WORDS BY ROB HANSFORD | IMAGES BY MERCEDES & RED BULL
Last weekend Formula 1’s 2026 cars finally took to the track in full anger for the very first time. It was a weekend full of trepidation, anticipation and for some, anxiety.
How good would the new cars really be? What will the racing end up like? And how will the audience react to the new regulations?
It’s fair to say that the end result was a total mixed bag.
F1 cars are meant to be driven right to the limit, that’s why people love the championship so much. It’s about man and machine doing things that feel almost impossible.
But that came crashing down quite quickly once cars went through Melbourne’s fast ’S’ section - turns nine and 10.
For years people have been mesmerised, watching drivers fly through the left and then the right, bouncing the car on the limit, trying to avoid going off onto the grass at insane speeds. It’s one of the most exhilarating corners on the Albert Park circuit.
And yet, this year there was very little to get excited about.
Drivers would back off the throttle metres before the braking point, and almost coast through the once fast sequence. It’s not because drivers have begun to bottle it at high speed - far from it. It’s purely a necessity to ensure the batteries are charged, giving the driver enough power on the exit of the sequence.
The first time cars went through there it forced you to flinch. That’s not what F1 is about, not at all.
Seeing drivers lift and coast to that degree on every single lap just makes a mockery of what the championship is meant to be about.
F1 used to be about feeling the track through your backside and working out how far you can push the car before it won’t take anymore. It was about instinct and bravery.
But now, this season it is increasingly about having the brain capacity to play with the computer systems built into the steering wheel to make sure you have the right amount of power at your disposal at all times. That’s not exactly racing is it?
F1’s only saving grace in Australia was the fact that for the first 10 laps at least there was a proper fight for the lead. The tussle between the Mercedes of George Russell and Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc was enjoyable to watch, but at the same time, they weren’t racing each other on pure pace or merit.
That’s nothing to do with the quality of the drivers at all. They are two of the best drivers in F1. But the reason why they were able to pass each other so often was the fact that both of them were working out how best to deploy their battery power and when to use the boost button.
It was the learning experience that created the exciting overtakes, and there’s concern that once drivers are on top of the battery management, it will actually make the racing stale rather than exciting.
That was evident by the fact that until the closing stages, Leclerc’s team-mate Lewis Hamilton was unable to make much headway into the gap between him and Leclerc. The gap between the pair remained stable for the majority of the race and that’s because they were deploying their power in similar ways. They were charging at the same times and deploying at the same times meaning lap times were fairly consistent between the pair.
So once the learning phase is done, many will be questioning how much overtaking we will really have at all.
And it’s a crying shame. The new chassis look exciting. The cars look like true thoroughbred racing machines, they look light and nimble and so it hurts even more that once on track, they don’t look like they’re being exploited to the fullest degree.
Clearly F1 is concerned and with drivers already voicing their issues with the current regulations there’s already talk about rule changes coming mid-season.
And on the evidence so far, it looks like an early change might be the best course of action to avoid these regulations becoming one of the most disappointing in F1’s long history.