Formula 1 aficionados are in for a thrilling season opener in Australia as four teams are likely to fight for a win in Melbourne.
With different programmes, fuel levels, setups, and simulations, it is impossible to gauge the teams’ true pace based on pre-season test timings. But word has it that reigning champions McLaren, Ferrari, Red Bull and Mercedes will lead the pack as the lights go out at Albert Park on March 8.
In the six days of official pre-season tests (February 11-13 and February 18-20) in Bahrain, world champion Lando Norris (McLaren), Charles Leclerc (Ferrari), Kimi Antonelli and George Russell (both Mercedes) topped the timesheets with Red Bull’s Max Verstappen and Oscar Piastri of McLaren not far behind.
But given how the tests went, Mercedes and Ferrari look slightly quicker with the former having the fastest straight-line speed.
“In terms of race pace, I can confirm that Ferrari looks pretty competitive. I invite everyone to just be careful looking too much into what we see in testing,” says McLaren team principal Andrea Stella.
“However, early indications from a competitiveness point of view, you can definitely put Ferrari and Mercedes at the top of the list, in terms of those that seem ready from a performance point of view in particular.”
Mercedes dominated the sport from 2014 — the introduction of the hybrid era — to 2021, winning seven drivers’ and eight constructors’ titles. When the regulations changed in 2022, they fell behind Red Bull and later McLaren, who despite using Mercedes engines, comprehensively beat the works team the last two years.
With the regulations again changing this year, the German outfit has responded better than last time. Mercedes seems to have gotten its act together in a season where engines will be more environmentally friendly than ever before.
Until last year, the power unit (PU) of F1 cars produced 1,000bhp of energy with the split between the internal combustion engine (ICE) and electric motor ranging at approximately 85% and 15%. From this season onwards, while the new PUs will still produce 1,000bhp, the split between the two sources will be almost 50-50, with the PUs expected to recover twice as much electrical energy as before.
This means that there will be a special emphasis on energy management and when to deploy it which is unlike what a pure racer wants—to push to the limit all the time. The PUs have already come under fire from four-time world champion Verstappen, who branded the new cars as “anti-racing”.
“To drive (they are) not a lot of fun. I would say the right word is management. It’s not very Formula 1 like. It feels a bit more like Formula E on steroids,” Verstappen had said last week.
“As a pure driver, I enjoy driving flat out and at the moment, you cannot drive like that. For me, that’s just not Formula 1. Maybe it’s then better to drive Formula E, right? Because that’s all about energy, efficiency and management.”
The other major changes introduced are active aerodynamics, in both front and rear wings, and a new overtake mode. With these two innovations coming in, F1 has bid farewell to the drag-reduction system (DRS) which had been place since 2011.
Ferrari, who haven’t won a championship since 2007, look to have absorbed the new set of regulations better than others which has given them a burst of speed, especially off the line which could be extremely beneficial at race starts.
McLaren and Red Bull, who have a new engine partner in Ford, are right up there too but perhaps a tad bit slower than Mercedes and Ferrari. This was expected as the two teams were locked in a title fight until late last year, constantly bringing upgrades to win races.
The other two — Ferrari and Mercedes—stopped their 2025 car development much earlier to focus on the next season. Ferrari stopped developing their car as early as April 2025 to completely focus on 2026.
But with loads of data available to them now, the order in the top four could change by the Australian Grand Prix, as the teams will be able to make their cars faster and more efficient.
Best of the rest
Following a poor string of results, Renault decided to stop its F1 engine production unit for the first time since 2000. This means Alpine, owned by Renault Group, will use Mercedes PUs which has already made an impact.
After finishing 10th and last in 2025, Alpine appears as the ‘best of the rest’ team with its drivers Pierre Gasly and Franco Colapinto massively impressed with their speed. Haas, Racing Bulls and new entrant Audi are likely to be in the midfield fight. Having bought Sauber, Audi will be using its own engines.
Williams was already on the back foot as they could not even turn up for the Barcelona shakedown (January 26-30), a private test for the new cars where every team except Williams attended.
As F1’s new 11th team, Cadillac was expected to be at the back of the field. But Aston Martin is among the worst hit despite having design legend Arian Newey and the best of resources in their setup.
It is a déjà vu moment for two-time world champion Fernando Alonso who left Ferrari at the end of 2014 to join the Honda-powered McLaren to repeat what his hero Ayrton Senna did in the late 1980s and 1990s with the same partnership.
That three-year run saw McLaren go from fighting for wins to becoming a back-of-the-field team. The Spaniard regularly criticised the engines back then.
After driving with Mercedes engines, Aston Martin switched to Honda but their run hasn’t gone as expected with regular reliability issues. On the last day, their testing was limited to just six laps as engine issues meant that they had to wrap up two-and-a-half hours before the scheduled cut-off time.
While the tests do give you an idea where the teams are, the timings are to be taken with a pinch of salt as a lot could change from now until March 8.
