{"id":526853,"date":"2026-03-08T13:56:10","date_gmt":"2026-03-08T13:56:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/526853\/"},"modified":"2026-03-08T13:56:10","modified_gmt":"2026-03-08T13:56:10","slug":"why-oscar-piastri-can-bounce-back-after-melbourne-crash-mercedes-quickest-as-ferrari-challenge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/526853\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Oscar Piastri can bounce back after Melbourne crash, Mercedes quickest as Ferrari challenge"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cYou guys weren\u2019t slow,\u201d George Russell insisted to Charles Leclerc in the podium green room after cruising to victory at the Australian Grand Prix<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Leclerc suppressed a laugh, but his smile betrayed his incredulity.<\/p>\n

The Monegasque had made Russell work for his lead, and Ferrari had played a role in halting the fight, but the Mercedes driver cruised to the finish unthreatened, even on 46-lap-old tyres that the team suspected might not make it competitively to the flag.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Fox Sports, available on Kayo Sports, is the only place to watch every practice, qualifying session and race in the 2026 FIA Formula One World Championship\u2122 LIVE in 4K. New to Kayo? Join now and get your first month for just $1.<\/a><\/p>\n

For the first time in 1546 days and for the first time in 92 grands prix, Mercedes is back at the top of the championship.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s so much contentment that I feel in the team at the moment,\u201d team boss Toto Wolff said. \u201cWe had such a winning streak with those eight championships and then very difficult years.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe still won races and finished second in the championship, but a solid one-two where you feel a season ahead that means you can fight for a world championship \u2014 that wasn\u2019t for a long time.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019re probably more grateful when you bounce back like this, having known the difficult years. That\u2019s why I\u2019m very happy for everyone.<\/p>\n

\u201cMost of all, there\u2019s been a certain degree of contentment that Mercedes is back.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u2018SHOULDN\u2019T HAPPEN\u2019: Piastri speaks over unthinkable Aus GP disaster as brutal reason revealed<\/a><\/p>\n

AUS GP WRAP \u2014 Piastri disaster rocks Aus GP as Russell claims statement win after Ferrari gamble backfires <\/a><\/p>\n

\u2018IT\u2019S A SHAME\u2019: Frustrated Hamilton tells Ferrari \u2018we\u2019re not doing that again\u2019 after costly strategy call<\/a><\/p>\n

WATCH: Drivers terrified as shocking Aus GP near-miss you didn\u2019t see exposes clear F1 problem<\/a><\/p>\n

Merc Dominate as Ferrari call backfires | 02:25<\/p>\n

RUSSELL\u2019S STARS FINALLY ALIGN<\/p>\n

George Russell experienced none of those Mercedes glory years first-hand. After an extended Williams apprenticeship, he moved up to Mercedes in 2022, at the beginning of the ground-effect era, and was at the coalface of four campaigns of struggle.<\/p>\n

The Mercedes he knew was one that could never wrap its head around the regulation.<\/p>\n

In 2026, though, he\u2019s getting the comeback tour.<\/p>\n

He was able to take pole position easily, with teammate Andrea Kimi Antonelli locking out the front row despite a very scrappy weekend.<\/p>\n

Victory was likewise ultimately straightforward \u2014 and Antonelli again backed him despite dropping down the order off the line.<\/p>\n

The British and German national anthems played in succession on the podium. Certainly that\u2019s a familiar feeling to anyone in Formula 1 with a memory spanning beyond the turn of the decade.<\/p>\n

\u201cThank you so much of the whole team, because it\u2019s been a long time coming to have this car beneath us,\u201d Russell enthused.<\/p>\n

The car, at its first outing, rocketed him to top spot in the drivers championship for the first time in his career.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s the position Russell has long felt he deserves. After having honed his craft as a victory outsider and having executed arguably the least error-prone season of any driver last year, the Briton is undeniably of championship calibre.<\/p>\n

He now has the car to prove it \u2014 and perhaps to prove it emphatically.<\/p>\n

Russell, though, is determined to keep a lid on expectations after the first round of a long campaign.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re all here now to fight for a world championship, and that\u2019s what we\u2019ve been working so hard towards,\u201d he said. \u201cIf we want to do that, we still need to raise our game, because there were a lot of areas today that we underachieved, mainly around the race start, having the battery in the right place, and we were lucky not to come worse off.\u201d<\/p>\n

But his post-race team radio certainly made his feelings clear.<\/p>\n

\u201cI like this car,\u201d he said. \u201cI like this engine.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mercedes Top 2 – Russell wins AUS GP | 00:51<\/p>\n

FERRARI IS BACK. THAT\u2019S GOOD AND BAD<\/p>\n

Leclerc\u2019s incredulity at being told by Russell that, actually, the Ferrari car isn\u2019t slow tells us plenty about how Ferrari reflects on its first weekend of the season.<\/p>\n

For the positive takeaways from the race \u2014 and there genuinely a good few \u2014 the 0.8-second qualifying deficit can\u2019t be ignored.<\/p>\n

That said, with the additional evidence of the grand prix, we can make some more informed conclusions.<\/p>\n

Ferrari, like McLaren, failed to make a step in Q3 that would have reduced qualifying deficit to a more respectable figure, likely because of the cooling track temperature.<\/p>\n

Given gaps tend to shrink in race conditions, Ferrari\u2019s competitiveness in the first stint in particular appears to back up the idea that even if the Scuderia isn\u2019t Mercedes\u2019s equal, it\u2019s in the ballpark at this circuit.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s for that reason the race is heartening.<\/p>\n

All the hype around Ferrari\u2019s starts was delivered upon. Leclerc was sublime off the line and threaded himself perfectly between Russell and Isack Hadjar to take the lead into the first turn. Lewis Hamilton almost followed him but for a slightly wide moment at turn 1, but he was ably through to third on the tail of the lead battle by the end of the opening lap.<\/p>\n

From there the crowd was treated to a demonstration of racing under the new rules, with Leclerc and Russell attempting to outwit each other with their use of the boost button \u2014 the give-it-everything switch that send all 750 kilowatts to the rear axle at once.<\/p>\n

The lead changed hands seven times in the opening nine laps \u2014 remarkable at one of the circuits where overtaking is traditionally difficult.<\/p>\n

\u2018Very pleased\u2019 are maybe big words, but I am positively surprised for sure,\u201d Leclerc said. \u201cWe are still very, very far off the Mercedes in qualifying; in the race, though, we seem to be closer.\u201d<\/p>\n

MORE AUSTRALIAN GRAND PRIX<\/p>\n

PIASTRI PAIN: Great tears up as Piastri speaks over unthinkable F1 heartbreak with brutal reason revealed<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2018HOW\u2019D YOU NOT CALL?\u2019 Fresh Lewis radio rage as heat on Ferrari again over costly strategy call<\/a><\/p>\n

GRID CRUSH: Drivers terrified as shocking Aus GP near-miss you didn\u2019t see exposes clear F1 problem<\/a><\/p>\n

Leclerc was the winner of the skirmish, but all hope of a shock victory evaporated when Isack Hadjar\u2019s Red Bull Racing car came to a smoking stop on lap 11.<\/p>\n

Both Mercedes drivers pitted on the following lap. Ferrari stayed out and had to stop later, under green-flag conditions, putting them out of contention.<\/p>\n

\u201cI definitely thought, when I saw two Mercedes going, one ahead of me, one behind me, we should have come in or at least one of us should have come in and covered,\u201d Hamilton said. \u201cWe\u2019ll have a look and see what we\u2019ve got there.\u201d<\/p>\n

Scary near miss at the back of the grid! | 00:42<\/p>\n

Ferrari argued that it thought it was too early to pit and stick to the faster one-stop strategy.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t regret it,\u201d Leclerc said. \u201cIt was a wanted choice, a wanted and conscious choice.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe knew that there were very high chances that this was not going to be the only VSC of the race, and so we thought that it was better for us to maybe wait for another one.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s always a gamble of course.\u201d<\/p>\n

It was lineball whether Hamilton was in position to capitalise on Valtteri Bottas\u2019s virtual safety car on lap 18 before race control closed the pit lane, abut that stands as a second potentially missed opportunity.<\/p>\n

Both drivers insisted that Mercedes had unmatchable pace once in clear air and that third and fourth was therefore the best possible result \u2014 after all, a driver saves five seconds pitting behind a virtual safety car, and Leclerc finished 15 seconds behind Russell and 12 seconds behind Antonelli.<\/p>\n

But Ferrari had been successfully denying Mercedes that clear air in the first stint. A more astute strategy \u2014 more bravery, like Mercedes demonstrated by double-stacking Russell and Antonelli immediately \u2014 could have put at least second place on the table.<\/p>\n

The competitive picture could change, and Ferrari could develop its way into a stronger position in terms of pace, but it\u2019ll mean little if it doesn\u2019t execute.<\/p>\n

Piastri lost for words after crash | 01:02<\/p>\n

AUSTRALIA CURSE STRIKES AGAIN FOR PIASTRI HOME HEARTBREAK<\/p>\n

The sound of 137,869 hearts breaking is virtually indistinguishable from the sound of a Formula 1 car crunching against the cement barriers at the exit of turn 4.<\/p>\n

The air around Albert Park seemingly evaporated in an instant, the crowd stunned into silence, as the realisation dawned that Oscar Piastri was out of the race before it had even begun.<\/p>\n

The home hero had got throttle-happy on the kerbs, spinning across the road and into the barriers. He accepted responsibility, albeit with the caveat that the car had behaved unexpectedly when he put his foot down.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe first thing I want to stress is there is certainly a big element of it that was me,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt the same time, I had about 100 kilowatts extra power that I didn\u2019t expect, which is not insignificant.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the difficult part to take with that is everything was working normally. It\u2019s just a function of how the engines have to work with the rules.\u201d<\/p>\n

The result was the first Australian Grand Prix since 2001 without a local driver on the grid, the 2025 championship becoming just another heartbroken spectator as the lights went out.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m just very sorry for everyone that came out and wanted to support me,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s clearly not the way I wanted to start the year either. I can only apologise for it.\u201d<\/p>\n

It guaranteed Piastri a 25-point handicap in the championship race, though Lando Norris\u2019s muted fifth place means the Australian lost only 10 points to his teammate.<\/p>\n

The upside is that the scenario isn\u2019t much different to the one he faced this time last year, when a spin off the road in the wet and a brief recovery put him 23 points adrift of Norris in the championship fight.<\/p>\n

He rebounded mightily, however, to seize the title lead by round 5, the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s definitely a tough moment for him in front of the Australian crowd,\u201d team boss Andrea Stella said. \u201cBut Oscar is a very tough guy mentally. He will use all this to get even more concentrated and determined starting from China.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe will make sure that we all face this in a united way. We are a team in any situation that may involve anybody of our team.\u201d<\/p>\n

Of course the circumstances are different \u2014 McLaren was the undisputed number one last year, whereas in Melbourne the team was a distant third at best \u2014 but there\u2019s no reason to doubt Piastri is any less tough just because of his repeated affliction by the dreaded Australian Grand Prix home curse.<\/p>\n

Piastri explains where it all went wrong | 01:28<\/p>\n

MIXED REVIEWS ON NEW FORMULA AFTER FIRST RACE<\/p>\n

A record 483,985 people shuffled through the Albert Park gates to see the first weekend of Formula 1\u2019s new era.<\/p>\n

Certainly the Sunday crowd was treated to plenty of action, particularly in the first half of the race. Formula 1 reported 120 overtakes of the race, up from 45 last year.<\/p>\n

But reviews were mixed among the drivers, many of whom felt the push-to-pass battery-generated overtakes were artificial and random.<\/p>\n

\u201cI do care about it, I do love racing, and I want it to be better than this,\u201d said Verstappen who said he was at times two seconds a lap faster than cars just because of different states of charge or energy management. \u201cWe can only take so much.\u201d<\/p>\n

Norris said on Saturday that F1 has gone from the \u201cbest cars ever made\u201d to \u201cprobably the worst\u201d, and he doubled down on that position after the race.<\/p>\n

\u201cEven worse,\u201d said the reigning world champion. \u201cIt\u2019s just not as fun as last year.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s very artificial depending on what the power unit decides to do and randomly does at times.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou just get overtaken by five cars or you can just do nothing about it sometimes. It\u2019s not for me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Carlos Sainz described the straight-line mode \u2014 the active aerodynamics that reduce drag on the straights \u2014 was dangerous in race conditions but lamented that power units wouldn\u2019t have enough energy without it, describing it as a flawed formula.<\/p>\n

Leclerc was more cautious in his perspective.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt will definitely change the way we go about racing and overtaking,\u201d he said. \u201cBefore, it was more about who is the bravest at braking the latest. Maybe now there\u2019s a bit more of a strategic mind behind every move.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a different way to go about racing for sure.\u201d<\/p>\n

Russell has been a lone voice of approval this weekend \u2014 perhaps not surprising given he won the race from pole \u2014 but he urged some perspective among his peers.<\/p>\n

\u201cEveryone\u2019s very quick to criticise things,\u201d he said. \u201cWhen we\u2019ve had the \u2018best\u2019 cars and the least tyre degradation and when we\u2019ve been happiest, everyone moans the racing is rubbish.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow drivers aren\u2019t perfectly happy and everyone said it was an amazing race.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can\u2019t have it all, and I think we should just give it a chance and see after a few more races.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mercedes boss Wolff, though, cut through the noise by offering a different perspective.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe boost and the overtake modes made it actually quite interesting to watch \u2014 and on a track that is particularly difficult for energy,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t hear any one of the drivers speaking particularly good of the last cars, saying they were the best car. We tend to be very nostalgic looking at past events.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne perspective is the view of the drivers, which is an important perspective.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut Stefano [Demonicali, F1 CEO] would say that the single matrix that matters to him is whether the fans like it. That is what we need to look at.\u201d<\/p>\n

We haven\u2019t heard the end of this story.<\/p>\n

For now, though, it\u2019s over to you.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cYou guys weren\u2019t slow,\u201d George Russell insisted to Charles Leclerc in the podium green room after cruising to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":526854,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[186512,261499,12295,13273,1724,64,63,689,262052,131169,239108,4971,262049,262045,21752,43368,13275,512,262057,262053,262066,262063,21779,262040,9239,72812,262046,262042,3875,2105,841,14211,262059,49575,262067,262064,136763,194151,1737,262047,262056,262048,647,677,262062,262061,25586,16280,262054,262041,262051,28008,106488,25613,262043,262055,262050,49513,25598,85,262044,248296,36234,21784,43367,660,262065,262060,262058,2086],"class_list":{"0":"post-526853","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-active-aerodynamics","9":"tag-albert-park-grand","10":"tag-andrea-kimi-antonelli","11":"tag-andrea-stella","12":"tag-asia","13":"tag-au","14":"tag-australia","15":"tag-australia-and-new-zealand","16":"tag-australian-crowd","17":"tag-australian-grand","18":"tag-boost-button","19":"tag-carlos-sainz","20":"tag-cement-barriers","21":"tag-championship-calibre","22":"tag-championship-fight","23":"tag-championship-race","24":"tag-charles-leclerc","25":"tag-china","26":"tag-clear-air","27":"tag-comeback-tour","28":"tag-conscious-choice","29":"tag-cooling-track-temperature","30":"tag-drivers-championship","31":"tag-drivers-slam","32":"tag-eastern-asia","33":"tag-energy-management","34":"tag-familiar-feeling","35":"tag-fumbles-victory","36":"tag-george-russell","37":"tag-getty-images-inc","38":"tag-grand-prix","39":"tag-grands-prix","40":"tag-grid-crush","41":"tag-ground-effect-era","42":"tag-hearts-breaking","43":"tag-home-curse","44":"tag-home-heartbreak","45":"tag-home-hero","46":"tag-lando-norris","47":"tag-least-error-prone-season","48":"tag-least-tyre-degradation","49":"tag-love-racing","50":"tag-melbourne","51":"tag-oceania","52":"tag-opening-race","53":"tag-overtake-modes","54":"tag-pit-lane","55":"tag-pole-position","56":"tag-positive-takeaways","57":"tag-post-race-team","58":"tag-qualifying-deficit","59":"tag-quinn-rooney","60":"tag-race-conditions","61":"tag-race-start","62":"tag-race-vision","63":"tag-race-winner-george","64":"tag-radio-rage","65":"tag-reigning-world-champion","66":"tag-safety-car","67":"tag-sports","68":"tag-statement-opener","69":"tag-straight-line-mode","70":"tag-strategy-call","71":"tag-title-lead","72":"tag-title-table","73":"tag-victoria","74":"tag-victory-outsider","75":"tag-winner-george-russell","76":"tag-won-races","77":"tag-world-championship"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/526853","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=526853"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/526853\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/526854"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=526853"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=526853"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=526853"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}