IT'S RACE WEEK: 5 storylines we're excited about ahead of the 2026 Australian Grand Prix

Just 91 days on from the lights going out in the Abu Dhabi 2025 season finale, the new Formula 1 season will kick off again in Australia. It's more than just a new season, it’s a new era, with fresh power unit and aerodynamic regulations. That mean's there's plenty to talk about as we prepare to kick off 2026 in Melbourne.

What does the pecking order look like?

The first race of the season always carries a significant amount of excitement given it’s the first opportunity for all of us to see the true performance level of each team. During testing, nobody wants to show their full hand, even as they explore the potential of new machinery.

What the two weeks in Bahrain – as well as the Barcelona shakedown – suggested is that we are entering a new era with a competitive picture at the very front of the field. Regulation changes can offer the opportunity for one team to gain a clear performance advantage over the rest, but all four of McLaren, Mercedes, Red Bull and Ferrari have been pointing the finger at each other so far this year.

Melbourne will only be the first true sample set when all of the teams try and unleash their true pace, and it might be close enough at the front that the picture fluctuates from track to track, but we’ll finally see if anyone has stolen a march when it comes to the new cars. Mercedes were early favourites for many, but Ferrari set the fastest time in Bahrain, and Red Bull impressed with their own power unit.

For the reigning champions at McLaren, there’s Lando Norris looking to defend his crown, while Oscar Piastri looks to break the duck for home drivers, as he tries to secure a first classified podium for an Australian since the race became a World Championship event in 1985.

New teams and drivers

While the top four teams appear familiar, there are some more significant changes – and new additions – in the midfield.

If we start with the brand new, Cadillac will make their debut this weekend as the grid expands to 11 teams and 22 cars. The American team are relying heavily on experience as they take on the tough task of establishing themselves, with Valtteri Bottas and Sergio Perez returning to the grid after both sitting out 2025.

Another new team will also be hitting the track in the form of Audi, who have taken over Sauber and developed their own power unit. The early signs were impressive during testing, but just how competitive they prove to be against the likes of Haas, Williams and now-Mercedes-powered Alpine remains to be seen.

From a driver point of view, Arvid Lindblad is the only rookie in 2026, but comes in with a strong reputation and at a time when all of the drivers are learning a new style of racing. The 18-year-old was soaking up as much information as he could throughout January and February, but from now on the majority of his learning will take place in front of the watching world on race weekends.

Aston Martin’s situation

Pre-season testing saw the teams deliver a remarkable level of reliability given the scope of the changes this year, but one team in particular that were struggling on that front were Aston Martin.

Partnering with Honda for the first time – and becoming a works team in the process – it has been a time of significant change for Lawrence Stroll’s team. In recent years Aston Martin have been investing heavily in their facilities, with a new factory and wind tunnel now in place, while new personnel have also started.

The headline addition was Adrian Newey (who now also holds the role of Team Principal as well as overseeing the technical team) but the design legend only started with Aston Martin in the first part of 2025, and he warned in pre-season it was one of many reasons the team was playing catch-up with its new car.

Relative to their rivals, Aston Martin and Honda struggled for mileage in pre-season, with the Japanese manufacturer citing a battery-related issue as curtailing the second test. Work has been ongoing to try and address any problems as quickly as possible, and Honda has proven it can bounce back to win championships in the past, but this weekend will give the first true indication of how far they have to go.

How will the racing look?

With new regulations comes news questions, and one of them centres around how the racing will look.

DRS is gone, replaced as an overtaking aid by Overtake Mode, while there is also Straight Mode to reduce drag on multiple occasions each lap. Drivers are having to manage the balance between energy recovery and deployment to get the optimal lap time, but we’ve yet to see them race each other with points on offer.

The new regulations offer an increased opportunity for drivers to utilise their power units in different ways to a competitor when fighting for position, and while Melbourne has traditionally been a challenging track to overtake on, potentially we’ll see new avenues opening up to make a pass.

It’s time for the first look at how the new regulations might influence the way drivers go about racing each other – and we can expect them all to learn quickly from every situation.

Race starts

One area that has been a particular focal point during the pre-season running has been the topic of race starts.

The new power units have seen the MGU-H removed from the regulations, and that was a unit that could be used to spin the turbo in the past. That reduced turbo lag and allowed drivers to get off the line quickly, but without it they need a little bit more time to get the turbo up to speed.

The FIA is set to provide a pre-start warning that gives drivers five seconds to start building the revs before the starting light sequence begins, and that saw a much more even spread of launches on a number of occasions in Bahrain.

Even so, the Ferrari-powered cars were quickest off the line on average, and it could be a point of the race that they can target to make up positions immediately, while others could struggle to defend their starting spots. Either way, when the lights go out in Australia it's set to be an exhilarating watch!