MELBOURNE, Australia – Over the course of 12 remarkable laps, as George Russell and Charles Leclerc traded the lead of the Australian Grand Prix back and forth, you could easily have forgotten the hype surrounding the Formula 1 cars that dominated the opening weekend of the 2026 season.
The two drivers, both hoping this season will be the year they win their first Drivers’ Championship, stunned the Albert Park crowd with an array of impressive overtakes at different points of the racetrack. Russell and Leclerc traded blows until a virtual safety car intervention allowed Mercedes to enter the pits – something Ferrari chose not to do, perhaps in classic Ferrari style – and saw the eventual pre-season favorite emerge on pole with Kimi Antonelli in second.
Their battle was heaven-sent for Formula 1 after what can only be described as an absolutely brutal start to the sport’s new era – one featuring redesigned cars and, most controversially, power units featuring a 50-50 split between combustion and electric power. Russell and Leclerc’s brief but stunning duel gave Formula 1 a clear positive point to point out: through all the negativity, the two teams battled for the win and swapped positions on track.
Formula 1 was quick to publish a statistic: last year’s opening round saw 45 overtakes, while Sunday saw 120 overtakes. Leclerc and Russell contributed seven of those passes in the opening period.
It felt like a bit of Jekyll-and-Hyde on opening weekend. The good was great, and the evil was very bad. And there was a lot of bad.
Drivers flashed the new formula as they exited their cars after qualifying on Saturday. Three world champions, Max Verstappen, Lewis Hamilton and Lando Norris, talked about cars in different ways. Norris said Formula One had traded the best and most entertaining cars to drive for the worst, and there was certainly a noticeably negative atmosphere at the track after qualifying, exacerbated by Mercedes’ dominance of the front row.
Russell and Leclerc helped lift some of that doom and gloom during their brief battle, and Ferrari’s lightning start could become a recurring feature of the racing revival this season. Seeing Leclerc’s red car entering Turn 1 ahead was exactly the visual that Formula 1 needed after such a difficult few weeks from a PR perspective. If that continues, the excitement of Ferrari getting a chance to end its title drought could be enough to calm the hype around these malicious new cars.
However, we should not get carried away with one good fight. As was the case after qualifying, the glowing positivity shown by the men just fighting for the top spots was not shared by those at the bottom of the standings.
Most drivers don’t seem to have changed their minds and some have found new reasons to hate modified Formula 1. While the battle for the lead could be framed as a strong endorsement of the power deployment that has become critical for new power units, that aspect of Sunday’s race resonated as loudly as Saturday’s criticism.
Video game racing
At one point during his epic battle at the front, Leclerc joked on the radio: “This is like a mushroom in Mario Kart.”
It was a reference to the overtake and boost mode buttons available to drivers during the race. Both modes are part of the complex new hybrid powertrains and were big selling points for the new rules.
Unlike the old Drag Reduction System (DRS), drivers can use boosts whenever they want, which Formula 1 hopes will create strategic battles throughout races. Russell called it the “yo-yo effect,” and his fight with Leclerc certainly looked like that as they took turns passing each other. Haas driver Oliver Biermann continued the theme after the race, saying: “With the boost button, I felt like I was in a video game a little bit.”
Whether Formula 1 should feel like a video game or not is up for debate. While Saturday’s criticism centered around how frustrating the qualifying lap around Albert Park was when drivers spent so much of it trying to conserve energy, Sunday’s criticism centered around the moment when drivers were able to use it in battles with other cars.
There can’t be much debate about what the Formula 1 World Champion thinks about video game racing. When asked if the boost modes now available at his fingertips were artificial, Norris replied: “Very much. It’s a mess, you’re going to have a big crash. We’re the ones waiting for something to happen and it goes completely wrong, and that’s not a good situation to be in, but there’s nothing we can do about it now.”
“It’s unfortunate, it’s very artificial, depending on what (the power unit) decides to do and randomly sometimes, five cars can pass you or you can’t do anything about it sometimes, so, yeah, there’s nothing we can change about it, so there’s no need to say more.”
Haas’ Esteban Ocon shared Norris’ doubts and frustrations and offered a different and interesting perspective on the back-and-forth position exchanges he faced, albeit one that was not televised.
“Very painful,” he said of racing with new cars. “It’s painful because you can’t do much as drivers. Once you use the boost button, and you can’t overtake, or even if you overtake, you’re just vulnerable again on the next straight. The other person will overtake again, which happened with Pierre (Gasly) three times. And it happened with (Gabriel Bortoletto) too when I was competing with him twice. I just overtook and overtook again.”
Ironically, you could replace the names mentioned by Ocon with those of Russell and Leclerc, and you’re left with a very different (and less glowing) description of the battle for the top spot. Criticisms of the new formula and the new race it has created seem to be a matter of perspective based on where one driver stands relative to another in the competitive standings.
While Formula 1 was quick to release data on the number of overtakes, it did not include the number of overtakes that came after a driver pressed boost mode. Given the massive focus on battery boosting, you can assume most, if not every one of them.
This will raise the broader existential question of whether battery boost has replaced one of the most revered and legendary parts of wheel-to-wheel racing. Leclerc hinted at this himself when speaking about his fight with Russell.
“I think this will definitely change the way we approach racing and overtaking,” he said. “Before, it was more about who was the bravest on the brakes. Maybe now there’s more of a strategic mind behind every move you make because every boost button activation, you know you’re going to pay big time next, so you’re always trying to think multiple steps ahead to try to end up first. But it’s a different way of racing, for sure.”
The sport will have to confront a more important question: Is what Leclerc described what Formula 1 should be? This would create a more strategic way to race, but Ayrton Senna was not respected because he was better at using the boosted battery than his rivals. It was just one sample, but the prevailing opinion in the media on Sunday evening was that Formula One has turned in some of the talent required by drivers when it comes to overtaking.
“It wasn’t normal, the way you have to deal with it,” Gasly said, before offering a laundry list of what his job in the cockpit has now turned into. “There’s way more than just continuing to drive. It’s the battery. The power. The difference between (the power units), with more deployed in Turn 1, less in Turn 3, more in Turn 6, the take-offs you have to do to get it back, etc. We’re moving away from pure driving a little bit.”
Obviously this all happened after one race. Things may change and leadership styles may adapt. Fans may gain a new appreciation for the extra tactical brilliance that will clearly be required to overcome future rivals, but listening to much of the feedback, it was hard not to recall one of Verstappen’s early criticisms of the regulations: it’s like the all-electric Formula E series “on steroids”.
In fact, Verstappen turned that quote around when he spoke of his desire to see the sport change in the coming weeks and months, and it’s not hard to imagine one of the main things the hottest racer on the internet was missing.
“I love racing, but we can only take so much, right?” said the aggravated Dutchman on Sunday. “I think they are willing to listen, the FIA and Formula 1, and of course I hope there is some action. I mean, I’m not the only one saying that, I think a lot of people are saying that, if it’s about the drivers and the fans, we just want what’s best for the sport. It’s not like we’re criticizing just to be critical, we’re criticizing for a reason; we want it to be Formula 1, proper Formula 1 on steroids.”
“Today, of course that was not the case again.”
