The opening Grand Prix of the season in Melbourne is in the books. If you wanted excitement and surprises, you got them. The Australian GP had more twists than Game of Thrones.
Read on for the five keys we learned from this crazy, unpredictable weekend of racing.
Mercedes are clearly the team to beat
We knew Mercedes were going to be quick because they showed strong performance in preseason. But we didn’t know they were going to be this fast. George Russell and teammate Kimi Antonelli finished one-two and looked strong all day.
The Silver Arrows’ success in Australia was reminiscent of their dominance when they won eight straight constructor’s championships from 2014 to 2021.
Let’s explain: During their championship streak, they not only had a massively talented driver in Lewis Hamilton, but their crew was at the top of their game. We saw that in Australia, too.
In free practice 3, Antonelli crashed hard in turn 2, basically destroying the vehicle. Team principal Toto Wolff said it looked like a “Lego F1 car.” Antonelli would have missed qualifying if not for the heroic work of the team mechanics rebuilding the car. They got Antonelli back on track in time to qualify P2.
Judging by the results Down Under, Mercedes may once again boast the stunning combo of great drivers and a highly skilled garage.
Ferrari still struggle with strategy
As fast as Mercedes were in the race, Ferrari handed them a huge favor in terms of pit stop strategy. Russell and Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc were batting for the lead in the early going after Leclerc surged to the front from his P4 starting position. When the day’s first virtual safety car (VSC) was deployed on lap 12, both Mercedes drivers (and most of the field) pitted for new rubber. Ferrari, however, stayed out. Race radio captured Lewis Hamilton saying, “At least one of us should have come in.”
When a second VSC came out on lap 19, Ferrari hesitated to come in immediately after Valtteri Bottas broke down near the pit entry. By the time Leclerc and Hamilton came around again, officials had closed the pit entry to recover Bottas’ Cadillac.
When Ferrari finally did pit, Russell and Antonelli regained P1 and P2, leaving Ferrari to hope Mercedes’ tires would degrade to the point where they needed to stop again. But the Silver Arrows put on a tire preservation showcase and brought their cars safely home to glory.
For Ferrari, this marks yet another questionable strategy decision to add to the long list of the past few seasons.
Some drivers really, really hate these cars
Formula 1 has always been known for drama, with powerful people constantly showing off their twitchy personalities and intense opinions. But the vitriol expressed in Australia over the redesigned cars belongs in a special category.
This season, the turbo-hybrid power unit has been overhauled, resulting in a roughly 50/50 split between power from the internal combustion engine and electric energy from the battery. This means drivers are continually managing the tasks of harvesting and deploying battery power.
“We’ve come from the best cars ever made in Formula One and the nicest to drive, to probably the worst. It sucks,” defending driver’s champion Lando Norris said. “Everyone knows what the issues are. It’s just the fact it’s a 50-50 split.”
Hamilton went into detail about his complaints. He said: “The power’s good when you’ve got it, it’s just it doesn’t last. We start the lap, half-throttle coming through the last corner, and a third, a quarter of a straight, and then you go to full throttle. It’s completely against what Formula 1 is about: flat-out, full attack — and you’re lifting and coasting and stuff. That element is not very good, and I don’t think the drivers particularly like it.”
Of course, Russell and Antonelli don’t seem to be having any problems driving the new cars.
Is Red Bull on their way down?
The weekend in Australia was an utter disaster for Red Bull. So was this misadventure a one-time occurrence or a sign of worse to come?
It began when Max Verstappen crashed on his first flying lap of qualifying and failed to set a time. The problem? A technical glitch in the car’s energy recovery system (ERS) that caused the rear axle to lock. Verstappen’s car slid through a gravel patch and hit a barrier.
He was forced to start the Grand Prix from P20. He worked his way up the field to finish 6th, nearly a full minute behind winner Russell. It was ironic that the new ERS prompted the crash. After all, a few weeks ago Verstappen ripped the newly designed cars, calling them “anti-racing” and like Formula E “on steroids.”
Then at the start of the Grand Prix, both Verstappen and teammate Isack Hadjar had zero battery power to deploy at lights out. Red Bull later said the drivers used up too much power during the formation lap, leaving them lagging at the start. Hadjar, starting P3, immediately slipped to P5 before the first turn.
Hadjar’s day didn’t get any better. He was forced to retire from the race on lap 12 after his power unit failed.
Normally, we could write off these glitches to the random nature of racing. But the fact is Red Bull came into this season in disarray. Longtime team principal Christian Horner and technical guru Adrian Newey both departed. At the same time, the team chose to build its own power units for the first time (in conjunction with Ford).
It could be that all these pivotal changes may just be too much for the once-great Red Bull to successfully manage this season.
F1’s young guns are riding high
While the grumbling over the redesigned cars continues to bring negative vibes, there’s a very bright spot every F1 fan should be following: the emergence of the next generation of legendary drivers.
Australia was the stage for these wunderkinds.
Antonelli, 19, followed up his remarkable 2025 rookie season (three podiums and seven top fives) at the Australian Grand Prix by showing he’s every bit as fast as the 28-year-old Russell.
Oliver Bearman, 20, placed seventh for Haas. In 2024, he became the youngest F1 driver to score points on his debut at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix. In 2025, he scored a respectable 41 points with six top-10 finishes for Haas to land him in 13th place in the drivers standings.
Making his first F1 start Down Under, 18-year-old Arvid Lindblad showed like he belongs here by taking 8th place for Racing Bulls, becoming the third-youngest driver to score points on his debut. In Australia, he qualified P9 and was racing as high as third place early in the Grand Prix.
Gabriel Bortoleto, 21, in his second season in F1, also scored points for the newly branded Audi team, coming in 9th. And we can’t forget Hadjar. Despite the technical problems mentioned above, the 21-year old qualified P3 in his first race with Red Bulls after stepping up from driving for Racing Bulls in his 2025 rookie season. If you bet that Hadjar would outperform Verstappen this weekend, give yourself a pat on the back.
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