Posted on 03/05/2026 12:09:14 PM PST by Carriage Hill
Circuit: Albert Park First Grand Prix: 1996, Number of Laps: 58, Circuit Length: 3.295 km, Race Distance: 306.124 km, Lap Record: 1:19.813 Charles Leclerc (2024)
“We’ve come from the best cars ever made in Formula 1, and the nicest to drive, to probably the worst. It sucks, but you have to live with it and just maximise what you get given."
The biggest issue for drivers has been managing the 50/50 split between electric and combustion power which according to Norris, forces drivers into excessive lifting and coasting while constantly monitoring energy levels rather than simply pushing the car.
“I think everyone knows what the issues are,” he said.
“It’s just the fact it’s a 50/50 split and it just doesn’t work. Straightline mode means you’ve got a lot of other issues at hand. You decelerate so much before corners, you have to lift everywhere to make sure the [battery] pack’s at the top. If the pack’s too high, you’re also screwed. It’s just difficult, but it’s what we have.
“It doesn’t feel good as a driver.”
Not a ringing endorsement, and representative of other concerns about the new design logic.
Piastri is out! Crash in Turn 4 during reconnaissance lap leaving pit road toward the finish line. Happened about 22.30 EST. Start at 23.00 EST. Apple will not allow CBS Sports (host broadcaster 10 Sport in Australia) to post F1 coverage on their US sites, only on Australian sites.
Soeedcafe monitors CBS Sports broadcast (10 Sport) and Lawrence Stroll says both AM’s will start and hope both cars will run 58 laps.
No rain.
Hulkenberg stalls on the way to the grid. We could have a field of 20.
| Pos. | No. | Driver | Team | Laps | Time / Retired | Pts. |
| 1 | 63 | George Russell | Mercedes | 58 | 1:23:06.801 | 25 |
| 2 | 12 | Kimi Antonelli | Mercedes | 58 | +2.974s | 18 |
| 3 | 16 | Charles Leclerc | Ferrari | 58 | +15.519s | 15 |
| 4 | 44 | Lewis Hamilton | Ferrari | 58 | +16.144s | 12 |
| 5 | 1 | Lando Norris | McLaren | 58 | +51.741s | 10 |
| 6 | 3 | Max Verstappen | Red Bull Racing | 58 | +54.617s | 8 |
| 7 | 87 | Oliver Bearman | Haas F1 Team | 57 | +1 lap | 6 |
| 8 | 41 | Arvid Lindblad | Racing Bulls | 57 | +1 lap | 4 |
| 9 | 5 | Gabriel Bortoleto | Audi | 57 | +1 lap | 2 |
| 10 | 10 | Pierre Gasly | Alpine | 57 | +1 lap | 1 |
| 11 | 31 | Esteban Ocon | Haas F1 Team | 57 | +1 lap | 0 |
| 12 | 23 | Alexander Albon | Williams | 57 | +1 lap | 0 |
| 13 | 30 | Liam Lawson | Racing Bulls | 57 | +1 lap | 0 |
| 14 | 43 | Franco Colapinto | Alpine | 56 | +2 laps | 0 |
| 15 | 55 | Carlos Sainz | Williams | 56 | +2 laps | 0 |
| 16 | 11 | Sergio Perez | Cadillac | 55 | +3 laps | 0 |
| 17 | 18 | Lance Stroll | Aston Martin | 43 | +15 laps | 0 |
| 18 | 14 | Fernando Alonso | Aston Martin | 21 | Parked | 0 |
| 19 | 77 | Valtteri Bottas | Cadillac | 15 | Engine | 0 |
| 20 | 6 | Isack Hadjar | Red Bull Racing | 10 | Engine | 0 |
| DNS | 81 | Oscar Piastri | McLaren | 0 | Crash T4 Recon. Lap | 0 |
| DNS | 27 | Nico Hulkenberg | Audi | 0 | Stalled on Formation Lap | 0 |
Thank you for all of these posts, they are very informative to say (write) the least!
Mercedes comes out of the gate strong.
Sad Lewis Hamilton is not on the team but he got distracted by a lot of non-racing things, and think it affected him, so time for a change. Glad to see he had a strong finish.
In Australia, the problems with the new regulations were obvious. But how will the FIA and Formula 1 solve them?
Formula 1's bold leap into the future has thrown up more questions than answers following the season-opening Australian Grand Prix, which exposed the fundamental flaws in the 2026 regulations.
The Albert Park circuit became a showcase of everything wrong with the new hybrid formula. Cars crawled to 60 kilometres per hour on the straight between Turns 8 and 9 as batteries drained at alarming rates. Energy management, not pure speed, dictated lap times in a contradiction of what F1 represents.
Onboard footage revealed drivers lifting off when they should be attacking, transforming qualifying laps from adrenaline-fuelled sprints into calculated energy-saving exercises. The racing equivalent of Sunday driving had invaded motorsport's pinnacle.
On the grid, Liam Lawson's Racing Bulls nearly ground to a halt at the start as the turbo system failed to deliver the required punch. Only Franco Colapinto's lightning reflexes prevented a catastrophic collision.
Post-race, Lando Norris warned that serious crashes could occur in future, given the considerable speed differences, whilst the majority of the 130 overtakes were artificial rather than genuine racing battles.
The FIA now faces a difficult equation. There have been discussions on superclipping modifications, allowing cars to brake at full throttle to recharge batteries more efficiently.
Some teams advocate raising energy recovery limits to enable drivers to push harder, but this solution carries a severe cost, as lap times would plummet by several seconds.
Alternatively, limiting the battery's influence presents equally unpalatable consequences. The 50-50 engine concept cannot be overhauled overnight, meaning further changes to the cars would have to be made.
Formula 1 finds itself imprisoned by its own ambitions. These regulations lured manufacturers into the championship with promises of road-relevant technology and sustainable racing. Abandoning the formula after one season would surely trigger an exodus, potentially destroying years of investment and development.
The sport then faces a major challenge. Every proposed solution would likely create a new problem, while maintaining the status quo could erode F1's fundamental appeal.
With teams deep into 2026 development programmes and manufacturers committed to long-term strategies, F1 must somehow thread the needle between technological advancement and pure racing spectacle.
The window for major changes is rapidly closing, yet the current direction threatens to alienate the fans the sport has spent the past few years luring in.
Not a good race. And I’m not holding my breath that they’ll get it fixed, either.
IndyCar, NASCAR, and sprint car racing all use alcohol in one form or another for racing fuel. IndyCar has a mild hybrid (not with battery).
The alcohol racing formula has been for safer cars since the 1964 Indy 500.
Mixing Formula One with Formula E and putting it on ultra elite television in the States when David Ellison was watching in Australia from his television network that holds rights to that race. The series has become such a joke and we see why. When the viewership numbers crater here, you wonder what they hath wrought. It was Pelosi and then Obama that wanted such nightmares on our street vehicles.
HAM is probably fuming like Sean Payton (his NFL coach).
LOOKING HEAD: Shanghai is Thursday with the Heineken Chinese Grand Prix. Porsche Carrera Cup, SRO Greater Bay Area GT3, and F1 Academy (F4 women’s championship) are the support races. No F2 or F3.
Theoretically, F1 could also move the shutdown in August to April during the month without any races and add two European races. Portugal (which has a 2027 contract) could be added.
THURSDAY
2020-2045: SRO Greater Bay Area GT CUP FP1
2110-2150: F1 Academy FP1
2330-0030: F1 FP1
FRIDAY
0055-0140: Porsche Carrera Cup Asia FP1
0205-0235: F1A Qualifying. Top eight inverted for Race 1.
0330: F1 Race 1 Qualifying
0500-0525: SRO GT Cup FP2
2015-2040: SRO GT Cup Qualifying
2110-2140: Porsche Carrera Cup Asia Qualifying
2300-0000: F1 Race 1 (19 laps with a 60 minute time limit)
SATURDAY
0025-0100: SRO GT Cup Race 1 (30 minutes and one lap)
0145-0220: F1 Academy Race 1 (13 laps with a 30 minute time limit)
0300-0400: F1 Qualifying
0455-0530: Porsche Carrera Cup Asia (13 laps with a 30 minute time limit)
2110-2145: SRO GT Cup Race 2 (30 minutes and one lap)
2240-2315: F1 Academy Race 2 (13 laps with a 30 minute time limit)
2355-0030: Porsche Carrera Cup Asia (13 laps with a 30 minute time limit)
SATURDAY
0300: F1 Heineken Grand Prix (56 laps with a 120 minute time limit)
Six cars were "unclassified" but only four of them were on the start grid.
" If 16 cars finish this race, I'd bet a sack full of Double White Castles with cheese that at least a third of them will not be on the same lap as the winner. "
There were sixteen "classified" cars but only six were on the lead lap, which means 62% of finishers were down at least one lap (boy howdy, was I sandbagging!).
Two cars were two laps down and Checo [Cadillac] was three laps down.
Only six out of 22 finished on the winner's lap. Even wunderkind Ollie Bearman was a lap down.
Not exactly F1's brightest day.
Six cars were "unclassified" but only four of them were on the start grid. So four DNFs combined with two DNSs = six unclassified.
"If 16 cars finish this race, I'd bet a sack full of Double White Castles with cheese that at least a third of them will not be on the same lap as the winner."
There were sixteen "classified" cars but only six were on the lead lap, which means 62% of finishers were down at least one lap (boy howdy, was I sandbagging!).
Two cars were two laps down and Checo [Cadillac] was three laps down.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.