It’s finally race week for F1 in 2026, so here’s the lowdown on who’s where and what to expect this weekend.
Some teams nailed testing, other teams struggled massively, and a handful of teams might just be sandbagging, but all will be revealed very soon.
Aston Martin still in peril
After a dismal first week of testing, week two didn’t get much better for the Silverstone-based team of Aston Martin.
Their reliability became so bad that on the final day of testing, Honda made the decision to only do short runs due to the fact that they only had one battery left.
In the end, Canadian driver Lance Stroll only completed six laps on the closing day.
Team-mate Fernando Alonso is more hopeful, however, saying: “Short and medium term, I don’t think there is anything that is impossible to fix.”
There have been rumours floating around online that Aston Martin plans to retire both cars early in Melbourne, due to the reliability of the Honda engine, but this claim appears unlikely.
The team completed the fewest laps at testing, only managing 128 laps, some 300 shy of Mercedes at the top, and half that of its nearest competitor, Cadillac.
They also set the slowest times of the second test: a 1:35.974 from Lance Stroll and a 1:36.536 from Fernando Alonso.
There is still much uncertainty surrounding lights out on Sunday at Albert Park.
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A rough pecking order
It’s always tough to do this because testing can be very deceiving; many teams love to hide their true pace and only choose to unleash it come the opening race weekend.
Team principal of McLaren, Andrea Stella, told BBC Sport that: “This test has confirmed that Ferrari and Mercedes look like the teams to beat.
“McLaren and Red Bull [are] probably very similar, Ferrari and Mercedes a step ahead.”
Maybe Stella is downplaying his own team’s position, but there’s a unanimous decision amongst the paddock that McLaren, Red Bull, Ferrari and Mercedes are the four teams clear of everyone else.
Seven of the team’s eight drivers occupied the top seven places, with Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc setting the pace with a 1:31.992.
That time was just over eight-tenths clear of Mercedes’ Kimi Antonelli in second place, but as we know, F1 is not just about single lap pace.
As for the rest, Alpine, Haas and Audi seem to be in a close fight for ‘best-of-the-rest’, with that powerful Mercedes engine advancing the French team forward from last year’s misery.
Williams and Racing Bulls seem to be struggling for raw pace, with their drivers placing 13th, 17th, and 16th, 18th, respectively.
Despite being the newcomer, Cadillac do not seem to be the slowest team, as Aston Martin’s struggles are clear as day.
What to expect when the five lights go out on Sunday
One talking point in testing was the unpredictable race starts.
With the new regulations, drivers are having to apply a lot more revs when waiting for the five lights to go out.
During testing, a new start procedure was tested, by which once every car has lined up, a blue light on the side will flash for five seconds, and the cars can start to rev preemptively.
Once the five seconds are over, the light sequence will begin.
During the practice darts in testing, all the teams saw improvement by the end, but the cars with a Ferrari engine (Ferrari, Haas and Cadillac) saw rapid starts due to their small turbo.
When the lights go out on Sunday, watch out for those cars in particular because they could make a mighty leap off the line.
Australia is a track of both slow corners and fast sequences, so cars with a balanced setup that favours high-speed corners could lead with a lasting advantage.
With the new regulations, however, this is even harder to predict due to the new straight line zones, active aero, overtake mode and boost.
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SportJustSport writers