F1 Review: George Russell Shines As Mercedes Shows Its Dominance In Australian Grand Prix

Jeffrey Boswell

March 9, 2026

Mercedes’ George Russell cashed in pole position at Melbourne, battling Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc in a back-and-forth battle early in the race before taking control midway through to win the Qatar Airways Australian Grand Prix on Sunday (March 8th). Russell, the heavy favorite entering the race, proved the reasons why in a Mercedes that was by far the class of the field.  

“That wasn’t a straightforward afternoon, but this win feels very sweet!” Russell said. “Congratulations to the whole team; they’ve done an incredible job, and this victory is for them.

“We stopped quite early on when the Virtual Safety Car was deployed and knew we were going to have to manage our tyres from there. We were not clear on whether the one or the two-stop was going to be quickest or which one was the right decision to help us take victory. The strategy team made a great call though and I am really happy we could take the victory and the 1-2. It’s a perfect way to start the season and we will enjoy this moment, but it is still very early days in the championship, and we know our rivals will be trying to close the gap quickly. It wasn’t easy for us so let’s see how we perform in China next week.”

Mercedes teammate Kimi Antonelli charged back from a shaky start to finish second, with the Ferrari duo of Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton following in third and fourth, results that could have possibly been better had Ferrari played their strategy hand smarter.

Defending world champion Lando Norris held off the charging Max Verstappen for fifth, and the only McLaren to start and finish the race after Oscar Piastri’s shocking crash on his reconnaissance lap. Red Bull’s Verstappen used three pit stops to rocket from a start of 20th on the grid to finish sixth.

Haas Racing’s Oliver Bearman finished seventh, with Racing Bulls’ Arvid Lindblad impressing in the 18-year-old’s first F1 start with an eight-place finish. Audi’s Gabriel Bortoletto took ninth, and Alpine’s Pierre Gasly finished 10th.   

In the driver standings, Russell leads with 25 points, with Antonelli in second with 18, followed by Leclerc with 15. 

In the constructors standings, Mercedes is off to the best possible start and lead Ferrari 43 to 27. McLaren is third with 10 points.

The Race

Leclerc smoked what may have been the quickest lights out in F1 history, and took the lead into Turn 1, immediately blowing up Mercedes’ front row lockout as Russell fought wheel spin. Antonelli fell from second to seventh in the first lap, while Racing Bulls rookie Lindblad was fifth after starting ninth.

Russell easily retook the lead at the end of lap 2, as Russell and Leclerc distanced themselves from the field and continued to trade the lead with some of the most exciting wheel-to-wheel racing in recent memory.

Hamilton joined the fight around lap five, as Antonelli fought back from his awful start and was up to fourth and gaining on the leaders.

Ten laps in, and Verstappen was up to 10th, was the only car on hard tires, and ready to pounce on anyone in front of him.

Isaak Hadjar’s Red Bull engine expired on lap 12, causing a virtual safety car, and teams were faced with their first major strategy call of the new season. Mercedes didn’t blink, and immediately double-stacked their pit stops. Ferrari blinked twice, and passed up two opportunities to pit under the VSC, opting for track position.  

The VSC ended on lap 13, and Leclerc and Hamilton were 1-2, with Russell and Antonelli split by Lindblad in fourth. Verstappen was all the way up to sixth, hoping his RB would not suffer the safe fate as that of Hadjar’s.

Ferrari’s strategy to not pit one or both drivers looked at the time like a bad strategy decision, which follows recent history, telling us that whatever decision Ferrari makes is likely the wrong one. 

Another VSC was deployed when Valtteri Bottas’ Cadillac stopped near the pit entrance on lap 18. The Ferraris again stayed out and seemed fully committed to a one-stop strategy. Hamilton chimed in on the radio that his tires were good and urged Ferrari not to pit him at the same time as Leclerc, if they pitted at all.

On lap 22, the running order was Leclerc, Hamilton, Russell, Antonelli, Norris, Verstappen, Lindblad, Bearman, Bortoletto, and Gasly.

Leclerc pitted on lap 25, exchanging his old medium tires for a set of hard tires. Leclerc came out in fourth, with Hamilton assuming the lead. Russell tracked down the Ferrari easily and retook the lead on lap 28. Hamilton pitted, and it appeared Ferrari had again made a strategy blunder. To be fair, they have tons of experience in doing so.

The Mercedes of Russell and Antonelli now ran 1-2 and had the race in control. Mercedes weighed the pros and cons of going the rest of the way without another pit stop.

While Mercedes cruised, Norris and Verstappen were engaged in a spirited battle for fifth, with Norris holding the edge with 10 laps to go. 

The two Mercedes remained unchallenged, and Russell took the checkered flag with a three second margin over Antonelli as Mercedes did as most expected and dominated the race. Leclerc finished third, 15 seconds behind Russell and less than a second ahead of Hamilton.

The Bad

Australia’s Oscar Piastri wrecked his McLaren on a reconnaissance lap, a good 30 minutes before the race start, when he inexplicably lost control at fairly low speed as his wheels touched the kerb. It was a devastating start to the season for Piastri, and likely left him wanting to crawl into a hole or a kangaroo pouch. 

Ferrari may have let a possible race win slip away with some questionable strategy calls. Ferrari’s modus operandi at this point might be bad strategy calls, but one would think, by now, team principal Fred Vasseure would have a PhD in learning from your mistakes.

Ferrari chose not to pit either Leclerc or Hamilton through two, that’s right, two! VSC periods early in the race. Leclerc finished in third, about 16 seconds behind Russell in first. Leclerc made his pit stop under green flag conditions, which cost him about 19 seconds. Sixteen seconds is less than 19 seconds. You do the math. I only tell you to do the math because apparently Ferrari can’t.

Why not pit under the first VSC, when you still had a chance to do so, even after seeing Mercedes pit both cars? And, why not cut your losses from not pitting under the first VSC and pit under the second VSC?

After the race, Vasseur said Ferrari would not have changed their strategy. So, let me get this straight, Fred: given the benefit of hindsight, hindsight which clearly indicated you should have played a different strategy, you’re still going to choose the wrong strategy? That’s bold strategy.     

The Good

A victorious Russell exclaimed, “Very nice! Very nice!” over the Mercedes radio after he crossed the finish line. It was an obvious homage to Sacha Baron Cohen’s memorable “Borat” character. I would guess there’s some background or an inside joke at Mercedes that prompted Russell’s words. And since I’m not privy to what goes on behind closed doors at Mercedes, I’m going to have to take an educated guess and assume that Toto Wolff wagered with Russell that if the Brit won the race, Wolff would have to wear Borat’s infamous green thong mankini. To Mercedes, I say, “Prove me wrong.” Or better yet, “Prove me right.”

The early race battles for the lead between Russell and Leclerc were easily the high point of the race. If this competitiveness is because of the power unit battery harvesting/consumption, then so be it. Russell and Leclerc were going at it continually, and there were multiple passes in single laps.

F1 fans are used to seeing overtakes, of course, but in those overtakes of old, it often took the trailing driver 2-4 laps, sometimes more, just to set up an overtake attempt, and said attempt often didn’t even result in an overtake.

If what we saw from Russell and Leclerc is the new wave of F1 racing for position, then sign me up.

F1’s new start procedure, if what happened at Australia is any indication, has made the most exciting part of F1 racing more exciting. New this year at the start are blue lights, which signify the “pre-start warning” and allow drivers to rev their engines to get the turbo spinning. This is followed by the traditional “five red lights,” then “light out” start. If a driver fails to rev the engine correctly, the car could suffer from “turbo lag,” which can severely limit its takeoff. So, in addition to managing wheel spin and clutch release, drivers now must control “turbo lag.”

If a driver isn’t perfect on all three, their start is compromised. If a driver is perfect, he can make up a lot of ground at the start. Sure, pole position is still important, but it is less important than in previous years. This bodes well for the race at Monaco, where in the past, winning the pole meant winning the race. Now, with the race starts more of a crapshoot than a sure thing, a driver might actually win at Monaco from somewhere other than the pole.    

Racing Bulls rookie Arvid Lindblad impressed from start to finish, finishing eighth in his first F1 race. The 18-year-old Brit was fast off the line and ran in the top 10 for basically the entire race. Lindblad became the youngest Brit to race in F1 and the third-youngest points scorer, behind Kimi Antonelli and Max Verstappen.

Kudos to Aston Martin for not only starting the race but also for hanging around longer than expected. A week ago, there was talk that Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll might not start the race, and if they did, they’d only run a few laps then retire. But Stroll completed 43 laps, and Alonso ran 21. Talk about sandbagging. It was likely the first time in F1 history that a double DNF was celebrated.

Grid Walk Moments

F1 TV’s Jolyon Palmer handled Apple TV’s “Grid Walk” segment, and it was basically uneventful. Sadly, Palmer didn’t run into Sky Sport’s “Grid Walk” OG Martin Brundle. Had they crossed paths, they could have interviewed each other, creating the perfect setup for the “Spider-Man pointing at Spider-Man” meme. 

But since that didn’t happen, that means the best part of Palmer’s “Grid Walk” was a scene that he missed altogether, which was Eddie Irvine and Flavio Briatore standing face to face, hands on shoulders, where it appeared to two were preparing to either embrace, dance, sumo wrestle, or check each other for cataracts.  

In all likelihood, though, the two were probably discussing who had the most plausible excuse for being on a certain “list” that seems to contain an alarming number of F1 dignitaries.

Apple TV Coverage Critique

I’d like to give a shout-out to Juan Pablo Montoya for offering viewers the perspective from a driver with 94 starts and seven wins in F1, while still making us feel like he’s one of us. JPM certainly was dressed like he was one of us, or at least those of us who frequent skate parks, or attended 1990’s grunge concerts. 

The Driver

Red Bull’s Verstappen started 20th after crashing out of Q1 on Saturday (March 6th). And the Dutchman turned that into a sixth-place result, which, honestly, in our minds, and definitely Verstappen’s, seemed like, dare I say, underachieving. When Verstappen starts at the back of the grid, most people feel that anything is possible, even winning the race. In Australia, given the performance of the Mercedes and Ferraris, that was unlikely, but the ease with which Verstappen advanced from 20th to sixth was impressive. 

The Results (Qatar Airways Australian Grand Prix, Melbourne Grand Prix Circuit)

Pos.No.DriverTeamLapsTime / RetiredPts.
163George RussellMercedes581:23:06.80125
212Kimi AntonelliMercedes58+2.974s18
316Charles LeclercFerrari58+15.519s15
444Lewis HamiltonFerrari58+16.144s12
51Lando NorrisMcLaren58+51.741s10
63Max VerstappenRed Bull Racing58+54.617s8
787Oliver BearmanHaas F1 Team57+1 lap6
841Arvid LindbladRacing Bulls57+1 lap4
95Gabriel BortoletoAudi57+1 lap2
1010Pierre GaslyAlpine57+1 lap1
1131Esteban OconHaas F1 Team57+1 lap0
1223Alexander AlbonWilliams57+1 lap0
1330Liam LawsonRacing Bulls57+1 lap0
1443Franco ColapintoAlpine56+2 laps0
1555Carlos SainzWilliams56+2 laps0
1611Sergio PerezCadillac55+3 laps0
NC18Lance StrollAston Martin43+15 laps0
NC14Fernando AlonsoAston Martin21DNF0
NC77Valtteri BottasCadillac15DNF0
NC6Isack HadjarRed Bull Racing10DNF0
NC81Oscar PiastriMcLaren0DNS0
NC27Nico HulkenbergAudi0DNS0
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1 thought on “F1 Review: George Russell Shines As Mercedes Shows Its Dominance In Australian Grand Prix”

  1. Small issue with AppleTV taking over for ESPN:

    Possibly it was a limitation of my devices, but I could not locate a “resume” option for AppleTV on my Roku box or my iPhone. Both would allow pause/FF/RW, but after about five minutes of pause, it would time out and require me to start at the beginning and FF to to my previous point in the race. Minor issue, but hope Apple addresses it in weeks to come.

    Thanks to the Apple subscription also allowing access to F1TV, I was able to enjoy the F1/F2/F3 races. And of course, the best part of this is ZERO COMMERCIALS for all races, and no advertisements masquerading as coverage, concentrating on one manufacturer.

    Reply

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