Australian GP: Our verdict on the first race of F1’s new era
The Race F1 Podcast
The Race Media Ltd
4.5 • 1K Ratings
🗓️ 8 March 2026
⏱️ 76 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Edd Straw is joined by Jon Noble, in Melbourne, and Scott Mitchell-Malm to unpick the season-opening Australian Grand Prix.
The big talking point heading into the race was the nature of the racing under the new regulations - so what did the guys make of what they saw on Sunday?
And would Charles Leclerc and Ferrari have been able to stop George Russell leading home a Mercedes one-two had different strategic decisions been made?
We tackle those topics and more, plus answer the first batch of your questions about everything that happened in Round 1 of 2026.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | The Athletic |
| 0:02.0 | The Race is on, and George Russell |
| 0:14.4 | headed a Mercedes-1-2 in the Australian Grand Prix as Ferrari put up an unexpectedly good |
| 0:19.1 | fights, but would LeCler have won had different strategic decisions been made? |
| 0:23.4 | And how did the first race weekend for the new regulations really work out? |
| 0:27.5 | I'm Ed Strawn, joining me to tell all, are Scott Mitchell Malm and John Noble. |
| 0:33.8 | Right, the big talking point today was the nature of the racing under these new regs. The Australian Grand Prix, obviously the first test. So the first word that I think everyone can then react to, I'm giving to third place finisher and early leader, Charlotte Lecler, who said in the press conference, before it was more about who is the bravest at breaking the latest. Maybe now there's a bit more of a |
| 0:54.7 | strategic mind behind every move you make because every boost button activation, you're going to |
| 0:59.4 | pay the price big time after that. So you always try and think multiple steps ahead. It's a different |
| 1:04.4 | way to go about racing. So John, you're there in Melbourne. How did you like what LeClerc is talking |
| 1:10.5 | about? |
| 1:18.6 | It's definitely a new way of racing, but it's one that I think opinions divided depending on how quicker car you've got underneath them, because there's very much a divide in the order between |
| 1:22.8 | the drivers who are happy also happen to be those that are at the very front, and the drivers |
| 1:27.3 | who are unhappy seem to be in those that are at the very front and the drivers who are unhappy |
| 1:28.0 | seem to be in every other position and i think we've also seen a very uh kind of confusing race |
| 1:36.2 | in terms of what the reality was that the first lapse until the vSC when the mercedes pitted |
| 1:41.8 | were fantastic. |
| 1:47.4 | You know, four cars, well, three cars were a bit. |
| 1:52.0 | Kimmy came up a little bit behind them, but the two Ferraris and George, particularly, |
| 1:56.6 | very close racing, yo-yoing, backwards and forwards, so it looked great. |
| 1:59.9 | We weren't quite sure what we were seeing, but that at least looks spectacular. |
| 2:04.6 | And I think something we can probably come back to later on just this i think we're going to see a lot of this what some teams have called yo-yo racing um it's going to be a new new new phenomenon in the |
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