Last weekend, we finally saw the first race featuring the new 2026 F1 cars that people have been complaining about since pre-season testing began. The cars are too slow! (Granted, they are I guess a few seconds a lap slower than recent years under the old regs.) They’re not as powerful! (They still put out about 1000 horsepower.) They’re too hard to drive! They’re too easy to drive! (Yes, generally, driving them requires more attention to more things, like the battery and when to brake versus lift and coast, and they do have a little less downforce, but some drivers have said that the actual racing is easier since the cars aren’t as fast as they’re used to.)
But you know what? We had multiple lead changes in the opening laps. We had virtual safety cars due to reliability issues (and not collisions or cars in the barriers – at least during the race. Oscar Piastri binned his McLaren during the reconnaissance lap and Kimi Antonelli smashed his Mercedes up during FP3 and (due to a lucky red flag in Q1) managed to have it put back together to run qualifying.) letting teams make decisions around pit strategy. (And Ferrari appears to have made the wrong ones, per usual.)
Mercedes looks like they’re back. Ferrari looks… competitive? There’s less of a gap between Red Bull and junior team Racing Bulls. The rebranded Saubers (now Audi) did ok with the one car that started the race. The new team, Cadillac, was there!
We’ll see how it goes – right now, there’s basically one team in front and the rest battling for the podium, which isn’t great, but that’s F1. Last year, it was McLaren, before that it was Red Bull, and before that, it was Mercedes. Now it’s Mercedes again, but with McLaren using their power units, we’ll see if they catch up. We’ll also see if any in-season upgrades close the gaps, or if there are any driver shakeups.
As I’ve said before, the “drama” in F1 isn’t who wins each race, but all the other nonsense up and down the field and between the races. It’s fine.