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When the lights went out and the cars pulled away in Melbourne, it really did feel like we were stepping into a whole new world. New teams, new cars, and - most importantly - new rules that would change everything.
Indeed, by the end of the Australian Grand Prix, it was clear that this is a very different Formula 1 from the one we've grown used to over the last few years, and these are my initial thoughts on it.
Mercedes make a masterful start
Throughout the ground effect era (2022 to 2025), it felt like Mercedes had everything they needed to succeed except the car, and they proved that at the weekend.
They couldn't have asked for much more from their drivers. As was the case for most of last season, George Russell barely put a foot wrong throughout the weekend, while Kimi Antonelli recovered excellently from mistakes in FP3 and the start of the race to finish both qualifying and the grand prix ahead of everyone but his teammate.
Just as impressive, and important, as their performances was that of the pit-lane crew. They capitalised on the Virtual Safety Car period to bring both their drivers in at the optimal time and then judged tyre degradation perfectly to execute one-stop strategies that gave them a comfortable one-two finish. It was a well-oiled operation that Ferrari fans can only dream of.
What's more, I'm pretty confident that, even if Ferrari got their own strategies right or Mercedes got theirs wrong, the outcome would have been the same, such was the raw pace of the W17 in the hands of Russell in particular.
A top car, two top drivers, and a perfectly run off-track operation. The Silver Arrows are going to take some stopping in 2026.
Welcome back, Lewis Hamilton
A lot of people are being fairly negative about Ferrari's first race of the season, but I actually think they have quite a lot to smile about. They clearly have the second-best car on the grid, they got the best result possible given they wouldn't have had the pace to beat the Mercs even if they pitted under the VSC, and - best of all - they finally welcomed the real Lewis Hamilton to their team.
The seven-time World Champion was miles away from teammate Charles Leclerc throughout 2025, but finished the first race of 2026 less than a second behind him and would've beaten him if it had lasted a lap longer. For comparison, he crossed the line 50 seconds after the Monegasque in the final round of 2025; that is a huge step forward.
It's, of course, only one race, but I think there's a lot of reason to believe that more of the same is on the horizon.
For one, he hasn't seemed so satisfied with the machinery that he's been given since 2021. In the years between then and now, he started the season with cars he didn't feel particularly comfortable in, but that's not the case this time around.
What's more, with how crucial energy management now is, the new rules make raw pace a lot less important and intelligent driving a lot more important, and that very much favours Hamilton; at 41 years of age, he's maybe not quite as quick as he once was, but all those years on the grid have only made him smarter.
I still wouldn't back him to out-score Leclerc over the course of the season, but I'm feeling pretty confident that he's going to put an end to the idea that he's past it, and fulfil his dream of picking up podiums and wins in the red of the Scuderia.
Many felt that he ceased to be a top driver the moment he was robbed of an eighth world championship in 2021, unable to bounce back from such a brutal blow, but maybe it's not that deep. Maybe the cars of the ground effect era simply weren't to his liking, and we're about to see the Lewis Hamilton of old return to the fray.
What a tantalising thought that is.
A new way of racing
While Hamilton will be feeling pretty good about the new rules, he's in the minority, in terms of both the 20 drivers on the grid and the millions of people with an interest in Formula 1.
On paper, F1 got what they wanted: more racing. The lead swapped hands multiple times in the opening stages as Russell and Leclerc battled it out, while the race as a whole consisted of 120 overtakes as opposed to 45 last year. However, more often than not, the drivers pulled off their moves not by being brave or being brilliant, but by saving more battery power than the one they were chasing and cruising past without much resistance.
That, and the fact that energy-management requirements prevented drivers from pushing their cars to the limit even in qualifying, has left many people unhappy. They feel that F1 should be a display of the fastest cars the world can produce and the superhuman talents of the best drivers the world can produce, and that's not what we got in Melbourne.
I get where they're coming from, but I also think it should be remembered that this was the first time drivers and teams were dealing with these new rules.
Before long, they'll all figure out the optimal approach to deploying energy and will have similar levels of power across a lap, meaning bolder and more creative overtakes will be required again. At that point, given that these cars are more agile and able to follow one another more closely than those of the previous era, we could get our best racing in years.
Also, deciding where you're best off saving energy and where you're best off using it in order to get past a rival is a genuine skill in itself, albeit a less exciting one, and adds a really interesting strategic element.
The issue of drivers not being able to go as quickly as they were before is one that is more likely to stay, but after years of watching cars glued to the track form orderly queues, I'd personally rather watch two go side by side at 160mph than one sit behind another at 200mph.
