NEW DELHI: Reigning world champion Lando Norris struggled with his gearbox. Four-time world champion Max Verstappen locked up, went off-piste and displayed his rally skills as he negotiated gravel at Melbourne’s Albert Park. The grid’s only rookie, Arvid Lindblad suffered teething troubles as his Racing Bull conked off.
Formula 1 faced its usual season-opening shenanigans as the first two practice sessions of the Australian Grand Prix got underway on Friday. This also quelled the doubts and criticism as the newer generation of cars looked sprightly, navigating corners in vehicles that have much less grip than in yesteryears.
Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc and McLaren’s Oscar Piastri topped the timesheets in the two sessions. But are they the favourites going into Saturday’s qualifying and Sunday’s race?
“We just need to look at the general form as a guide for reliability. As much as we could tell from lap times from testing, Mercedes definitely are looking in a good place with their Power Unit (PU). That leads me to conclude that Mercedes will be the strongest of those teams,” former racer David Coulthard told HT from Melbourne.
“My prediction would be that they would challenge for both the drivers’ and constructors’ championship, George (Russell) being the favourite of the two (Mercedes) drivers on the basis that he still was stronger than Kimi (Antonelli) across the season last year. Although Kimi will be better, more experienced, he’s still on a journey of development.”
The 54-year-old is on point. Not just the Silver Arrows but all teams powered by Mercedes PUs looked strong in the practice sessions which includes Alpine, Williams and McLaren. Using Renault engines, Alpine ended 10th and last in 2025. This year, the French team looks like the leader of the midfield teams.
Williams, on a rebuilding path, also displayed strong potential. Despite focusing their energies on the 2025 car as they were fighting for the championship, McLaren has still turned out to be among the top four teams, courtesy of the strong package provided by Mercedes.
“McLaren will be at a slight disadvantage because they weren’t able to carry the development of the package they had. They are the biggest losers in this. Ferrari and Mercedes are potentially the biggest winners. Red Bull could end up netting the same,” Coulthard, who won 13 Grands Prix, said in a call facilitated by FanCode.
“Alpine are probably the biggest winners because they were having a miserable time with the Renault engine and where the car development was. We’ve got to recognise that we also have new teams on the grid in Cadillac and Audi. The field is growing.”
There’s been a lot of noise regarding the newer engines which roughly have a 50-50 energy output divided between the internal combustion engine (ICE) and electrical energy. This has led to a drop in top speeds with drivers, especially Verstappen, criticising them and calling it “Formula E on steroids” and “anti-racing”. But the 54-year-old Scotsman embraced the change, welcoming the development of these new engines.
“I understand as a driver and as a fan that we want to see absolute performance of the driver and the car. If we feel there’s a lot more management, then that becomes a feeling of more tactics involved. If I use boxing analogy, we want to imagine the boxers going toe-to-toe, punching each other as hard as they can. We don’t really want to imagine that they’re playing the percentages and making it go 12 rounds because it puts on a longer spectacle,” added Coulthard, who raced for Williams, McLaren and Red Bull in a 14-year long F1 career.
“But the only way to make a proper judgment is to observe how the racing is. We need to give it time. It has always been those who do the work better will end up reaping the rewards. Let’s wait and see who does the job better. But driving is driving irrespective of battery management, you still have to go through the corners quickly and the best driver will still find the best solution for that.”
