{"id":916763,"date":"2026-10-05T08:28:24","date_gmt":"2026-10-05T08:28:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/916763\/"},"modified":"2026-10-05T08:28:24","modified_gmt":"2026-10-05T08:28:24","slug":"brave-lewis-hamilton-breaks-rank-at-ferrari-as-beaten-russell-sold-short","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/916763\/","title":{"rendered":"Brave Lewis Hamilton breaks rank at Ferrari as beaten Russell sold short"},"content":{"rendered":"

Red Bull<\/a> driver Max Verstappen<\/a> claimed his first win of the F1 2026 season at the Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia.<\/p>\n

Verstappen converted pole position to secure the first victory for a Red Bull Powertrains-Ford engine, with Kimi Antonelli second for Mercedes and Lewis Hamilton third for Ferrari. Here are our conclusions from Sepang\u2026<\/p>\n

Max Verstappen and Red Bull are quietly rising again<\/p>\n

Over the last few years, the various rumours about Max Verstappen\u2019s future have had an unfortunate side effect.<\/p>\n

Among all the breathless chatter about potential moves to Mercedes or McLaren, it has been easy to overlook the fact that Max\u2019s current team is not a bad place to be either.<\/p>\n

The commentary that Verstappen must get out before it all comes crashing down around him has \u2013 hands up \u2013 bordered on disrespectful to what, even after the high-profile departures of recent years, remains one helluva race team.<\/p>\n

Has he gone mad?<\/p>\n

That was the gist of the reaction when Verstappen signed a contract extension with Red Bull until the end of 2030 ahead of the Dutch Grand Prix in August.<\/p>\n

And it is true that Red Bull, with Max\u2019s right-hand man GianPiero Lambiase the next to leave, does not inspire the same cast-iron confidence it once did.<\/p>\n

Yet with Verstappen winning for the first time this season in Malaysia, and on the podium at six of the previous eight races, you can start to see his logic.<\/p>\n

There were some at the beginning of this year who feared that Red Bull would adopt what is now known as The Aston Martin-Honda Position in 2026, rooted to the rear of the field with a slow and unreliable engine and no easy way out.<\/p>\n

\"\"\/<\/p>\n

Speed Comparison between Verstappen and Antonelli<\/p>\n

\"\"\/<\/p>\n

Speed Comparison between Verstappen and Antonelli<\/p>\n

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Speed comparison between Verstappen and Hamilton<\/p>\n

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Speed comparison between Verstappen, Hamilton and Leclerc<\/p>\n

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Speed comparison between Verstappen and Hamilton<\/p>\n

Red Bull Powertrains\u2019 start as an engine manufacturer has been one of the great success stories of 2026, allowing Red Bull to retain its place among the leading teams with barely a stumble.<\/p>\n

A race victory \u2013 something many a blue-chip car manufacturer has failed to manage in F1 over the years \u2013 is the cherry on the top of its first season, further cementing Red Bull\u2019s unique place in the sport\u2019s history as the energy drink that took on the automotive giants and won.<\/p>\n

The really exciting thing?<\/p>\n

This year should \u2013 should \u2013 be the worst it gets for Red Bull.<\/p>\n

It just so happens that Red Bull\u2019s worst is still better than most \u2013 and comfortably enough to keep the McLarens and Ferraris of this world honest.<\/p>\n

With relatively simple gains to be made with the chassis \u2013 Verstappen spoke after qualifying of the weaknesses slowly being squeezed out of the car over the course of the season \u2013 suddenly a platform is being built to rise again in 2027.<\/p>\n

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Speed comparisons between Verstappen and Antonelli on lap 13<\/p>\n

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Laptimes scatterplot between Verstappen and Antonelli after safety car restart<\/p>\n

One of the great joys of motor racing is the sight of a great driver in an uncompetitive car, filling in the gaps with his talent where the car\/engine combination falls short.<\/p>\n

This has been the story of Verstappen\u2019s 2026: magicking results out of nowhere (recall his surprise at finishing second in Hungary) and regularly putting the most uncompetitive Red Bull of the last decade in places it does not belong.<\/p>\n

A driver can only do that for so long before the challenge starts to become a burden, before the team has to start stepping up too.<\/p>\n

Red Bull has tested Verstappen\u2019s patience in 2026.<\/p>\n

More so than ever before.<\/p>\n

But now that patience \u2013 that loyalty, that faith in the enduring quality of the team around him \u2013 is starting to see its rewards.<\/p>\n

Throw these godforsaken engines in the bin<\/p>\n

Much was made of the fact that there had been no wet session in 2026 prior to Malaysia.<\/p>\n

Turns out that it was a blessing.<\/p>\n

The farce on the formation lap, as numerous cars crept to a complete halt and the snake behind the safety car crumbled into several tiny pieces, was another triumph of the 2026 regulations.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s Formula 1, all right, but not as we know it.<\/p>\n

Still, at least now we know.<\/p>\n

After all the problems to have surfaced with these cars since the start of the season \u2013 battery overtakes, potentially lethal speed differentials, the greatest corners on Earth reduced to charging stations \u2013 now we know that they don\u2019t work in the rain either.<\/p>\n

\"\"\/<\/p>\n

The time spent off throttle behind the safety car confused the power units to such a degree<\/a> that some of them just withered and died.<\/p>\n

You may have caught a glimpse of the robot Olympics held in China a few weeks ago.<\/p>\n

A personal favourite was the boxing events in which the robo-fighters would attack with such wild abandon that, rather than landing a punch on its fellow AI bro, they would almost fall out of the ring themselves.<\/p>\n

Here was Ferrari tumbling out of the ring, except with a confused Lewis Hamilton on the controls.<\/p>\n

And look! There was Red Bull having a wobble, too, with a bewildered Max Verstappen at the wheel.<\/p>\n

How demeaning for drivers of such stature to be reduced to operators of malfunctioning machinery. What a pathetic look for the sport.<\/p>\n

These are not racing cars in the traditional, romantic sense of the term, but laboratory experiments imposed on a world that is not yet ready for them.<\/p>\n

More than that, a world that will never have the appetite for them.<\/p>\n

\"\"\/<\/p>\n

Everyone knows it.<\/p>\n

Everyone knows that these rules were an extraordinary act of self-harm.<\/p>\n

Everyone knows that these cars are more trouble than they are worth.<\/p>\n

Hence why, within a few races of 2026, the president of the FIA was openly floating the crowd-pleasing thought of a return to V8 engines for the next rules reset.<\/p>\n

As reported by PlanetF1.com at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix<\/a>, the first details of the new-look V8s \u2013 equipped with a turbo and minor electrification \u2013 have surfaced over recent weeks.<\/p>\n

Yet here\u2019s the catch: as it stands, the V8s will not arrive until 2030 at the earliest.<\/p>\n

\"\"\/<\/p>\n

Can Formula 1 afford to wait another three full years before it can correct the mistake of 2026?<\/p>\n

Can it afford to keep taking this sort of damage to its reputation?<\/p>\n

Or will something \u2013 people starting to switch off, perhaps, or one of those mushroom mode moments finally resulting in a very nasty accident \u2013 lead to a reckoning that forces the sport\u2019s hand and shortens that timeline?<\/p>\n

The day F1 returns to the simplicity of a good old-fashioned V8 cannot come soon enough.<\/p>\n

As for these things?<\/p>\n

Enough.<\/p>\n

Throw them all in the bin at the earliest convenience.<\/p>\n

Lewis Hamilton has finally got to the nub of the issue at Ferrari<\/p>\n

One of the great Malaysian Grand Prix moments occurred in 2009 when, in its infinite wisdom, Ferrari decided to put Kimi Raikkonen on wet tyres on a dry track<\/a>.<\/p>\n

So it seemed fitting as Formula 1 made its long-awaited return to Sepang that this time the team chose to do the opposite and select dry tyres for a wet track.<\/p>\n

Ferrari was not alone in making that mistake on Sunday, but it is the accumulation of such self-inflicted damage that has left Fred Vasseur under pressure.<\/p>\n

The whole thought process behind the appointment of Vasseur in 2022, following a season of disastrous Ferrari strategy calls under Mattia Binotto, was to bring some calm to the chaos.<\/p>\n

Fred was supposed to be, if nothing else, a great organiser.<\/p>\n

He was meant to have the authority and strength of personality to make some sense of the madness at Maranello and bend Ferrari into the logical, well-drilled race team you would ordinarily find in blue or silver.<\/p>\n

That Ferrari is still falling into these traps four years later does not say a great deal for the team\u2019s trajectory under him.<\/p>\n

Did Italy ever really forgive Vasseur for Ferrari\u2019s winless 2025?<\/p>\n

Often last year it seemed that those around Ferrari \u2013 if not necessarily the team itself \u2013 had already moved on from him emotionally, a perilous position for any manager or coach in sport to find himself.<\/p>\n

As noted in PlanetF1.com\u2019s conclusions from Monaco<\/a>, you could never quite escape the suspicion that the resentment of 2025 was merely lying dormant, waiting to resurface the next time things started to go wrong.<\/p>\n

\"\"\/<\/p>\n

McLaren boss Andrea Stella was linked with a return to Ferrari earlier this season<\/p>\n

Lewis Hamilton recovered impressively to the podium on Sunday but, not for the first time over recent months, crossed the finish line wondering what might have been possible if only Ferrari had made the right decisions.<\/p>\n

His most interesting contribution to Ferrari\u2019s weekend came on Thursday, when he openly questioned those above Vasseur \u2013 a brave move, considering his long-term friendship with John Elkann, the Ferrari chairman.<\/p>\n

After weeks of aimless, incoherent whining<\/a> about what is wrong with Ferrari, this was Hamilton finally getting to the nub of the issue.<\/p>\n

\"\"\/<\/p>\n

The most effective F1 teams operate more like oversized Formula 3 teams, focused on the fundamentals of racing and operating almost totally independently of the major corporations to which they are attached.<\/p>\n

See, for instance, how Christian Horner was afforded total control by Dietrich Mateschitz to run Red Bull however he saw fit.<\/p>\n

Or how Toto Wolff, as a one-third shareholder, keeps the Mercedes team at arm\u2019s length from the Mercedes-Benz Group (formerly Daimler).<\/p>\n

It is this \u2013 limiting interference from above \u2013 that creates the platform for these teams to succeed, a lesson Ferrari is yet to learn after all these years.<\/p>\n

Unless Vasseur\u2019s eventual successor \u2013 be it Horner or Antonello Coletta, currently the head of Ferrari\u2019s successful WEC project \u2013 is granted that kind of total control, only the names will change.<\/p>\n

Ferrari will continue to change team principals as often as the rest of us switch lightbulbs.<\/p>\n

George Russell still has a title in him, but has sold himself short in 2026<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s rewind a few years.<\/p>\n

If someone had asked in 2023\/24 which driver would be more likely to become world champion, who would you have said: George Russell or Lando Norris?<\/p>\n

Sure, by that stage Lando had established himself as a consistent frontrunner, had finally managed to get a maiden victory over the line and probably had the slightly higher talent ceiling of the two.<\/p>\n

But George?<\/p>\n

George was already winning races \u2013 winning races well \u2013 and was about to inherit Lewis Hamilton\u2019s kingdom at Mercedes.<\/p>\n

His route to the top seemed considerably clearer.<\/p>\n

More than that, though, Russell had the inner confidence \u2013 the certainty \u2013 so obviously absent in Norris.<\/p>\n

If there was little faith that Norris would take the chances presented to him, Russell had the born-to-the-manor belief of a future world champion, leaving little doubt that he would be ready when the moment arrived.<\/p>\n

Strange how things work out, eh?<\/p>\n

\"\"\/<\/p>\n

While 2026 has seen Norris shining in the afterglow of his maiden world championship, reaching ever-greater heights in The Year After The Year<\/a>, those old vulnerabilities are now present and incorrect in Russell.<\/p>\n

All year long he has carried the air of a driver reeling from a challenge he did not expect, shaken by Kimi Antonelli shining a light on limitations that before now had largely been kept concealed.<\/p>\n

His retirement in Malaysia, leaving him 84 points behind Kimi Antonelli with a maximum of seven races remaining, will only hasten the inevitability of defeat in this year\u2019s world championship.<\/p>\n

Russell was convincing when he spoke after his victory in Azerbaijan last week<\/a> about finally turning a corner with the Mercedes after working at it and adjusting his driving style.<\/p>\n

His performance at Sepang, on the kind of low-grip surface where his problems were first exposed back in Miami, revealed his comments in Baku to be hollow.<\/p>\n

\"\"\/<\/p>\n

Take qualifying where, even when running out of sync after an earlier mistake, Antonelli\u2019s single Q3 lap on a dirtier track still put him four places higher on the grid than Russell.<\/p>\n

That was a damning defeat in a session in which everything had become stacked in Russell\u2019s favour.<\/p>\n

Note also how quickly Antonelli managed to pass a defenceless Russell once the drivers switched to dry tyres, Kimi\u2019s more supple inputs once again giving him the advantage with tyre management.<\/p>\n

These were both clear signs that, for all his post-Baku bluster, Russell is still a beaten man, scrabbling around to climb out of the hole in which he finds himself.<\/p>\n

The root cause lies not with the car, but with Russell\u2019s more abrupt technique putting too much energy through the tyres<\/a> compared to Antonelli.<\/p>\n

He will remain the second Mercedes driver until this intrinsic stylistic difference between them hits home and he adapts.<\/p>\n

If he does \u2013 and there is no doubt that he is smart enough to absorb and apply the lessons of this season \u2013 there is still hope for him.<\/p>\n

There is a trend in modern sport to write people off on the basis of a relatively small sample of evidence, ignoring the fact that athletes evolve and develop and grow all the time.<\/p>\n

The transformation of Norris, once the walking definition of fragility and weakness, into one of Formula 1\u2019s most accomplished drivers stands as Exhibit A.<\/p>\n

Losing out this season will not necessarily mean that George will never become world champion or is somehow lacking whatever it is that is required to win.<\/p>\n

Russell still has a title in him, but he has sold himself short in 2026.<\/p>\n

He can only hope that this does not prove to be his one and only shot.<\/p>\n

Sepang deserves a permanent place on the F1 calendar again<\/p>\n

There was a culture shock when Formula 1 returned to China in 2024.<\/p>\n

After the early years in Shanghai took place against the backdrop of empty grandstands, F1 returned after the pandemic to find that it now actually had a fanbase in China.<\/p>\n

The locals were now familiar with the drivers and, in Guanyu Zhou, memorably moved to tears during the post-race celebrations, even had one of their own to root for too.<\/p>\n

Evidently, the days of 2015, when one of the few spectators ran across the track during a live practice session and scaled the pit wall to ask one of the teams if he could have a go, were long gone.<\/p>\n

On the evidence of this weekend, the Liberty effect has taken hold during F1\u2019s absence from Malaysia too.<\/p>\n

Clearly the best of the modern supercircuits to have arrived on the calendar over the last quarter of a century, Sepang now has the energy and atmosphere to go with it too.<\/p>\n

Conclusions recap: How the F1 2026 season has unfolded<\/p>\n

Azerbaijan GP conclusions: Russell back in the game, Colapinto ban demand, untelevised Hamilton radio<\/a><\/p>\n

Spanish GP conclusions: Imaginary Hamilton challenge over, Norris joins elite, soulless Madring<\/a><\/p>\n

It is exceptionally rare, even in these post-V8 times, for the crowd noise to be audible above the sound of 22 engines.<\/p>\n

Yet more than once over the course of this race, the reaction of the crowd drew attention to incidents before they appeared on the screen.<\/p>\n

Now Malaysia has its foot in the door again, hitting all the right notes, Formula 1 should think twice about discarding that sort of passion.<\/p>\n

George Russell, one of several drivers never to have raced in Malaysia prior to 2026, spoke for everyone in Friday practice when he said over team radio: \u201cThis track is very cool.\u201d<\/p>\n

After a dispiriting weekend at the anything-but-Madring three weeks ago<\/a>, coming after the regrettable loss of Zandvoort, this weekend was good for the soul.<\/p>\n

So here\u2019s a thought.<\/p>\n

Now that Formula 1 has shown that it is willing to completely ignore the concept of geography by holding the Bahrain Grand Prix in a different country, how about moving the Madrid Grand Prix to Sepang?<\/p>\n

Few, surely, would say no to that\u2026<\/p>\n

Want to be the first to know exclusive information from the F1 paddock? Join our broadcast channel on WhatsApp<\/a> to get the scoop on the latest developments from our team of accredited journalists.<\/p>\n

You can also subscribe to the PlanetF1 YouTube channel<\/a> for exclusive features, hear from our paddock journalists with stories from the heart of Formula 1 and much more!<\/p>\n

Read next: How Lewis Hamilton pulled off incredible Bahrain GP recovery<\/a><\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Red Bull driver Max Verstappen claimed his first win of the F1 2026 season at the Bahrain Grand…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":916764,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[573],"tags":[64,63,197169,159654,817,3874,826,813,816,3875,818,825,945,918,85],"class_list":["post-916763","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-formula-1","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-bahrain-grand-prix","tag-conclusions","tag-f1","tag-f1-features","tag-ferrari","tag-formula-1","tag-formula1","tag-george-russell","tag-home-page","tag-max-verstappen","tag-mercedes","tag-red-bull","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/916763","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=916763"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/916763\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/916764"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=916763"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=916763"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=916763"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}