It was a wild, unpredictable, and occasionally scary adventure in Melbourne for the first Grand Prix of this new era of cars. I enjoyed it and there were so many stories to tell.

Despite three largely successful pre-season tests, it's clear that teams and drivers alike remain at the bottom of a steep learning curve as to how to generate and maintain lap speed and consistency, especially given the complexities of the combined electrical and engine propulsion now available, and not least how to recharge a relatively small battery on the fly.

In the right places the cars look a real challenge to master, which I find enjoyable to watch as the drivers grapple with them on corner exits. But despite being a 100-per-cent dry event in Melbourne, we saw three big and difficult-to-understand crashes for Kimi Antonelli, Max Verstappen and Oscar Piastri.

I can imagine that having significantly variable braking zone arrival speeds can be infuriating at the wheel: being flat out in some corners, but at heavily-reduced speed on arrival into others while actually still full throttle - but leaving the recharging systems to slow the car.

Along with yet-to-be-fully-refined braking systems and aerodynamics, this can - and is - being considered a step too far by the increasingly vociferous drivers.

I grimace at the thought of controlling these cars on a wet day at - say - Monaco, or a Safety Car restart on a damp cold track on slicks. The power delivery is clearly too unsophisticated and unpredictable right now, but it will improve quickly with some proactive mind sets.

Might of F1 teams will help smooth out product

The last iteration of hybrid power units had been around since 2014, and the 'ground effect' high downforce aerodynamics since 2022, and so drivers had become used to very refined machines which relentlessly stuck to the road. They were brutally fast and the downforce squashed minor errors, but if anybody on the grid can take hitherto-frightening corners easily flat out, then there is no differentiator between the great and the merely very good.

The current raw product will take some smoothing out, but the might and resource of the F1 teams will prevail. But many of us knew these regulations were partially flawed some years ago when announced. To triple the output of the kinetic electrical motor (MGU-K) and yet remove the very efficient generator from the turbocharger (MGU-H) was always going to make it difficult to harvest enough battery juice, especially on high speed and minimal braking circuits like Melbourne.

Some Le Mans cars collect electrical energy from the front wheels too, called front-axle regen, but we don't have that in F1 as the weight and packaging would be a compromise.

Those decisions years ago were made to satisfy some manufacturers who wanted to enter, or remain, in F1. Something approaching 50/50 battery/engine at maximum power and sustainable fuels with road-relevant technology very much appealed to them. I'm told that MGU-Hs are not road-relevant.

But what we've ended up with is a car which can largely deplete all of its battery capacity in one decent straight. And a nasty knock-on effect of losing that turbo MGU-H is that standing starts have become extremely difficult to consistently deliver, and some cars are not getting off the line at all well, which is dangerous.

Show and sport must take priority

I enjoyed the Melbourne race, the opening 11 laps were very dynamic and it appeared that a well-managed battery deployment could get a car into an overtake position but the driver then had to finish the job off into the corner. The punch and counter-punch of Russell vs Leclerc was entertaining.

They were all learning literally lap by lap, but what frustrates the drivers is that they can be overly slow in - say - Turn Four by being late on the power, but that lost lap time was easily recovered and improved upon later in the lap because of more battery charge.

In other words, what appears as a costly mistake turns into an overall advantage down the next straight. And so they'd try to replicate elements of that.

I can fully understand their frustrations at that counterintuitive variability, along with the golden opportunities to make big mistakes and smash up their cars and look silly.

It has always been made clear by the FIA that they would adjust the parameters if and when required, and that unquestionably needs to happen once we have more clarity from a couple more circuits.

I know there are several suggestions from teams, some along the lines of reducing the kinetic motor output, meaning you can deploy less battery power but for longer, and not having the crazy situation where cars are slowing down towards the end of straights with drivers actually downshifting while still flat out. That's called 'super clipping'... you'll probably not want to know!

We don't need well over 1000 horsepower or brief 230mph top speeds, cars never look faster than when they are wheel to wheel, and I've stood beside an F1 track for 40 years and can't tell the difference between 200mph and 230mph.

We are a sport and a show and that must take absolute priority, and I have every confidence we can find a satisfactory way with these current cars and power units. The last PUs were in play between 2014 and 2025 but this set of regulations will not get close to that.

Deploying less battery for longer will also reduce the risk of straight-line rear-end shunts which can and will happen at the moment, and hopefully the teams can sort out the start protocols because Franco Colapinto's start-line near-miss in Melbourne was scary.

When they are operating normally in some parts of the track these lower downforce cars look great. More svelte and nimble, and a bit lively. The narrower tyres add to that, and there's so much pleasure to be had watching great drivers on the limit of grip. Another positive has been the fact that in a rear slide they look significantly more recoverable than last year's cars.

'Assured' Russell now has chance to be champion

Mercedes were very strong in winter testing and carried the 'favourite' tag into Melbourne, and that turned out to be correct. They had great single-lap and race pace.

Kimi Antonelli dismantled his car against the walls in practice and the team did extremely well to fix it just in time for him to do a lap in Q1, given extra breathing space by Max's Red Bull locking up his rear wheels and hand-braking him into the barriers, causing a red flag.

Kimi went from crashing to extremely fast on his next flying lap. That reminded me of watching Michael Schumacher crashing the spare Benetton in Suzuka 1991, which was primarily allocated to team-mate Nelson Piquet for the weekend. My Brabham was having some work done so I watched with interest to see how good this new wonder-kid really was. His first flying lap back in his own car was fastest of everybody, with not a hint of playing himself back in.

George Russell was so calm and controlled all through the event and fully deserved his pole position and victory, once again eking out his Pirelli tyres while carrying great speed. It was an assured performance, to say the least, and he leads the world championship for the first time. He's done the hard yards, this is now George's chance to be champion.

Antonelli duly finished second despite a tardy start, and I have zero doubt that he will more than keep George on his toes all season long. It'll be errors which decide it between them if Mercedes does indeed have the championship-winning car.

Ferrari have been very ingenious and confident with their 2026 car, and both Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc have looked happier than most. And the architecture of their turbocharger - and no doubt other dynamics - have created a very fast starting car, and so it was no surprise to see Leclerc leading out of turn one.

Hamilton was fast away, too, but got a little wide in turn one and he had some recovering to do, which he duly delivered.

Ferrari made strategy mistake but didn't have Mercedes pace

Ferrari, and particularly Mercedes, were looking after their tyres better than McLaren and Red Bull and others, which is a turnaround from last year. When a Virtual Safety Car was called on lap 11 for the impressive Isack Hadjar's sadly-expired Red Bull, Ferrari elected not to stop either car - unlike Mercedes, who stopped both at the same time.

Ferrari thought it was too early and wanted to stay on target. This was a mistake, and I'd be pretty sure if they could rerun that scenario they would have taken a different decision of at least pitting one car.

The reality is that they didn't have the raw pace to beat Mercedes, but they gave up control of the race, and gifted Mercedes a comfort zone where they could drive smoothly and in clear air.

At McLaren they were already down to one car even before the start when Oscar Piastri dropped his car into the barriers when he was caught out by a combination of cool tyres, a power spike, and riding a kerb all at the same time. That was brutal for him and a great many in the crowd at his home GP. We've all done something like that, either going to the grid (I similarly smashed a brand new Tyrrell up in Imola in the mid 80s) or entering the pit lane or suchlike. I felt for him.

Lando Norris in the sister McLaren had relatively poor pace for half the race but, together with his team, was finding chunks of time with different battery power harvesting and deployment, and was flying along nicely at the end, albeit with fresher tyres than the four ahead of him. McLaren will increase competitiveness quickly when they can understand the power unit functions and potential as fully as the Mercedes works team supplier. They need an aero upgrade too.

Norris stayed ahead of Verstappen, which looked highly unlikely earlier in the race, as Max impressively recovered through the field from 20th on the grid. But as two stoppers they were both over 50 seconds off the lead, and neither driver withheld their wrath about the new cars after the race.

Ollie Bearman continues to look the real deal, and he drove his Haas to a fine seventh and six points. He's really maturing into a fine F1 driver, and the small Haas team are over-delivering once again.

The star of the weekend for me was 18-year-old rookie Brit Arvid Lindblad in his Racing Bull. He looked so assured and under control in a very testing race and would be rewarded with eighth place and become the 70th driver to score points on his debut. Definitely one to watch, as he made it all five Brits in the top eight at the flag.

Gabriel Bortoleto drove a fine race to ninth place and two world championship points on the debut of the Audi team. They've done a great job all round, and given their history in rallying and Le Mans racing, I would expect this team to challenge as best of the rest after the big four through the season. The midfield is once again going to be intensely competitive.

Given all we have learned in Oz I would expect the cars to function a step better in a few days time in China, but that massively long back straight is going to cause some energy problems and complaints. Let's hope there's a stiff tail wind.

MB

Formula 1 heads to Shanghai for the first Sprint weekend of the 2026 season at the Chinese Grand Prix from this Friday, live on Sky Sports F1. Stream Sky Sports with NOW - no contract, cancel anytime

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