Formula 1 2026 Season Discussion

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#3467957 8-Mar-2026 20:21

Incredibly close to being taken out. Saved by Colapinto's reactions.

Oscar, far out!

Solid to see some competition from Ferrari, but is feeling a bit like Ferrari vs Red Bull a few years back, where they were clear 3rd&4th but occasionally sniffed 2nd if there was an opportunity or mistake.

McLaren/Red Bull lower down, though would put Red Bull ahead of McLaren after this. So Merc, Ferrari, Red Bull, McLaren order vibes?

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#3467970 8-Mar-2026 22:18

Jaxson:

So Merc, Ferrari, Red Bull, McLaren order vibes?

Pretty much. Though its race 1. McLaren only just got the engine that weekend. So they're going to be learning how to use it while Mercedes have had it through the development of it. And Norris held off Verstappen later in the race with older mediums vs fresher hards.

Also with these power limitations (which I'm not liking so far....but race 1) different tracks are going to see vastly different harvesting behaviours.

On the plus side there is clearly a lot more overtaking opportunity. Though it feels less like racing and just about who has the bigger battery.

tdgeek

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#3467980 9-Mar-2026 06:54

I did like that they can race close now. Mercedes and Ferrari looked very even but as fuel burnt off, Mercedes were better, or at least they maintained the advantage.

McLaren were poor, almost minute behind. Max showed that RBR is better.

Liam, wait to hear what happened at the start. Lindblad held his place which shows RB is pretty good, although got passed by Haas, Liam looked ok at times

Melbourne is an outlier, next 2 or 3 races will set the pecking order for now

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#3467993 9-Mar-2026 07:52

Was quite a good race I thought, heartbreaking for Piastri to do a Hadjar on formation. Merecedes were unbackable favs pre race and it ended up being correct.

Knowing the Ferrari speed on launch I took the NZ TAB up on their first lap leader offer. Any other car other than 1/2/3 paying $4.25 thank you very much Charles

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Benoire

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#3467999 9-Mar-2026 08:14

I'm not sure Mercedes will have it their way throughout the season. Australia, and to some extent Shanghai, favour their direction - engine power - but given Ferrari messed up the pit strategy during Bottas' issue, LeClerk could have been second, competing with Antonelli bodes well for tracks with slower corners as the smaller turbo will give boost earlier than the larger ones in the Mercedes... I do expect Ferrari to be swamped by the Mercedes powered cars though at Spa.

GV27

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#3468019 9-Mar-2026 08:59

thermonuclear:

Dunnersfella:

If you have takeaways on drivers ability after the first free practice sessions of a season - then you're no different to the YouTube F1 click-baiters.

Click-bait! I may be old but isn't click-bait some kind of sensationalist headline or image taken out of context to fuel clicks to a website? Oh well, I suppose Mauricio will be happy for the extra traffic if anything I've said is trending at the top of web searches, lol.

Look, if Lawson's efforts vs Lindblad on Day One of the season were all we had seen of this battle then I might be inclined to agree with you. But, it isn't. We had a collective nine days of pre-season testing where I believe I'm correct in saying Lawson failed to register a better time than Lindblad. I made no comment at the time because I, like you, thought it was too early to make a judgement with the car in rapid development and the two drivers not being on track at the same time.

I doubt you will find anyone in these forums who is more supportive of Lawson than me. Therefore, the trend of Lindblad recording the better times carrying over from pre-season testing into the first day of free practice was pretty disappointing for me, as I stated. I was the one who suggested Lawson needs to get his foot onto Lindblad's throat and make sure it stays there when the latter driver was named as his team partner for this season.

Lawson doesn't carry a whole lot of goodwill in the general F1 population and it's vital he gets on it and stays on it to ensure his long term career in F1. Lawson was the beneficiary of some misfortune with Lindblad's power deployment in Qualification yesterday and, even with that good luck, all the talk in the general media is about how good the Brit was in the RB on his first weekend.

If we see a repeat of Hadjar last season then Lawson's long term prospects in F1 are diminished. As Lindblad is the "golden one" for Red Bull's future Lawson needs to dominate Lindblad consistantly, end of. I apologise if you found my earlier assessment of Lawson's performance and prospects confronting but Lawson's time is now, this is not a "let's see how it goes and build into it" situation.

Anyhow very pleased to see Lawson qualify P8, his racecraft has always been his strength so I will be hoping he can convert this into a points weekend, that he scores more than Lindblad and that Verstappen isn't able to make up the places to get ahead of him.

As usual, Sky have given Lawson less than a weekend to put the boot in, and now decided that FP1/FP2 - where cars run split strategies to collect as much data as possible - are now going to be scored against someone. I cannot recall any other driver in F1 being held to this kind of standard. They then had nothing to say when Lawson outqualified Lindblad in Q3.

Taking that argument to pre-season testing, where cars aren't even in the same spec let alone performance program, is taking it to a whole new level though.

I maintain Lawson would not be getting this much scrutiny if he came from a bigger country.

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Brumfondl

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#3468040 9-Mar-2026 10:14

Mercedes look good in clear air but less so when behind. I feel that Ferrari threw this one away rather than Merc easily taking it. I understand them being cautious around that first VSC, but to not even split the strategy was bad, and they likely could have double-stacked and made things more interesting.

Very much looking forward to how the next three weeks pan out, especially with these first three races being at such sociable times for NZ :)

Jaxson

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#3468100 9-Mar-2026 13:35

Insert Ferrari clown meme 🏎️ 🤡

never underestimate their ability to seize defeat from the jaws of victory

their tech seems on point this year, but still needs the dynamic strategy calls throughout the race

Benoire

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#3468102 9-Mar-2026 13:43

Jaxson:

Insert Ferrari clown meme 🏎️ 🤡

never underestimate their ability to seize defeat from the jaws of victory

their tech seems on point this year, but still needs the dynamic strategy calls throughout the race

I didn't hear 'we are checking' in the race so I reckon that is some improvement...

Jaxson

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#3468107 9-Mar-2026 13:52

The voice/accent was so similar it was triggering initially before confirming that no it was indeed a different race engineer.

tdgeek

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#3468110 9-Mar-2026 14:31

So Liam's issues were widespread deployment, as expected. Back in the day the variables were the start, pitstops, and random good or bad luck. Number One now is Deploymnent or lack thereof

Im sure its frustrating when the battery power isn't deployed as expected, but super dangerous when its deploys more than the driver expected, which is happening

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vexxxboy

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#3468115 9-Mar-2026 14:59

tdgeek:

So Liam's issues were widespread deployment, as expected. Back in the day the variables were the start, pitstops, and random good or bad luck. Number One now is Deployment or lack thereof

Im sure its frustrating when the battery power isn't deployed as expected, but super dangerous when its deploys more than the driver expected, which is happening

That start where he lost boost and Calapinto almost went into the back of Lawson was what all the drivers were worried about when on the starting grid. They actually agreed that after the 5 red lights came on there would be an extra 5 seconds to build up the boost in the cars before the lights went out , that didnt happen in fact the 5th light hardly came on before they all went out and the race started.

Common sense is not as common as you think.

Jaxson

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#3468134 9-Mar-2026 16:06

Yeah the light system was brutal this time, almost a joke considering findings from testing.

I'd need to review, but apparently Liam was complaining on the radio that the battery wasn't charging/harvesting during the formation lap, meaning he was quite exposed.

I'd personally rather this went like a hybrid Toyota, with a tiny battery to recover some kinetic energy but as a small component of overall power. Currently we're at PHEV levels, with a bigger split and a much reduced output ICE engine which is all they have once the battery has depleted itself.

It's all very underpowered ICE and complexity around harvesting currently, with circumstances like Max's rear axel lockup and Liam's inability to launch creeping through. Add to that a crazy mix of active aero, boost and pass mode etc. I like that comment that they'll get to throw bananas at the next race. Mercedes tried that I guess, leaving a present for Lando to run over on track...

Brumfondl

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#3468194 9-Mar-2026 20:29

Once all the cars were on the grid for the formation lap there was extra time before the lights started to come on. THAT was the time they were meant to be revving up so that by the time the lights went out, even if it was almost immediately, they were ready. The lights going out really quickly was not meant to affect that period in any way, but it, and a number of drivers finding that the battery was empty after the formation lap, does seem to have caught drivers out. Hopefully lessons have been or are in the process of being learned.

JPNZ

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#3468296 10-Mar-2026 08:07

Brumfondl:

Once all the cars were on the grid for the formation lap there was extra time before the lights started to come on. THAT was the time they were meant to be revving up so that by the time the lights went out, even if it was almost immediately, they were ready. The lights going out really quickly was not meant to affect that period in any way, but it, and a number of drivers finding that the battery was empty after the formation lap, does seem to have caught drivers out. Hopefully lessons have been or are in the process of being learned.

Agree with this point. On the bolded part I don't understand how this happens.. Surely the cars leave the pits with a full battery? Its only a formation lap so drivers don't need to use the battery power, they can override the system to not use the battery on that lap. They should IMHO be lining up after one lap still with a full battery ready for the launch.

My take on it anyway, obviously that didn't happen or some cars used the battery on formation lap.

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