Who had been the largest winners and losers from F1’s 2026 Australian GP?

System 1’s new period obtained off to an thrilling begin with an action-packed season opening Australian Grand Prix. 

After weeks of thoughts video games, politics and conjecture, we lastly obtained to witness the primary style of the brand new period of F1 because the 2026 season obtained underway in Australia. 

Mercedes made the right begin as George Russell headed a 1-2 in a frenetic opening race that began off with a bang earlier than settling down within the latter phases. 

Listed below are the largest winners and losers from a wild first spherical in Melbourne…

Winner – Mercedes 

It’s benefit Mercedes early in 2026 after the Silver Arrows transformed its front-row lockout into a cushty one-two headed by Russell. 

After dominating qualifying, Mercedes didn’t have issues fairly really easy on race day and needed to overcome an early problem from Ferrari. Charles Leclerc overtook Russell into Flip 1 with a rocket launch, whereas Lewis Hamilton additionally utilized strain within the early phases. 

The Silver Arrows finally outpaced and outwitted Ferrari as its would possibly shone by means of, permitting Russell to transform pole into victory and transfer into the lead of the world championship for the primary time in his profession. It will not be as vital as some steered, however it’s clear Mercedes, at the very least for now, has a efficiency benefit over the sphere. 

Russell lived as much as his billing because the pre-season favorite by making the right begin to his bid to change into world champion as Mercedes marked its return to the entrance of F1 after 4 difficult years. 

Loser – McLaren 

After setting the benchmark in F1 with its double world championship triumph in 2025, McLaren has been introduced crashing again right down to earth at the beginning of the brand new guidelines cycle. 

McLaren thought it will be beginning the 12 months behind rivals Mercedes and Ferrari, however the deficit was a lot larger than anticipated. Reigning world champion Lando Norris trailed Russell by over 50 seconds and was 35 seconds behind fourth-placed Hamilton on his approach to a distant fifth. 

Norris, who is just not having fun with the brand new technology of F1 vehicles and has been extraordinarily damning of them, was fairly downbeat afterwards, claiming McLaren is “a really, very great distance off” and has “lots of work to do”. 

Winner – Ferrari

Off the again of a woeful 2025 season, this was a optimistic begin for Ferrari. Regardless of a disappointing qualifying efficiency, Ferrari’s supreme race begins enabled each Leclerc and Hamilton to be within the combine in the course of the opening laps and the SF-26 seemed to be a match for the Mercedes within the first stint. 

Ferrari’s probability of victory slipped away following its determination to not pit throughout two early digital security vehicles. Ferrari opted to favour monitor place however in hindsight it handed management of the race to Mercedes, who together with a lot of the subject, jumped on the probability to profit from an affordable pit cease. 

Scrutiny over its questionable technique error apart, Ferrari has cause to be inspired leaving Australia. It has the second quickest automobile and there’s perception Mercedes might be reigned in, with Hamilton insisting catching his former group is “not unattainable” over the approaching races. 

Loser – Oscar Piastri 

For the second 12 months operating, Oscar Piastri endured heartbreak on residence soil. This time, he didn’t even take the beginning after struggling a shock crash on his approach to the grid earlier than the race. 

Not solely was this an enormous disappointment at his residence race, Piastri, who comes into 2026 with some extent to show after his 2025 F1 title defeat, suffered the worst doable begin to his bid to get the higher of McLaren team-mate Norris. 

The expensive crash caught Piastri completely without warning and additional compounded a tricky begin to the brand new marketing campaign for McLaren. 

Winner – Arvid Lindblad 

A dream begin to life in F1 for 18-year-old British rookie Arvid Lindblad, who turned the third youngest factors scorer in historical past along with his eighth-placed end in Melbourne. 

This was a significantly spectacular exhibiting from Lindblad all weekend as he outpaced and outraced his extra skilled Racing Bulls teammate Liam Lawson and appeared nicely at residence in F1. 

A superb begin noticed Lindblad mixing it up with the leaders on the primary lap. Regardless of inevitably being caught by faster vehicles, Crimson Bull’s newest thrilling prodigy raced with maturity and no worry as he grabbed a superb end result on debut. 

Loser – Crimson Bull 

After a powerful pre-season, this wasn’t the begin to 2026 Crimson Bull had in thoughts. 

Max Verstappen recovered nicely from his shock Q1 crash and elimination to climb from twentieth on the grid to sixth, however Crimson Bull appears to be in a battle towards McLaren for third within the pecking order behind Mercedes and Crimson Bull. 

There was huge disappointment for Isack Hadjar, whose robust begin to the race was undone when his Crimson Bull energy unit failed on the twelfth lap at Albert Park. 

Nonetheless, there’s some encouragement for Crimson Bull, with Hadjar already demonstrating promising indicators he can keep away from the identical destiny as his predecessors. 

Winner – Ollie Bearman 

A formidable under-the-radar drive from Ollie Bearman, who, overshadowed by the motion on the entrance, quietly labored his method into the highest 10 to mark a point-scoring begin for Haas. 

The highly-rated Bearman began off the place he left off in a powerful rookie F1 season by as soon as once more getting the higher of Haas team-mate Esteban Ocon, who he out-qualified convincingly. 

An amazing begin to the season for Bearman, who continues to imagine the position of Haas’s lead driver in F1. 

Loser – Williams 

Williams had a reasonably nameless race, with Alex Albon and Carlos Sainz barely getting a glance in on the tv protection on their approach to a low-key twelfth and fifteenth place respectively. 

Aston Martin apart, Williams has been the largest disappointment of 2026 to this point. The FW48 is obese and badly off the tempo, with Williams slipping from the entrance of the midfield pack to in the direction of the again over the winter. 

Till the burden and efficiency points are addressed, factors might be onerous to return by for Williams. 

Winner – Gabriel Bortoleto 

Gabriel Bortoleto was the underdog star of qualifying as he reached Q3, earlier than changing that into ninth place to place two factors on the board for Audi in its maiden F1 race. 

Bortoleto’s supply of a powerful drive and end result softened the blow of a technical situation stopping Nico Hulkenberg from taking the beginning. 

Loser – Aston Martin 

Aston Martin nonetheless has to earn a spot within the ‘losers’ column purely based mostly on its dire begin to 2026 which is essentially right down to Honda’s reliability points. 

Nonetheless, issues ended up being higher than anticipated on race day. Fernando Alonso briefly ran as excessive as tenth after a exceptional begin and managed 21 laps earlier than calling it a day.

Lance Stroll accomplished 43 of the 58 laps, although it did require a stoppage within the storage. That gave Aston Martin extra knowledge and mileage than anticipated going into the race, but it surely and Honda nonetheless have enormous issues to handle.