Winners and losers from F1's chaotic Australian Grand Prix

Winner: Mercedes – Toto’s great revenge

Toto Wolff’s grin as George Russell and Kimi Antonelli coasted across the finish line said it all. Mercedes is back with a vengeance, and its years in the doldrums have only meant revenge tastes sweeter.

As F1 switched to the bouncing ground-effect cars 2022, Mercedes’s reign stuttered to a halt, powerless to see first Red Bull and then McLaren take turns at the front. Coming off the back of eight consecutive constructors crowns, the four seasons that followed were humbling. And it led to some soul searching over why it kept being blinded by false dawns, only for the latest mini-breakthrough to lead to more disappointment.

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No team was more excited to see the back of the previous era of cars than Mercedes, as 2026 presented another opportunity for its power unit department in Brixworth to cook up some magic, as it had done in 2014. Sure enough, it did, and the way the team gradually rolled out its winning formula has been a masterclass too. First there was the – likely – red herring of the compression ratio saga, which diverted attention away from areas Mercedes had been making a much bigger difference. Then there was the way it kept its energy deployment cards close to its chest all winter right until Saturday qualifying, when it was able to harvest energy to such an extent that even customer teams McLaren, Williams and Alpine were all baffled by how it was able to do so with the same equipment. To be continued.

Leave it to Russell, then, nearing the peak of his powers, to capitalise on a long awaited turn at the front, backed by an impressively maturing Antonelli who bounced back from a big FP3 shunt to claim his best result in F1. Mercedes has only won the first of many battles, and Ferrari is close enough to give it a challenge, but it has been an ominous start.

Fernando Alonso's patience with Aston Martin has not been rewarded just yet.

Fernando Alonso’s patience with Aston Martin has not been rewarded just yet.

Photo by: Lars Baron / Getty Images

Loser: Bad vibrations risk tearing Aston Martin and Honda apart

Lawrence Stroll’s vision of F1’s new superteam to rival the likes of Mercedes and Red Bull has faced a major reality check on its works team debut with Honda. Not only did the 2026 car hit the brand-new Silverstone windtunnel behind schedule, but Honda’s brand-new power unit department – heavily reconfigured since its F1 withdrawal and subsequent U-turn – has struggled mightily with the new regulations.

Honda’s power unit and its integration into the AMR26 has caused crippling vibrations that have been tearing the team’s battery units apart, leaving Aston short on mileage to learn about the rest of the car’s envelope, and short on spare parts to complete a proper race weekend, with both Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll retiring from the race after having to make a long stop.

Those vibrations are not only damaging the battery, but they are also a symbolic symptom of what has been a strained start to the Aston Martin – Honda partnership at a very early stage.

Yes, it has been a calamitous start by Honda, but Aston Martin also shoulders part of the blame. And team boss Adrian Newey’s finger-pointing towards the proud Japanese company risks repeating the mistakes McLaren made a decade ago, perhaps showing why he has made a brilliant career out of being a technical genius first and foremost, rather than a unifying team principal. Like last time, Honda will undoubtedly swallow its pride and quietly focus on the job at hand. But a match made in heaven this is not proving to be, and the team will have to be careful not to let it spiral into a mismatch made in hell.

Winner – Audi and Red Bull Ford Powertrains

Honda’s woes are a striking example of just how challenging it has been to develop these all-new, controversial power units. That’s why the two other brand-new power unit manufacturers, Audi and Red Bull-Ford Powertrains, both deserve to be commended for the shape they are in from race one.

Red Bull is probably the biggest surprise, with the team going toe-to-toe with McLaren as F1’s third-fastest team and showing relatively encouraging performance levels in Australia in the hands of both Max Verstappen and Isack Hadjar, although the latter’s engine-related retirement is a shame.

But with team boss Laurent Mekies dubbing the project he inherited from predecessor Christian Horner as an “insane” challenge, the men and women in Milton Keynes can pat themselves on the back. This first season could have started off much worse.

Similar concerns floated around over Audi’s capabilities to hit the ground running, and its role in campaigning against Mercedes’ compression ratio trick was seen by some as a show of weakness. Audi too lost a car early on, with Nico Hulkenberg not making the start. But while there’s undoubtedly still plenty of work to do in Neuburg to get on par with Mercedes, it has been anything but embarrassing, with Gabriel Bortoleto scoring hard-fought points in Australia as Audi surprised its midfield rivals.

Oscar Piastri suffered a disastrous Sunday, failing to make the start of his home race after a warm-up lap crash.

Photo by: Mark Horsburgh / LAT Images via Getty Images

Loser: McLaren struggles to maintain momentum across rulebooks

Mercedes’ rise to the top coincides with McLaren being knocked off its perch, having been unable to sustain its frontrunning form over two different rulebooks. To an extent, that has been expected as the new power units appear to give factory teams a headstart over their customers, and Mercedes customers in particular feel like they are lagging behind significantly in optimising 2026’s complex energy deployment techniques.

But as McLaren team boss Andrea Stella pointed out on Saturday, the Woking squad isn’t just lacking on the power unit front and is also chasing downforce and grip compared to Mercedes. Losing Oscar Piastri before the race was a painful false start in front of a sellout Australian crowd, and Lando Norris’ run to fifth was nothing to write home about. But given the frantic development race that awaits, all is not lost for the papaya brigade.

Winner: Cadillac’s moonshot almost nails the landing

F1 debutant Cadillac’s objective for 2026 was never about raw numbers or results. Having had to fight tooth and nail to claim an entry, what it aimed for was earning the paddock’s respect and showing the decision to allow it into F1’s exclusive club was not a mistake.

One weekend in, the US-owned outfit is well on its way, with Sergio Perez making it to the finish line aboard the black and white MAC-26 named after Mario Andretti.

It is hard to overestimate the challenge F1’s first expansion team in a decade has had to overcome to get here in the first place. Friday practice was the first time ever it entered two cars at the same time. Sunday’s grand prix saw it complete its longest-ever stints.

It’s therefore no surprise there have been many teething issues, some taking longer to be resolved than anticipated, and having Valtteri Bottas retire with a steering wheel problem – which the team feels was beyond its own control – was frustrating. But Cadillac comfortably qualified and can now build on its debut to start finding more and more performance.

It’s only the beginning, and there will be more difficulties ahead. But Andretti, who was present for the team’s debut, will be a very proud man indeed.

Sergio Perez got his elbows out against old nemesis Liam Lawson as Cadillac saw the chequered flag with one car.

Photo by: Anni Graf – Formula 1 via Getty Images

Loser: Overweight Williams starts new era on back foot

While Racing Bulls, Audi and Haas all impressed in the midfield, Williams has been the odd one out following a troubled weekend, which saw both Alex Albon and Carlos Sainz miss crucial track time with various reliability issues. That could well be a hangover from the team having to sit out Barcelona’s shakedown, where some of these problems may have been caught. However, team boss James Vowles said the squad tried to “break its car” in Bahrain, so it wasn’t expecting so many gremlins at this stage.

Teething issues slow down a team’s rate of optimising its package, but Williams’s issues go much further than that. The new car is also both lacking downforce and carrying a significant weight penalty and both will take time to overcome.

Winners: Isack Hadjar and Arvid Lindblad revitalise Red Bull’s driver line-ups

Has Red Bull’s second seat curse been lifted? It’s probably too early to draw such conclusions, but it is hard to fault anything Red Bull’s newcomer Isack Hadjar and his Racing Bulls replacement Arvid Lindblad have done in Australia.

Hadjar produced a faultless qualifying session to qualify a career-high third, which the at times morose Frenchman should probably learn to savour a bit more. He was then unlucky to retire with a rapid unscheduled disassembly of his power unit.

Lindblad similarly didn’t put a wheel wrong, qualifying in the top 10, opportunistically gaining positions at a hair-raising start and then battling Verstappen and others to claim points on the 18-year-old’s big debut. It was an all-action display in counterintuitive cars that could have tripped either driver up in myriad ways. But it didn’t.

Teenager Arvid Lindblad made an impressive F1 debut.

Photo by: Anni Graf – Formula 1 via Getty Images

Honourable mentions: Oliver Bearman, and Franco Colapinto’s reflexes

Oliver Bearman was an excellent seventh for Haas, while Franco Colapinto saved himself from a big accident by swerving the slow-starting Liam Lawson. With it, he also saved F1 from a major safety headache, as the complicated start procedures had been flagged by several competitors as a potential safety hazard for a long time.

Nevertheless, Melbourne’s near-miss should be treated as such and not taken as an indication that everything is fine with these 2026 regulations. The series should take a long hard look at the findings from Australia and next weekend’s China round to make sensible changes.

Photos from Australian GP – Sunday