{"id":529513,"date":"2026-03-09T20:27:10","date_gmt":"2026-03-09T20:27:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/529513\/"},"modified":"2026-03-09T20:27:10","modified_gmt":"2026-03-09T20:27:10","slug":"new-regulations-power-unit-manufacturers-oscar-piastri-scrash-ferraris-trajectory-arvid-lindblad-racing-bulls-isack-hadjar","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/529513\/","title":{"rendered":"new regulations, power unit manufacturers, Oscar Piastri scrash, Ferrari\u2019s trajectory, Arvid Lindblad, Racing Bulls, Isack Hadjar"},"content":{"rendered":"

The 2026 Formula 1 season got underway with the Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne<\/a>, where the sport\u2019s all-new rules were put through their paces for the first time.<\/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

After months of rumour, speculation and innuendo, we finally got a glimpse of the true state of the sport \u2014 the good and the bad.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Albert Park was always going to be a fascinating weekend regardless of on-track events given the sheet quantity of unknowns.<\/p>\n

In the aftermath of the race, Pit Talk podcast hosts Michael Lamonato and Matt Clayton sat down to reflect on some of the biggest lessons of the weekend.<\/p>\n

LESSON 1: THE NEW RULES AREN\u2019T (ALL) BAD<\/p>\n

The 2026 regulations drew extremely mixed criticism from the drivers, though there appeared to be a correlation between level of unhappiness and level of competitiveness. For example, winner George Russell seemed fine with the rules, whereas defending champion Lando Norris, who finished a minute off the pace and nowhere near the podium, is very much against them.<\/p>\n

PIT TALK PODCAST: The 2026 Formula 1 season is underway, with George Russell leading a Mercedes one-two to victory in Melbourne. But not every driver was thrilled with their first experience of the new rules.<\/p>\n

Lamonato said it was too early to be definitive about the regulations given the teams rated the Albert Park layout as among the four most difficult circuits for the power unit, but he didn\u2019t agree with Norris\u2019s description of the racing being \u2018artificial\u2019.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not convinced what we\u2019re seeing is any worse than a driver getting DRS, pressing the button, breezing past before the braking zone and just overtaking,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou have to use something to make your overtake. You\u2019ve got that battery charge. You\u2019ve got to get the overtake done. If you don\u2019t, then you\u2019re vulnerable to the guy behind.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe other driver can also fight back, which I like, whereas with DRS, if you\u2019re leading by a second and you\u2019re at the wrong track where the DRS is too effective, you have no hope.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m willing to give the benefit of the doubt and say it could in an overall sense, when we get to the end of the season, could be a positive difference on Sundays.\u201d<\/p>\n

Clayton was pessimistic about the regulations after qualifying, when the need to manage electrical power meant drivers were far from the limit of grip that usually dictates the single-lap spectacle.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe actual spectacle of qualifying was so unedifying,\u201d he said. \u201cThe signature turn there, and it has been for years, is the turn 9-10 chicane. It\u2019s one of the highlights of that circuit.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat sequence of corners was always an absolute highlight on the calendar every time Formula 1 came to Australia, and the cars just looked, frankly, a bit pathetic through there. They were so much slower than they had been previously. You knew the drivers weren\u2019t pushing. The challenge wasn\u2019t there.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy pessimism about things wasn\u2019t helped by Saturday.\u201d<\/p>\n

‘That guy f****** sucks!’ | 00:26<\/p>\n

LESSON 2: WORKS TEAMS ARE IN CONTROL<\/p>\n

The Mercedes and Ferrari works teams were in a class of their own on Sunday, and the only third party to their battle was Red Bull Racing, which this season is also a works constructor.<\/p>\n

McLaren, meanwhile, has been left to wonder how much it\u2019s missing out on for having to buy its motor from Mercedes and develop an understanding of it on the fly.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe value of being a full works team is higher than perhaps I would have thought,\u201d Clayton said. \u201cI think these engines are just so different and so new that if you are a works team, you are starting so much more on the front foot than a customer team.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you do a bit of a deep dive into where the deficit was between George Russell and pole and where the McLarens were in fifth and sixth with Piastri and Norris, it was mostly about how Mercedes deployed what it had and perhaps McLaren searching a little bit to try and find the ideal way to do that.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wouldn\u2019t go as far as saying that McLaren\u2019s got a turkey of a chassis and they\u2019re going to be no good. I don\u2019t think that\u2019s going to be the case.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut wasn\u2019t it interesting that the customer teams felt like they were on their back foot and had more to learn simply because they just don\u2019t have the laps and the hours and the miles in these machines that the works teams do.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lamonato noted that Mercedes\u2019s customer teams all felt on the back foot at the first round of the season.<\/p>\n

\u201cBoth James Vowles and Andreas Stella, the Williams and McLaren bosses respectively, both suggested in different ways that they\u2019re not getting as much information as they would have liked from Mercedes,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s so much in the software or the inputs in the software about understanding how the engine works that does make a difference, and so the works team is suddenly not going to give you all of that.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s almost like a muscle that\u2019s never had to be flexed, because the engine is now a different kind of performance part because it\u2019s just so all-encompassing.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you have a little bit more combustion power, it means you can roll off a little bit earlier into the corners, which means you charge your battery a bit more, which means you\u2019ve got a bit more electrical power at the start of the straight, which means your car is faster by the time you get to the corner, which means you can roll off even more. It\u2019s a virtual cycle.<\/p>\n

\u201cThen if you have efficient aerodynamics \u2014 which Mercedes clearly also has; there is a car effect here, not just an engine effect \u2014 it all just compounds and suddenly you look pretty dominant.\u201d<\/p>\n

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

LESSON 3: FERRARI IS ON THE RIGHT TRACK<\/p>\n

Leclerc\u2019s blistering race start got him into the lead at the first turn, from where he held off the faster Mercedes of George Russell until a strategy error cost the Ferrari star a shot at victory.<\/p>\n

It was nonetheless a hopeful performance, with the scarlet cars never far adrift of the silver ones \u2014 enough that Lamonato thought the team could be optimistic it\u2019s on the right track.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn race conditions it\u2019s clear that Mercedes was the quicker car, but not by that much,\u201d he said. \u201cI actually think Ferrari is in the ballpark.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs we go to some different tracks, characteristics are going to play to different cars.<\/p>\n

\u201cParticularly when we go to more street-style tracks or tracks just with more corners, that Ferrari engine is so good out of the corners thanks to that small turbo.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think Ferrari \u2014 with a little bit of a development push as well because so much of this season is going to be about development \u2014 can say that they\u2019re in the mix.\u201d<\/p>\n

Clayton joked that the car has become so low for Ferrari, though he too saw reason for optimism for F1\u2019s oldest team.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is where we\u2019ve got to with Ferrari \u2014 we go, \u2018It\u2019s not as bad as we thought!\u2019 as opposed to just giving them actual praise,\u201d he said. \u201cLess bad, so that\u2019s all good.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the fact that Ferrari made [Mercedes] work for and perhaps exceeded our expectations is a good sign for what\u2019s to come.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s really good for the narrative of the season, because we know there\u2019s no issue there in terms of the driver quality.\u201d<\/p>\n

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

LESSON 4: ARVID LINDBLAD HAS MADE A GOOD FIRST IMPRESSION<\/p>\n

The 2026 season features only one rookie driver: Arvid Lindblad at Racing Bulls, where he partners Liam Lawson for the Red Bull development team.<\/p>\n

Lindblad was much hyped by Red Bull last year but had a muted Formula 2 campaign comprising a single feature race victory and sixth in the standings. He was elevated unilaterally by former Red Bull adviser Helmut Marko before the Austrian left the brand.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wasn\u2019t 100 per cent convinced about Arvid Lindblad, I\u2019ve got to be honest,\u201d Clayton said. \u201cIt wasn\u2019t necessarily because I thought he wasn\u2019t worthy of being in Formula 1, but sometimes you see these guys in F2 and there\u2019s something there, but it\u2019s not super consistent.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut he was incredibly impressive with what he did on track. He was also incredibly impressive with just how he handled the entire thing.<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought Lindblad was incredibly impressive given the complexity of driving these cars. Yes, a track that he\u2019d been on in F2 before, but still, it\u2019s a completely different challenge. I wasn\u2019t expecting him to be terrible by any means, but he was really, really quite impressive given the stakes, his age and his experience \u2014 and that car looked halfway decent.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lindblad qualified ninth and finished eighth to score points on debut, leaving Lamonato similarly converted by the British rookie\u2019s composure.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was a little bit sceptical, and I thought actually that meant there was a bit of pressure on him to prove his elevation, but on the evidence of the first weekend, he\u2019s doing very well,\u201d he said. \u201cWe are missing that comparison with Lawson a little bit this weekend \u2014 he was outqualified by Lawson, but not by much.<\/p>\n

\u201cLawson will be a good bar \u2014 he\u2019s a tough racer and he\u2019s pretty quick as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

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

LESSON 5: RED BULL RACING FINALLY HAS A FULLY FORMED DRIVER LINE-UP<\/p>\n

Isack Hadjar stepped into Formula 1\u2019s ejector seat as Max Verstappen\u2019s teammate this season after his three predecessors flopped in the role.<\/p>\n

In just his second season in Formula 1, he readiness to step into the Red Bull Racing meat grinder was a major talking point ahead of the season.<\/p>\n

But the Frenchman led the way in Melbourne, qualifying on the second row after Verstappen crashed out of Q1, and he would likely have finished fifth had his engine not expired early in the race.<\/p>\n

\u201cIsack Hadjar from the beginning over the weekend looked like he had a good handle on the car,\u201d said Lamonato.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is important to say not just in the context of the previous three teammates in the last 25 weekends that Max Verstappen had \u2014 three previous occupants of that car struggling.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe shouldn\u2019t forget what Red Bull Racing is doing there, which is supporting Max Verstappen at all cost, and the reason they have a second driver \u2014 yes, they are obliged to under the rules \u2014 is they just want someone there to pick up the pieces that Max might very occasionally drop.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis weekend he dropped a lot of pieces. He crashed, and Isack Hadjar did what probably the maximum by qualifying that car in the second row.\u201d<\/p>\n

Clayton said it was clear Hadjar had the right temperament to make the move a success.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can\u2019t say I\u2019m super surprised with him, because something I really enjoy about him is that he is his own harshest critic. He holds himself incredibly accountable.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve felt that for the previous occupants of that seat it seemed to be something or somebody else\u2019s fault most of the time.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think that Isack will probably beat himself up a fair bit when things are his fault and probably also when they\u2019re not.<\/p>\n

\u201cReally good sign for him, and Red Bull might have two competent drivers in its car.\u201d<\/p>\n

‘That will hurt him for a while’ | 01:03<\/p>\n

LESSON 6: OSCAR PIASTRI HAS TO DO IT THE HARD WAY AGAIN<\/p>\n

Lamonato and Clayton couldn\u2019t stay away from Oscar Piastri\u2019s disastrous reconnaissance lap crash that put him out of the race before he\u2019d even made it to the grid.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s the second season in a row Piastri has walked away from his home race having been heavily outscored by the championship leaders \u2014 last year he trailed Norris by 23 points after Melbourne; this year he\u2019s 25 points adrift of title leader Russell.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s remarkable, isn\u2019t it?\u201d Lamonato said. \u201cMuch like last year, he\u2019s going to start round 2 with practically no points. Last year it was two points. This year it\u2019s zero points.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe lesson may be that he\u2019s got to dig deep again.<\/p>\n

\u201cLast year he took the lead after the fifth round in Saudi Arabia, so it took him four weekends to overhaul that 23-point deficit. It\u2019s obviously a very different context this year, but funny that he should be engaging in the exact same sort of comeback two years in a row.\u201d<\/p>\n

Clayton cautioned that it wasn\u2019t yet clear whether McLaren would have the pace in the opening months of the season to reel in that sort of deficit.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe difference for me this time is that last year McLaren were in a comfortable one-two and were clearly the class of the field \u2026 it was pretty clear they had a significant advantage,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe can\u2019t say that about McLaren right now.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was the better of the two McLaren drivers the entire weekend until we got to race day. He was faster in every single practice session and all the elements are qualifying, and he qualified higher on the grid.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not all doom and gloom, but of all the races to that in, given the expectation and the build-up\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

You can subscribe to Pit Talk wherever you get your podcasts.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The 2026 Formula 1 season got underway with the Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne, where the sport\u2019s all-new…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":529514,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[573],"tags":[14212,1724,64,63,689,22761,248285,263096,263091,143987,183303,262498,263097,259948,263095,179004,263089,229832,240809,817,263093,813,816,3875,4405,84708,263088,21764,1737,22298,16268,825,117781,647,677,225380,262062,2119,28096,262043,107266,142614,14640,263090,2072,263092,263094,21741,85,262044,183320,18394,18251,660,12000,223969,16198,254584],"class_list":{"0":"post-529513","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-formula-1","8":"tag-arvid-lindblad","9":"tag-asia","10":"tag-au","11":"tag-australia","12":"tag-australia-and-new-zealand","13":"tag-back-foot","14":"tag-battery-charge","15":"tag-bittersweet-australian","16":"tag-blistering-race-start","17":"tag-braking-zone","18":"tag-championship-leaders","19":"tag-combustion-power","20":"tag-comfortable-one-two","21":"tag-customer-teams","22":"tag-development-push","23":"tag-development-team","24":"tag-driver-quality","25":"tag-electrical-power","26":"tag-engine-works","27":"tag-f1","28":"tag-formed-driver-line-up","29":"tag-formula-1","30":"tag-formula1","31":"tag-george-russell","32":"tag-helmut-marko","33":"tag-home-race","34":"tag-hopeful-performance","35":"tag-james-vowles","36":"tag-lando-norris","37":"tag-martin-brundle","38":"tag-matt-clayton","39":"tag-max-verstappen","40":"tag-meat-grinder","41":"tag-melbourne","42":"tag-oceania","43":"tag-opening-grand-prix","44":"tag-opening-race","45":"tag-pit-talk","46":"tag-positive-difference","47":"tag-race-vision","48":"tag-right-track","49":"tag-rookie-driver","50":"tag-saudi-arabia","51":"tag-season-features","52":"tag-sergio-perez","53":"tag-sheet-quantity","54":"tag-signature-turn","55":"tag-single-practice-session","56":"tag-sports","57":"tag-statement-opener","58":"tag-strategy-error","59":"tag-talking-point","60":"tag-title-leader","61":"tag-victoria","62":"tag-western-asia","63":"tag-works-constructor","64":"tag-works-team","65":"tag-works-teams"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/529513","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=529513"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/529513\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/529514"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=529513"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=529513"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=529513"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}