The season opener came with an element of mystery this year, with the new regulations promising to make a change and shake up the season, and Russell's win may be a result of that.

Going into the weekend, there were many questions surrounding how the new teams, Cadillac and Audi, were going to perform, and Aston Martin's reliability issues were dominating the headlines.

Both of the Aston Martin drivers spent a large amount of the race in the pits, which made for an interesting race on their end. Alonso initially retired around lap 14 as a warning came from the car, but it was fixed, and he returned to the race over 10 laps behind. Stroll then had a similar issue a few laps later and had to come into the pits for a long pit stop, similar to Alonso before, also going back out on track. Unfortunately, both cars were forced to retire before the end of the race. Alonso told F1 that the team is determined to fix some things before China.

The biggest headline to come out of the Australian GP is Russell dominating the weekend with pole and the win on Sunday. Coming into the weekend, Russell had been seen as the favourite for the championship, and he managed to deliver a strong result to start his campaign.

After a disappointing year last year, Toto Wolf made it clear that they have turned their focus to 2026, and so far, it looks like that is paying off. Antonelli was close behind Russell in second, showing that Mercedes has the pace this year to put themselves in front. At the start, Antonelli had a poor start but due to their speed was able to move himself back up to second and finished the race, completing a Mercedes 1–2.