ROUND 1: 🇦🇺 Australia

FORMULA 1 QATAR AIRWAYS AUSTRALIAN GRAND PRIX 2026

Weekend Schedule

Click here to view the schedule in your local timezone

  • Practice 1: Friday, 02:30 CET | 01:30 UTC
  • Practice 2: Friday, 06:00 CET | 05:00 UTC
  • Practice 3: Saturday, 02:30 CET | 01:30 UTC
  • Qualifying: Saturday, 06:00 CET | 05:00 UTC
  • Race: Sunday, 05:00 CET | 04:00 UTC

Circuit stats & Tyres

  • First Grand Prix: 1996
  • Number of laps: 58
  • Circuit Length: 5.278 km
  • Race Distance: 306.124 km
  • Lap record: 1:19.813 Charles Leclerc (2024)
  • 2025 Pole: Lando Norris (1:15.096)
  • 2025 Fastest Lap: Lando Norris (1:22.167)
  • 2025 winner: Lando Norris
  • Pirelli Tyres: C3 (Hard) ⚪, C4 (Medium) 🟡, C5 (Soft) 🔴
  • Hypnotoad_@sh.itjust.works
    27·
    3 days ago

    I won’t lie, that pleasantly surprised me. The early battle between George and Charles was fun. I think the race would have been more exciting had Max not crashed in quali.

    • blackn1ght@feddit.ukEnglish
      3·
      1 day ago

      Apparently George wasn’t using his energy properly in some of those battles which is why Charles kept getting past.

        • Microw@piefed.zipEnglish
          3·
          21 hours ago

          Well yeah, and it’s tire degradation management racing, and fuel conserving racing. Also used to be floor/plank conserving racing, which isn’t much of a factor anymore.

    • HarneyToker@lemmy.world
      1·
      12 hours ago

      I was quite excited during that fight, excellent racing. Gave hope for the new regs. Those Mercedes are fast,  but Leclerc knows how to race.

    • _ed@sopuli.xyz
      7·
      3 days ago

      Yeah I thought George would get past and sail into the distance. Was refreshing.

      • Goodeye8@piefed.socialEnglish
        10·
        2 days ago

        I think Max vs Lando showed that the new regs actually make it harder to pass because last year DRS gave you a huge boost in speed due to the car ahead having much bigger drag. This year the active aero makes the car ahead faster and cuts down on the slipstream hole that would help the car behind. If the car ahead is as good if not better the attacker has nothing to help them pass the line. Russell having the faster car is why he was able to continue attacking Leclerc for as long as he did. Had the positions been reversed Leclerc probably would’ve had no chance of attacking Russell.

        I hope I’m wrong but it seems the defenders get a huge advantage this year. You get to set the pace and then use the battery to instantly retake the position if lost.

        • HSR🏴‍☠️@lemmy.dbzer0.com
          10·
          2 days ago

          I agree with your points, and when you look into rules on energy flow especially, you can see how elements of regulations work against each other. 50/50 power split fundamentally changes how you drive a race car.

          • DRS was available at no cost, but increasing your deployment with Overtake has an energy cost and you will need to recover that energy or risk your opponent coming back at you.
          • Overtake allows you to harvest 0.5MJ additional energy (baseline is 8MJ). Again, that extra 0.5MJ will likely compromise your straight line speed or braking, as drivers are already struggling to hit 8MJ. Any harvested energy comes from the 3000MJ/h energy fuel flow allowance.
          • Battery capacity is 4MJ, FOUR, that’s the same as last year! And it can barely hold half of your allowed energy per lap. This makes any macro strategy impossible, battery management is all about the next straight, you just can’t sit in someone’s slipstream and bank energy for 2-3 laps and wait for an opportunity.