Mercedes are mighty, but can Ferrari fight in 2026? Australian GP Review

14:02Jolyon Palmer:That's the important thing.

14:03Tom Clarkson:Yeah. And I think for George, just to put a full stop on that point, Formula One being what it is, Ferrari will get closer. There's no doubt McLaren and probably Remble will get closer as the season goes on. So make advantage while you can, while you've got a car advantage early in the season. This episode is sponsored by Indeed.

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15:58Richard Craill:I want to talk now, JP, about Lewis Hamilton. Everything I've seen in terms of the body language of that Ferrari and the way he's driving it makes me feel he's way more happy in this year's car than he was, well, quite frankly, since 2021, but specifically last year's Ferrari.

16:17Jolyon Palmer:I think he's got the feel back for the limit of grip in the car. It's something as simple as that. that you get much more feeling when we're not in the ground effect era. So the rear ride heights are up. You're feeling a little bit more movement coming through. The downforce is down generally. The cars are less stiff. They've got more of a conventional platform on it. And I don't think he ever felt that comfortable in the whole ground effect era. It was a bit inconsistent. It wasn't his best. He has been so much better this weekend. And he's been so much happier as well. You sense that this is a much better Lewis Hamilton.

16:49Jolyon Palmer:I thought he drove really well. really hustled Charles all the way for the podium. He's always been good in Melbourne as well. He's always been good in China. So next week's the same. And last year, if you look at the difference between Lewis and Charles, it was pretty similar. So I think we'll see when you get to a Bahrain is somewhere like where Charles is rapid. Some other circuits later on in the year. But I feel like he's up this game.

17:11Tom Clarkson:Do you feel like there's this year, which is so complex, so much going on that that guile and that experience and that massive amount of history that Lewis has got will help him this year. That ability to process everything that's going on, it's got to be an advantage.

17:28Jolyon Palmer:The thing is with this, there's arguments for everything. Because on the one end, I'm going to jump the gun here, and you've got Arvid Lindblad, who's got no experience, coming in completely fresh, having an unbelievable race. And on the other hand, you've got Lewis, with 20 years of experience, having a really strong race as well. I think you can make a case for experience being better, youthful exuberance being better, either way. In the end, I think having a bit of mental capacity spare is the key, and any driver can have that. It depends on the character.

17:58Richard Craill:He's definitely turned the page, though, hasn't he? I mean, new engineer this weekend, he'd only done, what, six days of, well, three in his case, three days of testing in Bahrain with the new engineer, and they're clearly going along pretty well together. I think Ferrari are closer to Mercedes now than they were Red Bull slash McLaren last year. And Lewis won the sprint in China last year. I think they're going to go to China with their tails up. I think they're going to be confident.

18:26Jolyon Palmer:Wouldn't surprise me if they win the sprint, because what they've got is a rocket start in their locker. And if they can qualify third and fourth, by all accounts, they'll be first and second at the end of the first lap. this circuit is an outlier in the calendar it's really difficult to recharge your battery overtaking then can be on on some counts difficult because have you got any more battery to spare but if you've got pace you can be tactical with it play that game of chess there'll be some circuits where overtaking is actually really difficult reliability will get better so we'll see less safety cars and if ferrari can then get to the front and you're having less variability with safety cars you're having harder tracks to overtake on you don't even need the best car at that point the fastest car to win races so i i think they're in a really great spot are you talking yourself into a lewis hamilton victory this year jp it's happening i look i i think lewis hamilton will definitely be on the top step this year do you be serious for a sec you you do i'm not joking yeah yeah i think he will i think he will i think ferrari have got a i've got a good car i think the race pace was much closer.

19:34Jolyon Palmer:I think they're both under-delivered in qualifying. Both drivers thought they should have been third as a minimum. Obviously, the gap to Mercedes was whopping. That'll come down at other races. If we were racing in Bahrain, there's no way Mercedes are eight-tenths clear. Am I talking you guys into it?

19:48Tom Clarkson:I am sold the moment you started talking.

19:51Richard Craill:I was sold before. I completely agree. I think this is a rejuvenated Lewis Hamilton in a rejuvenated Ferrari, quite frankly.

19:59Tom Clarkson:We all came into this and the reports from a very small sample size in Friday practice where the Mercedes were, what, four and a half tenths clear on the race runs. That's not the case. They're not that dominant over the Ferrari. So like you said, JP, if there's an opportunity to get in front and stay there, there's every chance they do that. And I think they'll both win races this season.

20:20Jolyon Palmer:Let's just take an extreme example to prove my point here. If you've got Monaco, I don't know if you can even fit a car three wide in Monaco, but if they start, it's going to be wild. And this would be one for Charles, because I think he's a Monaco specialist. If he starts on the front row in Monaco, A, I think the car will be so well suited to the circuit. B, if he starts second, he'll lead, unless Lewis is on pole. How on earth is anyone going to come through? Ferrari win Monaco, it's sad.

20:46Richard Craill:Do you think Ferrari's start advantage that we saw today is baked in, in that no other manufacturer is going to be able to top them on that?

20:57Jolyon Palmer:everyone will get better. I think Ferrari have an inherent advantage. They have a smaller turbo, which seems to be a lot more forgivable on the start, and they can feed in power really well. We saw with the Mercedes, you had Russell actually got an all right start, so he was only actually passed by Leclerc on the brakes, but that is with Leclerc skewing sideways to go past Antonelli off the line. Antonelli had all the wheel spin, and that's the knife-edge starts that you get. There are a lot of people up and down the grid. You either had a rocket start, or you shipped a load of places backwards.

21:27Jolyon Palmer:And I do think from the Ferraris, you're going to see a lot more consistency. Everyone will get closer, but I think they have that inherent advantage.

21:34Richard Craill:Let's move on to the Red Bull teams now. Max Verstappen, he doesn't make mistakes. I don't believe that. Not serious ones. Not ones that go and put you in the barrier on your first lap of Q1. And you end up starting 20th. Would you agree?

21:50Tom Clarkson:I would agree. Completely. But what a recovery. What a Max Verstappen drive. And Hadjar was running towards the front early in that crazy first 10 to 12 laps of the Grand Prix. Was that where the Red Bull was going to run or race? Probably not. I don't think it had the race pace of the Ferrari. And certainly when Max got to Lando in that battle for fifth and sixth place that waged for most of the last 20 laps, that was as far forward as he was going to go. but a great drive from 20th on the grid, World Championship points in possibly the third fastest car on the grid within a shot of the Ferrari.

22:30Tom Clarkson:But it was a typical drive from Max and if you follow the scoring in the opening five or six laps, did a bulk of that work early on, got into that midfield and then picked them off one by one and got into the mix. And remember, had to go on to the non-preferred strategy, He started on the hard tyre with that view of potentially having to go really long early on, and then with that early VSC, stopped and put the medium tyre on. So they were compromised a little bit, perhaps, on what they wanted to do from a strategy point of view as well. So it might have been more.

23:01Richard Craill:JP, he goes from P20 to P6 in the race. Crailsey and I were speaking to Laurent Mechies before the start, and Mechies was saying they still didn't know what had caused his crash in qualifying. just with your racing driver head on for a minute how much does that weigh on your mind going into

23:18Jolyon Palmer:the grand prix my my hunch is that it's obviously small details that made the difference they've got a car that's that's massively aggressive on the rear braking on the on the mg uk harvesting that's been a something that their rivals have all pointed out through testing how aggressive they are banging down the gears getting good recharge max also came in he was late into qualifying and uh laurent said that he he sure braked really hard when he when he went to that first corner so my hunch is that they've got a car that's prone to rear locking and max maybe just braked too hard and just sent it over the edge with a little bit of a mischief from the from the rear axle but it didn't take much to tip it over when you've got less downforce and uh and less grip because if the team can't spot anything obvious than that otherwise that's a major concern that it could happen again, right?

24:10Jolyon Palmer:They don't know what's gone wrong. But, yeah, if you break at 10 tenths or 11 tenths of the limit, something's got to give. He drove pretty well in the race to come through.

24:22Richard Craill:What do we think of Red Bull's potential? Did we see enough to make any predictions? Do you think Red Bull and Max can join the fight with Mercedes and Ferrari?

24:32Jolyon Palmer:They're starting from a lower base, aren't they? Because they're behind on the power unit curve. I think Mercedes and Ferrari seem to have done a slightly better job in different ways. I think we've just got to reserve judgment a little bit. As I said, Melbourne is such an outlier of a circuit. This is a recharge-dominated track. Speaking to the teams, there will be other circuits where they're basically driving like normal, or it's tiny bits of clipping, not massive D-rates, which we saw into turn nine, where they're down two gears on a flying lap. This is not what we're going to see on most circuits.

25:06Jolyon Palmer:and that's where I do think Mercedes had a huge advantage on Ferrari and on Red Bull. I think Red Bull are better off than they showed. Also, I think I've heard that Max was struggling with his boost button, so his energy deployment late on to try and clear Lando. So I think it's better than it looked, and obviously coming from the back anyway to sixth was solid.

25:29Tom Clarkson:What I think they'll love is that when Verstappen was out, Hadjar stepped up and brilliantly had been qualifying and to put them on the second row of the grid. So something that team has been well publicised at not having for the last several seasons. It's often felt like a one-car team with M Verstappen. So the fact that Hadjar stepped up, I know the race didn't obviously go to plan and he was out early with a quite spectacular mechanical, but the fact that he showed enough in qualifying to step up and fill the void of Verstappen not being there

26:02Jolyon Palmer:was promising yeah 100 it was the best second second driver role in Red Bull for a while wasn't it shame he didn't put up some points on the board that's the only thing just to cement that good start ending with with zero is still going to be tough for Hadjar but he's shown the potential

26:15Richard Craill:it was a very methodical performance by Isaac Hadjar I felt you know the way he just worked at it quietly you know once Max was out in Q1 you might have thought a heap of extra pressure on his shoulders but didn't show he just got he just improved the setup got quicker with each session when i asked him in the press conference after qualifying you know how satisfied he was i did get a very french shrug of the shoulders yeah yeah yeah he's he's very difficult to impress

26:45Jolyon Palmer:isaac hadjo i saw him in park foot mate i was doing the interviews and i was like he is going to be so chuffed he's arrived at red bull and he's going to be like happier than than george and it was very much the same like yeah it's just normal it's just it's just what i do

26:58Richard Craill:what he's at prize actually jp he did say i want max verstappen in qualifying because i need him as the bench he's the benchmark i want to be able to compare myself to him and i haven't had

27:10Jolyon Palmer:that opportunity this this weekend bold i will wonder how long he'll still feel the same as the year wears on but he was so good he's a good qualifier generally isn't he yeah now you mentioned

27:21Richard Craill:bold. Okay. Let's talk about racing bulls rookie, Arvid Lindblad. Now, finishing P8. Let's talk about the start, actually. He goes from, what is it? P9 to P3, as you mentioned at the top of the show.

27:35Tom Clarkson:Were you as surprised as we were?

27:36Jolyon Palmer:I couldn't believe, because all the chaos, and you've got the Ferraris coming through. First of all, you've got Lewis suddenly going from seventh on the grid, and you're like, is he going to lead at turn one? And then you're looking through, seeing like four wide coming down to three, and one of them is a racing bulls, and you're like, no way, is at the rookie no way and then he and then he passed his haggar as well on the first lap it was

27:56Richard Craill:it was unbelievable yeah and even when max verstappen was coming through he raced him

28:02Jolyon Palmer:i loved it yeah it was it was one of the great rookie displays from limblad all weekend he's been top class doesn't know you would never guess that he's a rookie all the experience stuff he did really well uh got beaten by lawson only in q3 but racing bulls run used tires he still did a better outright lap time than lawson which he did in q2 and flipping heck the race the race start the race craft he was passing norris he was passing hamilton he was racing with verstappen all of these guys champions and he was in his first race and the fourth youngest formula one driver of all time he must be walking around this paddock shoulders back like an absolute ledge

28:44Tom Clarkson:It was a real exclamation point performance. Yeah, I'm here. I'm in F1. Watch out for me moving forward. Let the driving do the talking. And it was, even at the end, he was in those battles, I think with the Haas at the end there and was battling away when Portoleto as well was having a really good scrap and he was cool, calm, didn't make mistakes. That was exciting. You love watching those rookie performances, don't you? Because they're the ones, when he goes and wins a world championship in five years or whatever it might be, you go, do you remember Melbourne 2026 when he burst onto the scene and made that massive impact on the sport.

29:18Tom Clarkson:It's such a great story. Crazy. Fearless, right?

29:21Richard Craill:What you don't know, you don't know. You wonder almost, as a result of this amazing weekend, whether he'll be a little bit more tense as we go to China next weekend. I don't think he will.

29:30Jolyon Palmer:I think he's going to be even more aggressive. Well, I did that last week. I'll do it again. No one gave him the memo that racing bulls don't try and fight the big guys. You capitulate quickly, right? Fill in the vest of the rest.

29:42Tom Clarkson:He went for it. It feels like that courage, that commitment's always been there. I had the fortune to work with him very briefly in New Zealand. Two seasons ago, he won Formula Regional Oceania, and at the New Zealand Grand Prix, he was given an opportunity to drive an Aussie supercar. We might talk a bit more about that later on. But lap one out of pit lane had never driven a racing car with a roof or a sequential gearbox like that. Everything had been paddle shift or open wheeler. He went out, turn one, smoke off the rear tyres, sideways, hanging it out flat out. So what a ledge. Drove straight into the thing and earned the respect of everyone watching from a supercar point of view.

30:20Tom Clarkson:So he had that utter commitment and that confidence in him clearly in the junior formula and that's carried on.

30:27Richard Craill:Well, he's earned the respect of everyone in this Formula One paddock this weekend in Melbourne. Now, the ebb and flow of this podcast, the light and the shade. If we talk about the light with Arvid Limblad, can we bring it on to McLaren and the hometown hero, Oscar Piastri. Can I throw this to my Aussie friend first of all? I wish you didn't have to. I mean, poor Oscar, crashing on his way to the grid. He actually said in the pen, didn't he, that he got a power surge and he got 100 kilowatts more than if he'd been at full throttle, he was saying, at the exit of the corner where he crashed on cold tyres.

31:01Richard Craill:But give us the Aussie perspective on that.

31:04Tom Clarkson:Well, to be fair, it was an Oscar answer. I read another quote that said, but that doesn't mean there wasn't driver involved. And there was. So he clearly stuck his hand up for it, at least part of it. And the post-mortem will dig into all of that. Do you know, I've never felt the vibe at a Grand Prix change as quickly as that did when the big screens around the circuit at exactly the same time we did cut to the shot of the McLaren with the front corner and the front wing hanging off, and everyone looked at the helm and went, oh, no, it's Oscar. And it sucked the life out of the venue. There were 138 ,000 people here today, and all of them, I think, were just a bit like they'd been punched in the guts and winded by it.

31:51Tom Clarkson:The pressure he has on his shoulders at this race is extraordinary, and I can only assume, Jo, and it must be like being a Brit at the British Grand Prix at Silverstone. It's that parochialism that I think our country's have in common with their sporting heroes. And Oscar is a genuine Aussie sporting hero. So that was way worse than if he was crashed out at turn one, lap one, or if the McLaren had blown up on lap 15 and he was running fifth or sixth. The shock of that before the race even started was what I think for me made it harder to take.

32:27Richard Craill:And Crails, I'd been really surprised up to that point, just how much bigger Oscar is this year, even than last year. You know, he's got his grandstand on the pit straight now, but it took him an hour to get down the Melbourne Wall, where all the fans can, you know, that's 150 metres. But he signed every single autograph. And I mean, JP, he's going to be pleased that we've only got one week until the next race, isn't he?

32:52Jolyon Palmer:Yeah, that's the good thing for him to get going. He's also been driving pretty well, I think, this weekend. He's had the edge over Lando throughout. Just gutting. I was on the grid as it happened, and so all the fans there, and I completely agree, you're just gasping. You can't believe what's happened. I think it's a torque spike, isn't it? As he's going around, he's just doing his systems checks, checking out the car, low grip, bit of curb, takes an upshift, and suddenly gets way more power than he's expecting. There. And, yeah, gutting.

33:25Richard Craill:what about McLaren as a whole? Norris comes home P5. I was a little bit surprised by the gap to Mercedes, the eight-tenths in qualifying. I thought, I mean, Oscar did a good job. He actually said after the session, he thought he'd left a little bit on the table, hadn't optimised everything. But again, even if he had, I think it was still a bigger gap than I was expecting. You were at testing as well, JP. Were you expecting a little bit more from McLaren?

33:51Jolyon Palmer:I thought everyone would be closer to Mercedes. I think there's pretty much everyone outside the front row thought they should have had third place if they hooked it up perfectly. Hadjar hooked it up perfectly, by the way, and so that's... Driver made the difference there. There were tiny gaps. The thing for McLaren is, when Mercedes bolted, you think, well, they've got the same power unit. It's a power-sensitive circuit. There's loads of long straights. The recharge and deployment is so critical. Why can McLaren not do the same thing? They've got the same hardware, same software, same kit. so they're scratching their heads as well as to how Mercedes have found this advantage the good news is they should be able to investigate that close it down and find some performance there but yeah I was surprised that for the same power unit a team that won the championship last year are so far away.

34:38Tom Clarkson:Leno stopped twice first of the two stoppers so even if you remove that extra pit stop relative to the leaders away from the race time still 30 seconds behind I think at the end George Russell so it's a fair margin in a race that had two VSE plus a very short one as well so yeah they've got some work to do don't they but as Jolin said this is such a unique circuit that I think the true test will be the next two races to see where they genuinely land I still feel this is like an outlier in terms of ultimate performance and will they be closer to the money in Shanghai. If they're eight tenths away in China, that's probably when they start going, oh, we've got some real work to do here.

35:32Richard Craill:Well, I think what was evident here in Melbourne was that the big four, the top four are still the top four. Or do we talk about the top five with racing bulls? No, I don't know. But really, the top four are the top four. There's then a little bit of a gap back to the midfield of which racing bulls are leading it can we just talk about some of the other midfield pack i'm gonna throw the newbie at you now audi gabriel bortoletto scoring points in audi's first race coming home p9 i mean do you think they can lead the midfield are we are we surprised that audi are where they are given that they've had to build a brand new factory a brand new power unit in Neuburg in Germany but it it was a seamless weekend actually I mean on one car I had to just qualify that but I just thought in terms of pace I was impressed with how that car hit the ground

36:27Jolyon Palmer:FP1 they were really quick weren't they I think with this generation of car if you start the weekend quickly you can learn so much more I think there was a few teams in that midfield that were troubleshooting issues. They were working out energy deployment all the way through Friday, where Audi actually started in a great spot. It allowed them to work on setup, really hone in. The drivers were both pretty happy with the car. I was actually amazed how competitive they were. Portoleto drove really, really well all weekend, got some deserved points, good strategy, good pit stops. Happy days, I'd say, for them.

36:59Tom Clarkson:Yeah, it was the Sauber of the end of last year, wasn't it? Just in works form, which was great to see. Portoleto's got a bit about him. Doesn't he? I really like watching him drive and he's got a bit of energy around him, which is great. On the flip side, it's a shame we didn't see what Hulkenberg had. So I don't think there's any doubt they would have had two cars in that battle for the final, you know, seventh down to 12th or 13th position.

37:25Richard Craill:Hulkenberg doesn't start the race, but Bortoleto still outqualified him. And I've always thought of Bortoleto as a bit of a Melbourne Albert Park specialist. He's always had good results here. I think it's a track where he's had his most regular points finishes in his long career. So for Bortoleto to come in in year two in Formula One and put it over him is a good job.

37:48Jolyon Palmer:Finished last year quite meekly as well. He had such a good run, didn't he? He got a load of points in Budapest. We were saying, well, no surprise, he's an F2 champ. Then had a horrid time in the Americas and actually sort of felt like he limped out of the season a little bit. So to turn that around, put that behind them over the winter, points first time, Q3 first time, so much better.

38:08Tom Clarkson:I'm really interested now, and I'll go back to being a race fan on the couch, watching Grand Prix at silly o 'clock in the morning or at night. I'm really interested to see what they do as a works team between now and the end of the season in terms of development. Because that's something that as Sauber, that team never had the resources to just build the car and develop over the course of a season. But now Audi, they do. So they've got works team, you know, ability to develop like a Mercedes does. So they're starting from a lower base, but maybe the ceiling is just as high. It's exciting.

38:44Richard Craill:And I love the double act of Mattia Benotto and Jonathan Wheatley at the top. I mean, it's not a coincidence. I think that the PU is decent. Benotto was in charge of all the engines when Schumacher was dominating everything at Ferrari. He knows how to build engines. He's running things back at the two bases. Wheatley has sharpened everything up massively at the racetrack as team principal yeah I think it's exciting times

39:06Jolyon Palmer:they've probably already developed the most from Barcelona day one to end of Melbourne so I completely agree manufacturer presence into a decent race team it's exciting

39:16Richard Craill:right let's talk about Haas and Alpine now who doesn't love a good Gasly and Ocon battle on track gift that keeps on giving isn't it but what about the two teams I mean, actually, you know, it was Behrman, not Ocon, who got the better result for Haas and him coming home P7 and Gasly coming home P10. But let's start with Haas and the performance. Think where Haas were last year. They were six tenths slower than any other car at this racetrack in Melbourne last year. And yet they were solid sort of front of midfield all weekend here to come home. Behrman delivering again. Impressive.

39:56Tom Clarkson:Behrman felt like he really crept up on that race too. We didn't see an enormous amount of them in the broadcast. There was a battle with Ocon towards the end. But, yeah, it felt like they really crept up on it. And they sort of hovered around that 8th to 13th window, as you say, front of the midfield more or less throughout practice and then in qualifying. So not spectacular by any account at any point over the weekend. But sometimes that's good in Formula 1 and just be a really solid weekend and to walk away with world championship points, first Grand Prix in that midfield fight, which clearly is going to be really intense with Alpine and maybe even Williams as they develop and get better as the year goes on.

40:35Jolyon Palmer:Yeah, Behrman was really quick in the race. The qualifying pace, I think the team were generally disappointed not to have a car in Q3. Behrman was carving through in the first part of the race, benefited from the VSC and managed to gain some places and go longer, overcut a few drivers, passed Lindblad on the track, and then he was really quick. So I would say standout in the midfield in terms of pace in the race was Behrman. And so Ocon not getting anything out of it was a little bit disappointing. Obviously stuck in that fight with Gasly. And Gasly will be absolutely chuffed to drag a point for Alpine out of this race because they've been scratching their heads all weekend.

41:11Tom Clarkson:Yeah, after the pre-season testing and proof that you can only rely so much on what happens in testing that Alpine all weekend was sat there and looked at the results going, well, where has that team gone that was arguably best of that midfield bunch after Bahrain. And, yeah, as you say, to drag a point out of it, which it feels like Gasly did at the end of that one. When he launched in at turn three and managed to argy-bargy his way through. Yeah, he grimly grabbed at the World Championship point, didn't he? And it might be valuable at the end of the season. So, yeah, they had to fight for that.

41:43Tom Clarkson:But kudos to them for getting it in the end.

41:45Richard Craill:It's going to be a development drag race, isn't it? Across the grid. But that midfield is so tight, isn't it? Now, Crails, you touched on Williams there. If they start developing, can they join that midfield fight? It's going to be a while. It's going to be a while. It's been a very difficult start. Let me remind you, they didn't make it to the Barcelona shakedown. They actually had quite a reliable run at the two Bahrain test sessions. So for Carlos Sainz to get literally no running ahead of the Grand Prix was a surprise as well as being disappointing. and then Albon qualifying P15. And I mean, you know, some people in the team were telling me yesterday that, you know, their pre-race strategy briefing, they were discussing how many times they were going to be lapped.

42:36Richard Craill:That is the lack of confidence that team has got right now. But where do Williams go from here, JP?

42:43Jolyon Palmer:They're working on getting weight off the car and adding downforce. So that's a nice plan.

42:50Richard Craill:Good luck with that.

42:51Jolyon Palmer:I heard in Bahrain that the Williams car was heavier this year than it was last year. But even when the weight limit's gone up by 30 or down by 32 kilos, flipping heck, that is some weight that they're lugging around the circuit. I'm sure a lot of that's come off with sensors and bits and bobs, but no wonder they're struggling. I'm coming to terms with Aston Martin just being Aston Martin this year, which makes Williams the biggest disappointments for me. When you think of all the noise for the last two years, every bit of focus has been on 2026. Last year, they got a couple of podiums at the end of the year.

43:26Jolyon Palmer:They've got a race-winning driver. They've got Alex Albin alongside him, who's a very high-level driver as well. And they've got a Mercedes power unit in the back, and they've flops this badly, nowhere near Q3, nowhere near points. They've really fumbled this set of regs, you have to say.

43:43Tom Clarkson:There's very little I can add to that. Yeah, underwhelming to a huge extent. And as Jolene said, out of everything this weekend, Cadillac included, they were probably the most disappointing story. I think Aston we expected to be what they were. Williams was just disappointing given all this emphasis that had been built into the clean sheet of regulations for this year.

44:08Richard Craill:You've just said, Jolene, that you've got used to Aston being Aston, where they are at the minute. I actually want to put a positive spin on it. I was quite impressed with them this weekend in the end. That's where I was going with it. From where they started the weekend. After FP1, when Adrian Newey comes and says, well, we came here with four batteries. We've already destroyed two. We've got one battery left per car. If we have another problem, that car can't run anymore. From that baseline. Happy days. Fernando Alonso was P10 at the start of that Grand Prix. You know, after amazing start. I mean, it's of course it's disappointing where they're at.

44:49Richard Craill:But are there green shoots already?

44:51Jolyon Palmer:I think you could see a lot more glimpses of promise. I do think, I mean, Adrian's been at pains to, let's say, point the fingers in one direction of where the performance has gone. And that's with Honda in that partnership. And you could see actually the car is working quite well in terms of the aerodynamic package, which shouldn't be a surprise with an Adrian Yui car even if he's a bit late to it there's more to come uh you we shouldn't be surprised that Fernando can somehow get in it and haul out nearly a Q2 and honestly I would have said he's odds on to be in the top 10 at the start of the race they chucked him on some soft tires and you think if anyone's going to get there through the midfield it would be Fernando we know they've got the ingredients to do well it's just how quickly they can learn and Honda can get on to onto some level of terms with what's going on and at least they did get laps in so they they have a chance to do that they were never going to be finishing the race with respectability i think that's that's why we think it's a success just because they both took the start both did some laps it seems like they're going to be able to run in china because they've managed to maintain batteries so it's look it's a it's a pitiful start but there yeah there are a little bits of silver linings now you know when you go to your favorite

46:03Tom Clarkson:shop on the high street and you get to the door and there's a sign up there taped up that says back in five minutes and you're really disappointed but you know that they will be open again feels like there's a bit of that I'm going somewhere with this there's a bit of that with Aston come back in 10 races and see where they're at and it might be the team that we know can be a proper front of the midfield runner like they were on occasion last year and to that point in all the media that comes out after the race and before China next week I cannot wait to see Fernando Alonso's opening lap from the Australian Grand Prix 2026, because I would imagine it was spectacular vision to watch.

46:43Richard Craill:On the topic of Alonso, in the past, funnily enough, with Honda, he's been very quick to point the finger publicly. He hasn't done that. I think he does still believe in this project, and that is significant.

46:57Jolyon Palmer:He's basically got no choice, has he? He either retires or he believes in the project. So does he want to carry on racing? Has he still got hunger to last for it? and it seems like he does. I do think he's been fairly magnanimous given this is Fernando Alonso. He's a two-time world champion, one of the greatest drivers the sport's ever seen. He seems to be in for a penny and for a pound.

47:21Richard Craill:Look, final one, Cadillac, brand new team, first Grand Prix. You have to remember that this weekend was the first time they've been able to run two cars because the regulations stipulate it's just one car in testing. I mean, a huge moment for everybody in that team. And for, you know, for Perez, okay, three laps down, but he did make it home in P16.

47:45Tom Clarkson:Yeah, so they've got 58 laps of learning from his car and half a Grand Prix from Bottas now to go and process. I don't think anyone expected them to be any quicker than they were, but they looked like a racing team, didn't they? They did all of the right things around it. Their stops were decent. They ticked the boxes of getting there. and at no point did they present as a real backmarker Formula One team like we used to see way back in the day, back when Melbourne first came into Formula One in 1996 when you'd have teams seven or eight seconds off the pace and struggling to qualify. They looked like a proper racing car team and I think there was a quote from Sergio that said, now we know.

48:26Tom Clarkson:We know now all of the areas where we need to go and find and it's a bit like that quote before, which is, well, we need more power and we need more downforce. clearly they need that more than anyone else but at least they've got a bit of an idea so I think from a visual standpoint from the marketing and promotion they did an awesome job here and they've launched hard they look like a proper racing car team now they've just got to build a

48:47Jolyon Palmer:faster racing car solid base they had such low expectations no one's expecting too much and we got to remember they're starting from scratch with this they got a load of good technical minds there I think it'll come but they've got no pressure on their shoulders right now

49:03Richard Craill:Guys, what a great chat. What a wonderful weekend it's been. Look, final thoughts. Driver of the day, lads. Let's hope we have a good scrap about this one because I think there's a few. There's a few out there.

49:18Tom Clarkson:Well, my driver of the weekend is this guy jumping into an Aussie supercar. One of our cars early on the weekend.

49:26Richard Craill:I should add that when Crails is not calling the Formula One Grand Prix here in Melbourne, He is the supercars commentator here in Oz, so he knows a bit about it. I mean, JP, how did you get on?

49:36Jolyon Palmer:You know what? I was not giving it all the burnouts out of the first corner. I was very much straight off the plane, a couple of flying laps. I absolutely loved it, though. Those cars are great. They move around. There's a load of power. I haven't driven a racing car in a long, long time as well, so it was such a great chance to drive it.

49:56Richard Craill:Might we see more of it? I know people, I can hook you up in our panic. I am never turning down the charts. It was a lot of fun. And Krellsie, what about this? I mean, I agree, JP, mecca to see him back behind the wheel, and I really mean that. But what about the Grand Prix itself? Give us your driver of the day of the 22.

50:15Tom Clarkson:I'd love to say George Russell for the way he executed, but I have to go Harvard Lindblad for the Grand Prix performance, but the complete weekend performance. and a colleague that was working with us at Channel 10, Chris Stubbs, did the pen interviews afterwards and reported back that he was just on cloud nine. He was really effusive about his race, excited, animated, bubbling with excitement after delivering that. And I love that. So of all the performances today, that stood out for me. And so I'm going to go after the Lindblad. I loved it.

50:48Jolyon Palmer:Yeah, my honourable shout-out goes to Charles Leclerc. Just for the gutsy race start, holding George back, the tussle there. But it's Lindblad, isn't it? What an amazing debut. It was the most impressive debut I've seen for a long, long time.

51:01Tom Clarkson:I feel bad for George because he drove a perfect race, executed to perfection. But the impact of Harvard for mine was extraordinary.

51:10Richard Craill:I said, let's have a good scrap about driver of the day. And we've all agreed. We've all agreed. It's David Lindblad. Aged 18, fourth youngest driver in Formula One history. To come in with such a cool head, not be intimidated by anyone or anything was quite extraordinary. And I'm really excited to see what he can now bounce on to do after this.

51:33Jolyon Palmer:We shouldn't forget how difficult it is to jump into Formula One. I just think he's made a look so easy. The pressure, the nerves he must have felt. He's put a lot of pressure now on Liam Lawson, hasn't he, for the next race. So the question is, can he back it up? We'll find out very soon.

51:47Richard Craill:All right. And from a team point of view, give us a quick packing order. So it's Mercedes from Ferrari from...

51:55Jolyon Palmer:I think Red Bull are a nudge ahead of McLaren. Although I would have quite liked to see what Oscar could do because I did feel like he was just a nose ahead of Lando this weekend.

52:05Tom Clarkson:Yeah, I agree with that. And then a midfield melee.

52:07Jolyon Palmer:Midfield melee, yeah. Yeah, very close. I think my pre-season predictions on pecking order played out very well in the end of his own.

52:18Richard Craill:Your fantasy team, right? That's why we're not doing so well, TC. I haven't even looked. Well, guys, what a pleasure it is to have you both on the show. Thank you very much for your time. JP, I'll be seeing you next in China. Very much looking forward to that. And Kralese, I'll see you next year in Melbourne.

52:35Tom Clarkson:Thank you both for coming. We appreciate you coming to our country to do Formula One with us. I think it was a great show and a great event as well. 480 ,000 people. Formula One's never been bigger here, and it's only going to get better. I've just got to go and work out how we break this Piastri curse and get him to the finish and on the podium somehow. But it's been fun. All right.

52:55Richard Craill:Kralzi, I'll second everything you've just said there. And for all you guys listening, for more reaction and analysis from Melbourne, please go to Formula1.com, the official F1 app, or at F1 on social media. And we'll be back on Thursday with our preview of the Chinese Grand Prix, just one week away. And in the meantime, why not check out F1's other official podcast, Carlos Sainz is my first guest on F1 Beyond the Grid this year. And below this episode on the F1 Nation feed, you can listen to F1 Explains live from the fan stage here in Melbourne with Williams team principal James Vowles, who's been answering your questions.

53:33Richard Craill:But for now, thanks very much for listening. F1 Nation is produced by Formula One and Audioboom Studios.

53:47You