26 that is doing something that the rest of the field just can't match, with a driver who really knows how to exploit it.
Leclerc kept Russell honest for the most part of the 15 laps, trading the lead back and forth in such a way that the grandstands at Albert Park actually went wild. The strategy call that ultimately led to Ferrari's potential victory was not their fault (that's a team decision we'll get to) and third place in a race where Mercedes had a clear performance edge is a result Ferrari can build on.
The car is real. Leclerc is real. The gap exists for Mercedes, but it's not the kind of gap that helps you reach the white flag.
Winner: Lewis Hamilton ferrari
He started seventh. By the first corner he was in third place. This alone tells you something about where Hamilton is mentally in his second year with Ferrari compared to the toil of 2025.
The strategy that kept him out of the podium picture and staying out during both Virtual Safety Car periods backfired when the Mercedes' tire life proved unexpectedly long, but Hamilton was hiding nothing after the race.
Hamilton said, "I feel great. I think I could have gone further. I wish the race had been longer. And in five laps or so, I think I could have finished third." "There are a lot of positives but we have a lot of work to do to catch Mercedes but it is not impossible. I believe we can close the gap."
That second quote matters. A year earlier, Hamilton was clearly frustrated after races that did not go according to plan. This version sounds like someone who has rediscovered why he does what he does. Ferrari are fourth in Melbourne, a very different position to what the Scuderia were in this time last season.
Loser: Oscar Piastri mclaren
There is no gentle way to write this. Oscar Piastri crashed out of his home race before the formation lap was completed. At Turn 4 he clipped the curb, lost control and that was it. The car crashed into the wall, the home crowd stunned into silence, the start of the season on home soil reduced to zero points.
After qualifying 5th, he was on his way to the grid when he went over the curb too high and collided with the barriers.
It gets even worse when you consider the context. McLaren come into 2026 as the defending constructors' champions. Dealing with the new regulations will always be a challenge – customer Mercedes power units mean the difference to the works team is real – but losing an Australian driver at his home race before the lights go off is the beginning of one that takes weeks to overcome. Lando Norris finished 5th, which tells the whole story of where McLaren sits right now.
Loser: Ferrari Strategy | ferrari
The car is good. The strategy department had a tough afternoon. When the first Virtual Safety Car came out due to Isak Hadjar's Red Bull retirement, both Leclerc and Hamilton remained out while Mercedes competed. Ferrari thought it was too early to pursue a one-stop strategy. They were wrong.
Ferrari opted to leave both drivers out. Then, when they finally pitted under normal racing conditions, they lost a large amount of time and so were jumped by Antonelli.
Then a second VSC arrived, and Ferrari could not even take advantage of it because the pit lane entrance was already closed. They went 1-2 and finished 3-4, and that difference seems significant when you're chasing a team that just executed their pit stop perfectly and went the distance. Ferrari knows this. The team said that after the race they knew where they needed to improve. The car deserves better decisions than it did on Sunday.
