The Australian Grand-Prix has come and gone and somehow, arguably, that wasn’t even the biggest news from the weekend as Monday morning saw some pretty incredible lineups announced. That being said, we did have a stellar start to the 2026 F1 championship for the Silver Arrows and followed up our pre-season testing with fireworks.
The practice sessions last week illustrated that our pre-season pace was not an outlier or a result of competitors sand bagging, it is legitimate pace. Ferrari and Red Bull were the next two teams with McLaren also showing flashes of speed. Both Kimi and George ran their programs, reinforcing the teams learning from testing and helping guide setup for Albert Park specifically as Bahrain is not nearly as battery depleting as Australia is. Going into qualifying both drivers had a shot at claiming the pole position and leading the field into T1. Qualifying saw George claim the top spot with Kimi putting his #12 AMG in second place, with the Ferrari’s and Hadjar’s Red Bull immediately behind.
Come race start, the Ferrari’s absolutely launched off the line and rocketed into the first corners of the Albert Park circuit as Kimi lit up his rear tires off the line. With strategy and plenty of battling throughout, the two Mercedes cars ultimately came out on top after immense back and forth with the Ferrari’s as the two teams were clearly the class of the field. George ended up winning over Kimi, but Kimi wasn’t far behind in 2nd with both cars finishing within 5 seconds of one another.
With the result, Mercedes-AMG claims a lead in the manufacturer’s standings with George claiming the top spot and Kimi in 2nd. This marks the first time in George’s F1 career he has ever led the drivers standings and it’s the first time Kimi has been this high in the standings in his young F1 career. Next up for our boys in silver is the Chinese GP and it’s a sprint weekend with even more points on the table.
Lastly, just to close out this week’s edition, it has finally been confirmed that Max Verstappen is driving in the Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo in the 24 Hours of the Nurburgring with Dani Juncadella, Lucas Auer and Jules Gounon in the #3 car. Joining the Mercedes lineup is also Winward Racing with Maro Engel, Maxime Martin, Fabian Schiller and Luca Stolz; sensational.