Piastri set the early benchmark from Hulkenberg, Bortoleto, Hadjar and Norris in the top 5. Russell and Antonelli waited until the clock ticked down a bit before getting their laps in. Hamilton, Verstappen and Hadjar started on the mediums before Hamilton had a spin. Russell and Antonelli then set the times up at the top for a 1-2. Alonso went P17 as the clock ticked to 7 minutes 30 seconds remaining. Hamilton manages P3 as both Williams, Aston and Cadillac were the bottom 3 in the dropzone as 6 minutes remained. Lindblad then had to box as they had an issue. As drivers like Hamilton, Norris and Gasly crossed the line, no one could dethrone the silver arrows until Leclerc went ahead by about 1 second.
Lindblad managed to get out onto the track with around 3 minutes remaining as the final laps came in with Albon moving up to P16, Hadjar up to P7, Verstappen P4, Sainz P14, Lindblad P11, Stroll and Alonso remain P21 and P19 respectfullt, Bortoleto up to P7 and Bottas remains P20.
Out in Q1: Sainz Albon Alonso Bottas Stroll Perez
Q2
Q2 got underway and Bortoleto and Hadjar were marked as “No Further Investigation” for an impeding incident. Russell set the earl;y pace ahead of Hamilton, Leclerc, Antonelli with Verstappen, Norris, Hadjar all qualifying P5 and dethroning each other. Bearman manages to go P6 with Bortoleto only managing P6. Gasly manages P8, Colapinto P13, Lindblad then ahead of Bortoleto before the two Alpine times with Lawson P14.
In the final laps of Q2, Piastri had the most amount of pressure and went out to get clean air earlier than most drivers to manage P5 before Leclerc manages to go P1. Norris then managed to get P5. Hulkkenberg missed out on Q3 by 0.002s as Antonelli managed P1. Hadjar only managged P10 with Verstappen to P6. Bortoleto then spun at the final corner and ruined laps for many drivers as Colapinto wasn’t able to get through. Out in Q2: Hulkenberg Colapinto Ocon Lawson Lindblad Bortoleto
Q3
Q3 saw Russell’s car get a new rose but then his car stopped on track and then get going but being unablce to change gears. Antonelli manages a 1:32.332 with Leclerc manages P2, Hamilton P3 and Bearman P4. Norris and Piastri manage P3 and P4 respectfully with Hadjar P7 before he goes P6.
Drivers headed out to qualifying with just over 3 minutes 30 seconds remaining that Russell was ale to make it out of the pitlane. Purple sectors were being traded between Antonelli and Norris and Leclerc. Antonelli was the first to cross the line and extend his gap ahead as Norris remained P3, Leclerc P2, then Hamilton P2, Gasly P6, Bearman P7, Hadjar managed P7 then Verstappen P7. Russell managed to get a lap in for P2 so Andrea Kimi Antonelli managed to become the youngest pole sitter in F1 history!
The first full day of this rally would see the crews tackle 137 kilometres over eight stages. There had already been two stages on Thursday afternoon with really tricky conditions in the first one and Oliver led from Elfyn by over thirty seconds with Seb a further thirty seconds back in third overall. Thierry was the best of the three Hyundai crews holding sixth overall, whilst Jon was seventh for M-Sport.
Onto Saturday then and unfortunately the first stage was cancelled, SS3 Camp Moran 2. This was the stage hit by huge rain and puddles on Thursday afternoon.
The first action then was in SS4 Loldia 1 and Seb set the pace from his teammate Sami, whilst Adrien was third. Oliver who was leading the rally was eighth fastest whilst his closest challenger for the lead, Elfyn, was sixth. The Frenchman reduced the gap to the front in this stage.
Next up then came SS5 Kengen Geothermal 1 and Sami set the pace from Seb and Elfyn in this one. Once again Oliver was near the bottom end of the top ten with the ninth best time and thirteen seconds off the pace. His two teammates had reduced the gap as well with Elfyn less than thirty seconds away and Seb now under forty seconds. It was an impressive stage win for the Finn as he suffered a puncture as well.
Sami also won SS6 Kedong 1, the stage with the jump near the tree, from Takamoto and Thierry was third fastest. Interestingly, Oliver beat both Seb and Elfyn in this stage going sixth fastest with Seb eighth and Elfyn tenth. There was no big-time gaps between the three of them meaning the gaps remained pretty much as they were at the end of Kengen.
After service the crews returned to SS7 Kedong 2 and Seb was fastest this time from Sami and Esapekka. There was a little bit of movement on the overall leaderboard as Seb passed Elfyn for second overall and despite a twenty second penalty Sami moved ahead of Takamoto. The Japanese driver sadly suffered double punctures on his front tyres, losing thirty-two seconds and falling to fifth overall. At least he had two spares on-board to be able to change before the next stage. It was a good drive from Jon in this one who set the sixth best time, just four tenths of a second behind former M-Sport driver Adrien.
Then it was back to SS8 Kengen Geothermal 2 and once again Sami showed that he had this one figured out going fastest again from Seb and Thierry. With no spare tyres, Takamoto just took it easy going sixth fastest. There was some time loss for the rally leader though as Oliver had a puncture on the right-hand rear corner which then saw his lead reduced to just one second over Seb with Elfyn now just a further 4.7 seconds back. Also getting a puncture was Jon in his Puma and he fell one position overall to ninth as Esapekka moved into eighth.
Seb ended Sami’s run of fastest times, winning SS9 Loldia 2 from Adrien and Oliver who set the identical time of fourteen minutes, fourteen seconds and four tenths. Seb’s pace took him a little closer to his Swedish teammate, with just seven tenths of a second between them! There was some movement further down the leaderboard as both Thierry and Adrien passed Takamoto for sixth and seventh overall. There was more drama for Jon though who stopped in the stage for over twenty minutes. The reason was that he’d lost the rear and clipped something at the edge of the road and broke the driveshaft and a part of the suspension. He and co-driver Shane got it changed, but this left the Puma with front-wheel drive. They did make it through to the end which was important.
Onto the final stage then, SS10 Mzabibu 2 and Sami was once again setting the pace from Oliver and Seb. Oliver opened the gap to his world champion teammates to one second whilst Elfyn who remained in third overall saw the gap grow to just under twenty seconds.
Let’s take a look at the top ten positions and hear from the drivers.
Classification after Day One
1
O. Solberg
E. Edmondson
Toyota GR Yaris Rally1
1:33:50.2
2
S. Ogier
V. Landais
Toyota GR Yaris Rally1
+1.0
3
E. Evans
S. Martin
Toyota GR Yaris Rally1
+20.5
4
S. Pajari
M. Salminen
Toyota GR Yaris Rally1
+1:10.5
5
T. Neuville
M. Wydaeghe
Hyundai i20 N Rally1
+1:46.1
6
A. Fourmaux
A. Coria
Hyundai i20 N Rally1
+1:47.3
7
T. Katsuta
A. Johnston
Toyota GR Yaris Rally1
+1:53.3
8
E. Lappi
E. Mälkönen
Hyundai i20 N Rally1
+2:53.2
9
R. Virves
J. Viilo
Skoda Fabia RS
+6:53.6
10
G. Greensmith
J. Andersson
Toyota GR Yaris
+7:08.1
Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT
Oliver Solberg
“Today the goal was to try to be clean and keep a similar pace to Elfyn. This afternoon was so rocky, and for my first time in the car in these conditions it isn’t easy. We probably lost half our lead from being careful, and half the lead from the tyre damage in SS8. That was unfortunate but a lead is a lead and I have to be happy with that. Seb has been incredible today, probably taking more risks, but there’s such a long way to go and to be one second in front is better than two minutes behind.”
Sébastien Ogier
“I think I can be very happy with today, starting with a deficit of more than a minute and being only one second from the lead tonight. Of course, we always believed that we could come back after last night, but it felt like a long shot even here in Kenya. Now it’s all very open, so let’s see. I think we are all expecting that tomorrow is the biggest day of the rally with three very demanding stages, so many things can still happen, but we’ll try to keep the same approach and a strong rhythm.”
Elfyn Evans
“It’s been a bit of a mixed day for us. We gave away a bit of time at moments, some of it a bit unnecessarily, but that’s also the nature of this rally. We damaged a wheel in the first run through Kedong and dropped a bit of time with that. It’s been going OK but I wouldn’t say I’m happy. The stages that are coming tomorrow are prone to a lot of rain, especially in the afternoon, and conditions could be difficult already in the first pass. We’ll just keep trying to do the best we can.”
Sami Pajari
“It’s been a nice day for us. The conditions were relatively straightforward, and I just tried to choose the sections where I could push. I still felt that in the most tricky and rough places I was trying to back off. Still, we could set the fastest time in four of the stages and be very close in the others, and that was really nice to see. It’s not like we were just flat-out everywhere because that will end very quickly: you need to be clever too. That will be important too on tomorrow’s stages, where we’ve seen a lot of rain and drama before.”
Takamoto Katsuta
“This morning I was driving quite steady and not really pushing, but still the times were not too bad and the feeling in the car was good. Unfortunately, in the first stage of the afternoon we got the double puncture. That was really not ideal, and I just tried to survive the afternoon with so many rough sections knowing that we didn’t have any spare tyres. We’ve lost a few positions but a minute on this rally is almost nothing and we know that tomorrow anything can happen. Hopefully there will be some drama and I’m ready if it rains.”
Hyundai Motorsport
Thierry Neuville
“It has been an eventful day here in Kenya. I didn’t have the best start this morning, but when we got into a rhythm we felt more comfortable, especially this afternoon after we made some changes. The roads are more rutted, but I just couldn’t drive the car faster. We had a few troubles this afternoon with a stone causing our fan to break and our radiator to overheat. Tomorrow, we’re expecting the worst, although we’re not quite sure what that will be – so we need to focus on getting through, keeping a rhythm, accept the weather isn’t in our favour and do everything we can to stay out of trouble.”
2026 FIA World Rally Championship 14 Round, Safari Rally Kenya 11-15 March 2026 Photographer: Helena El Mokni Wordwide copyright: Hyundai Motorsport GmbH
Adrien Fourmaux
“I was really enjoying today – we had the pace, and we were able to do some very good times, so overall I am pleased. We were missing out on the fastest time by a few tenths each stage, but at least we were there and able to close the gap to those ahead of us. That is a positive, and let’s see what we can do tomorrow. We know many things can happen, so we just need to make sure we are performing well in the rain.”
Esapekka Lappi
“This morning it became clear that the settings I have on the car, which I chose myself, are not right, but there isn’t much we can do about the situation. Instead, we focused on what we can control, and were able to make it a bit better. Today we took a similar approach to yesterday – just try to survive until the finish.”
Saturday
The second full day of both morning and afternoon stages sees the crews tackle just under 123 kilometres over six stages, with the longest stage of the rally Soysambu as well at twenty-four kilometres run twice. There is also the possibility of rain arriving in the afternoon as well.
Who will be holding the top positions at the end of the day?
This article is the latest in a series looking back at the Super Touring era of the BTCC.
The Super Touring era was in full swing, and manufacturers from around the globe were staring to take notice. There were already representatives from the UK, France, Germany and Japan, but a certain Italian marque would make their mark in 1994; and in controversial fashion too.
Alfa Romeo entered the fray with their 155, bringing along Formula One driver Gabriele Tarquini with them. Volvo also joined the growing list of factory backed teams with their some would say kooky, this author would say excellent, 850 estate. Other drivers were in a sense of disbelief seeing the boxy entry on media day but the car is now a modern cult icon.
Alfa, and in particular Tarquini, hit the ground running. He won the first five races at a canter, with the likes of Paul Radisich and John Cleland chasing him down. But all was not what it seemed…
Their advantage was attributed to the aerodynamic wing package, a myth since debunked by Tarquini himself, who states the engineering in the car was what made it better than the rest.
The ToCA rules stated teams had to build their cars based off their road-going counterparts. So many of these had to be produced in order for the car to be legal to race. Alfa exploited this rule by creating a ‘homologation special’ of the 155 – named the Silverstone (I would’ve thought an Italian team would choose the Monza but there we go…). This was purely to receive the aero advantage, much to the chagrin of other teams on the grid.
Many teams complained, rumour has it Ford’s Andy Rouse actually bought a 155 Silverstone, just to see how it was engineered. At Oulton Park, Alfa famously withdrew from the meeting in protest, having been told to run without the aero package on their car. For the next round at Donington, Alfa returned with the wings lowered. While not as fast, Tarquini was consistent enough to maintain his gap at the top of the leaderboard, with wins at Brands Hatch and Silverstone and a bunch of second placed finishes sealing the title.
For 1995, the competition was only getting stronger, with Formula One teams now getting involved. Renault were being backed by Williams, and Volvo by Tom Walkinshaw of Benetton and Arrows fame. With reigning champion Tarquini departing (though he would return midway through the season), Alfa signed up ex-F1 racer Derek Warwick. Aero was now also legal to avoid any issues like the season before.
At Vauxhall, John Cleland was so confident after pre-season testing, he told his team: ‘Clean it, put it back in the truck, and bring it to Donington, don’t change a thing.’ Confidence? The charismatic Scot had the ability to back it up too. The ageing Cavalier had one last dance before the Vectra would be introduced for 1996 – and it saved the best for last.
He didn’t have it all his own way though, Rickard Rydell, now in the Volvo 850 saloon, and Alain Menu in the Williams Renault Laguna were at times faster and staked their own claims to the title.
Menu was arguably the fastest over the course of the season, but the 1994 runner up suffered with teething problems between Williams and his Laguna. If he wasn’t winning he was out of the points. He took seven wins to Cleland’s six, including three of the last five races to help Renault to the manufacturers crown. Will Hoy, Menu’s Renault teammate, won the other two.
Rydell started the season strongly but a poor end to the season stunted his title hopes. He took just 13 points from the last six races of the season with a high speed spin into retirement at Snetterton being the nail in the coffin for the charismatic Swede.
Cleland was consistent and smooth in his Cavalier, giving the car the perfect swansong. A streak of seven podiums, including four wins, in mid-season helped his title bid. From 25 rounds, Cleland scored 18 podiums, and taking his second title in the process.
This one will have meant more to John, as his 1989 title always comes with the caveat of being won under the old class rules system where he was fastest in his class and secured the most points, but he rarely took the chequered flag. 1995 was different, he was the class of the field and earned it the right way.
For the majority of the season it was a three horse race, and with no less than eight different winners, 1995 was one of the closest seasons in a long time and a marker of things to come.
Time for the first round of this seasons championship on gravel and on some of the most iconic roads of Kenya. After their win last time out Elfyn and Scott lead the championship and will open the road throughout the stages on Friday.
This years edition has 350 kilometres over twenty stages. The action begins with shakedown on Thursday morning before two stages that afternoon which total just over 33 kilometres. Then Friday sees the most amount of stages at eight with almost 140 kilometres of action. Saturday is a little shorter with six stages and almost 123 kilometres of action whilst Sunday’s stages see the crews tackle four stages with just over 57 kilometres of action.
Let’s hear from the drivers.
Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT
Elfyn Evans
“It’s been an incredible start to the year for the team, but we certainly can’t underestimate the challenges ahead of us, especially going into a rally like Safari. It can be a really unpredictable event: you can find rocks in the middle of the road or hidden in the grass, and when it rains there can be standing water and zero grip. It’s been a very successful rally for our team, which works hard to give us a strong car with modifications to help us in those tough conditions. Last year’s rally was quite extreme with the weather, and I was very happy to get through it and come away with the win for the first time. It won’t be an easy feat to repeat but that will be the target.”
Oliver Solberg
“Safari Rally Kenya is a rally that I love and I’m looking forward to doing it with the GR YARIS Rally1 car for the first time. It’s a very different type of rally to somewhere like Sweden or Estonia because it’s not about pure speed or finding the ultimate feeling with the car. There are some sections you can attack and have a lot of fun in the car, but you can’t do that everywhere, so you need to try to find a consistent and safe pace. The team has an amazing record in Kenya, and we can be confident that the car will be strong. The main goal is to have a clean rally and if you can do that, you can bank some very good points.”
Sébastien Ogier
“It will be a pleasure to return to Kenya after missing the last two editions of the Safari Rally. I look forward to being back in this beautiful country and seeing the excitement of the African fans, and it’s always a unique experience different to any other rally. It will be my first time being there at this earlier time of year, and it looks like it could be wetter than I’ve seen in the past. How you approach this rally depends a lot on the conditions you face, and these can evolve very quickly. It’s an event you need to start with humility, but the team has been in amazing form and Kenya has been good ground for us in the past, so let’s hope we can achieve another great result.”
Takamoto Katsuta
“It was enjoyable to be in the fight in Sweden and hopefully I can take this feeling forward to Kenya, even though that will be a very different challenge for everybody. For the Safari, you need to forget about driving flat-out like in Sweden and sacrifice some speed to try to manage everything. Despite this, it’s another rally that I really like, and it seems to suit me quite well. Our team has also been very good there and they are always providing us with a strong and reliable car for those tough conditions. It’s a special rally for me and for the team and we always feel great support, and I’m confident we can aim for another good result.”
Sami Pajari
“Sweden was a really nice rally for me with a solid performance and result, but Kenya will be a completely different and unique challenge. Doing the rally for the first-time last year was a real adventure. On some stages it’s more a matter of surviving, but there are others which are more fast and flowing. It’s a rally where I believe experience is playing quite a big role. Last year we had a clever approach and finished fourth, which was a good result for our first time, but I hope this year we can have more speed and fight for the podium positions, while still needing to be smart about where we push and where we back-off.”
Hyundai Motorsport
Thierry Neuville
“Safari Rally Kenya is one of the most demanding events on the calendar for both man and machine. It’s been a tough event for us, but last year we were able to secure our first podium, and that’s where we want to get back to. It’s hard to know what the conditions will be like but based on what we’ve had over the past few years, we expect a huge variety. Rain tends to be very localised, but it’s usually heavy across stages like Sleeping Warrior. As well as navigating the conditions, we must optimise our setup to protect the car as much as possible. Balancing reliability with the right setup is always a challenge, but avoiding punctures is an even bigger one. My goal is to have a trouble-free event; we can be fast in Kenya, but we’ve also struggled to get through without any issues. Hopefully this year we can bring home another strong result.”
2026 FIA World Rally Championship 14 Round, Safari Rally Kenya 11-15 March 2026 Photographer: Helena El Mokni Wordwide copyright: Hyundai Motorsport GmbH
Adrien Fourmaux
“Safari Rally Kenya is a unique event for our championship. Everything from pacenotes to the unpredictable weather are very different to other rallies, and they’re not necessarily things that we are used to. This event can be a mix of fesh-fesh, mud and deep puddles across rough sections – this can be very hard on both the car and the mechanics. Tyre management is crucial; we have to get the best out of them without doing too much damage. We’ll be fourth on the road in Kenya, which is a strong position for this event. It’s ideal because you avoid the destroyed roads you’d get starting further back, and you can also make the most of the lines in the road from the cars in front. Our target is to have a clean rally – avoid damaging the car and risking any punctures – so we can finish on the podium.”
Esapekka Lappi
“We’ve tried to maximise our preparations for Kenya by focussing on reliability, including enhancing our demisting system for the best visibility in wet conditions. Pure performance is not as crucial in Kenya, so we are at less of a disadvantage there. It’s difficult to prepare for the fesh-fesh as it’s almost impossible to find similar conditions in Europe, so it’s often just full throttle and fingers crossed. Enni hasn’t competed in Kenya before, but she did do a recce there two years ago, which gives her some understanding of what it’s like. Her most important preparation will be getting advice from our co-driver colleagues. I’d like to be in a position where we’re on the pace to fight for a good finish, but to do that we need a calm and collected approach.”
M-Sport Ford WRT
Josh McErlean
“Safari Rally is one of the toughest events of the year. The focus is on being smart, looking after the car and putting together a consistent performance. If we do that, we can come away with a really positive result.”
Jon Armstrong
“Kenya will be a unique challenge for me and Shane, as it’s our first time there it will be a lot to discover. As we work through our preparations and research, I can tell it’s not going to be easy, but we will give it our best shot and focus on keeping it as clean as we can! We recently spent time in the workshop preparing with the team and working on the car which was very valuable going into such a rough event.”
Romet Jürgenson (WRC2)
“Kenya will be a very different challenge compared to the rallies I’ve done in the past. Maybe Greece in my Junior WRC years compares a little, but it’s definitely an event where we have to think about the long game and getting through without major issues to secure a good position in the end. That will be our aim, to get the experience of this unique and great event and then just hope for the best result we can get.”
Summary
The action gets underway tomorrow with shakedown before the first two stages in the afternoon.
The 2026 Formula One season is now underway, and while Mercedes confirmed themselves to have the best chassis and engine, it was another engine supplier whose performance was the biggest talking point in Melbourne.
Honda sounded warning signs about the performance of its engine from pretty early on in pre-season, but nothing could have prepared both it and F1 team partner Aston Martin for the pain that it would endure during the two official test sessions and the Australian Grand Prix.
Lance Stroll failed to run at all on Saturday and both he and Fernando Alonso were unclassified on Sunday due to the need to save engine components as Honda tries to work out what’s causing all of its reliability problems.
Regulations mandate this season that the power is split almost 50/50 from the Internal Combustion Engine (ICE) and the electrical element from the battery, with 350kw (469 bhp) supplied from the retained MGU-K (Motor Generator Unit – Kinetic) – which harvests energy from braking, coasting and on throttle.
Expectations set very low on Thursday
The writing was on the wall as early as the Thursday media day when Design Technical Partner and Team Principal Adrian Newey and Honda Racing Company’s F1 boss Koji Watanabe called a press conference, after being unable to run on the final day of testing two weeks prior in Bahrain due to battery issues and a lack of stock.
That session drew enough headlines to last an entire weekend, where Newey revealed that excessive vibrations from the ICE was causing the battery to fail (this would eventually leave the team with two working batteries going into Saturday) but more strikingly was a possible risk to the drivers’ long term health.
“That vibration into the chassis is causing a few reliability problems. Mirrors falling off, tail lights falling off – all that sort of thing, which we are having to address. But the much more significant problem is that the vibration is transmitted ultimately into the driver’s fingers,” Newey began.
“So Fernando is of the feeling that he can’t do more than 25 laps consecutively before he will risk permanent nerve damage to his hands. Lance is of the opinion that he can’t do more than 15 laps before that threshold.”
Honda introduced countermeasures aimed at reducing the effects of those vibrations but even after two weeks of testing on the dyno at their factory in Japan, they still have not been able to identify the root cause of those vibrations. While that remains the case, Honda will not be able to solve that problem and extract any more performance from an engine widely thought to be the weakest in terms of power output, behind newcomers Audi and Red Bull/Ford.
And when they got to the track?
Friday and Saturday went broadly as Newey warned it would.
Alonso failed to run in the first Friday Practice while Stroll completed three laps, while in FP2 Stroll ran 13 laps and Alonso 18.
Stroll may as well have stayed at his hotel on Saturday as he failed to run in either the third practice or in qualifying. Alonso did complete 20 laps in FP3 but was unsurprisingly out of qualifying in the first session, outqualifying only the Cadillac duo of Valtteri Bottas and Sergio Perez while Carlos Sainz of Williams, Stroll and Max Verstappen failed to set a time.
A crash for the McLaren of Oscar Piastri on his way to the grid, and a DNS for Audi’s Nico Hulkenberg promoted both men up the grid by two spots. Alonso ended up 10th on the opening lap before a lack of power and reliability curtailed his afternoon as he completed 21 laps. Stroll, fresh from his enforced Saturday hiatus, saw the chequered flag – albeit 15 laps down.
This was broadly in line with what was briefed, with Newey explaining that “we will need to be very restricted on how many laps we do in the race until we get on top of the source of the vibration and improve the vibration at source.”
Hasn’t Honda been here before?
Fernando Alonso was driving for McLaren when it disastrously linked up with Honda in 2015
On the face of it, yes.
Honda announced that they would return to Formula One in 2015 with McLaren towards the end of 2013, with the hope being that they could rekindle the glory days of the late 1980s and the early 1990s.
To say that failed to materialise would be a catastrophic understatement as the three year partnership ended with McLaren breaking its contract at the end of 2017 to conclude a partnership that failed to even yield a podium and became synonymous with endless engine failures and a lack of performance.
The reality is that there is more nuance to this, more reasons to be positive and more questions about how Honda found itself in this position yet again.
In 2015 McLaren demanded that Honda fit its Power Unit within the team’s bold “size zero packaging” requirements that Honda simply couldn’t, and the upshot was that McLaren would almost relentlessly brief the media that the car and chassis was up to standard and being let down by the engine.
McLaren did not compromise throughout those three years, and would ultimately find out the hard way that was not the case, only returning to true competitiveness in 2023.
Honda and Red Bull linked up in 2019 and built a good working relationship with Newey in his previous role at the head of the Red Bull design department, and Newey referenced that with his comments on Thursday about Honda “having a track record” of recovering from a bad start to engine regulations.
Honda announced it would leave Red Bull and F1 at the end of 2021 in early 2020, but gave Red Bull and sister team Alpha Tauri (Now Racing Bulls) technical support over the next two years.
Honda will now be operating under an engine budget cap of $130m and so cannot just throw money and resource at the problem, and will be limited by upgrade windows to a maximum of two upgrades this season, in the name of reliability.
Did Aston Martin know about these issues before the season started?
Another telling quote from Newey revealed that Honda’s engine department had been gutted in that time away, and he estimates that 30% of the original engine department remain now.
“Honda pulled out at the end of 2021. They then re-entered the sport kind of at the end of 2022, so roughly a year and a bit out of the competition. When they reformed a lot of the original group had, it now transpires, disbanded, gone to work on solar panels or whatever. So a lot of the group that reformed are actually fresh to Formula 1, they didn’t bring the experience that they had had previously.
“Plus, when they came back in 2023 that was the first year of the budget cap introduction for engines so all their rivals had been developing away through ’21 and ’22 with continuity the existing team and free of budget cap.”
He then went on to reveal Aston Martin were not aware of that when the deal was agreed to link up in 2024 ready for 2026, and that Aston Martin were not aware of any performance deficit until a meeting in Tokyo in November last year to discuss rumours of Honda missing its targets back in November.
Those unusually candid comments point to a frustration felt by the higher ups at Aston Martin, alongside comments made on the chassis (sound familiar?!) that it was the fifth best with scope to be the most competitive.
That is not to absolve the team of any blame for this, as while they were not in charge of the Honda engine department and didn’t oversee any of the reassignments, quitting and re-entering F1, the fact they did not know about all of this points to a lack of due diligence done ahead of signing off on the deal to leave a now all-conquering Mercedes to partner with Honda.
Time will tell on whether Honda can recover again, should they not this crisis could end up costing them their future in Formula One.
George Russell claimed victory in the opening race of the 2026 season in Australia, leading a Mercedes one-two from Kimi Antonelli.
Charles Leclerc came home third despite enjoying a phenomenal start in his Ferrari from fourth on the grid, taking the lead from Russell into Turn One.
Several laps of entertaining action saw the pair swap the lead on multiple occasions, but a Virtual Safety Car would prove Ferrari’s undoing.
Russell and Antonelli, whose poor start saw him fall to seventh on lap one, pitted after Isaac Hadjar’s engine failure brought about a caution period. Ferrari opted not to bring Leclerc or Sir Lewis Hamilton in, costing them valuable time as the Mercedes duo managed to get both cars to the end on one stop.
Leclerc and Hamilton pitted significantly later, but were unable to reel in either Mercedes car despite the freshness of their rubber, ultimately leaving them third and fourth respectively.
Chaos had ensued before the curtain could even be raised when Oscar Piastri, at his home race, lost control of his McLaren on his lap to the grid, ruining his McLaren and leaving Lando Norris as the sole runner for the constructors’ champions. Norris finished fifth in a disappointing day for the Papaya squad.
Mixed fortunes could be found at Red Bull too. Hadjar’s engine failure spelt another ill-fated Melbourne outing for the Frenchman, but Max Verstappen recovered from his accident in qualifying – which saw him start 20th – to finish sixth.
Oliver Bearman made up impressive ground to end up seventh, and Arvid Lindblad scored points on his Formula One debut in his Racing Bulls car in eighth. Gabriel Bortoleto was the only Audi to take the start after a pre-race issue ruled out Nico Hulkenberg’s car, and the Brazilian crossed the line in ninth.
Alpine’s Pierre Gasly and Haas’ Esteban Ocon renewed their rivalry with a series of absorbing overtakes on one another, the former beating his fellow Frenchman to the final point.
Alex Albon finished 12th for Williams ahead of Liam Lawson’s Racing Bull, the Kiwi suffering a disappointing finish having been slow off the line at the start.
Franco Colapinto took 14th in the second Alpine ahead of the other Williams of Carlos Sainz, while Cadillac’s Sergio Perez, missing a piece of his bargeboard after it came loose, took 16th.
Lance Stroll was 12 laps behind in 16th, having initially brought his Aston Martin into the pits before heading back out to complete some more running.
His team-mate Fernando Alonso retired early due to the British team’s persistent safety concerns, and Valtteri Bottas’ Cadillac joined the retirement list when he ground to a halt at the final corner midway through the grand prix.
It is the first time that Mercedes have won the season opener since 2021, and the first time they have opened the season with a one-two since 2019.
George Russell claimed pole position for the season-opening Australian Grand Prix, while Red Bull’s Max Verstappen suffered a horrible start to 2026, the Dutchman crashing in the early stages.
Russell beat team-mate Kimi Antonelli to pole, with Mercedes locking out the front row in Melbourne for the first time since 2019.
Attention in the early part of qualifying was dominated by Verstappen’s accident which took place on his first timed attempt, confirming a 20th-placed start for the race.
The rear axle of Verstappen’s RB22 seized as he braked into Turn One, sending the four-time champion skating across the gravel into the barrier.
The Dutchman’s misfortune did pay dividends to Mercedes, the subsequent red flag offering them more time to prepare Antonelli’s car following his crash in third practice prior to qualifying.
But more drama ensued in the third and final part of qualifying, when Mercedes sent Antonelli onto the circuit with both sidepod coolers still attached.
The coolers were inevitably deposited onto the racetrack; one landed in the gravel at Turn One, while one was obliterated by Lando Norris’ McLaren having been flung onto the track.
The Mercedes driver’s day became trickier when he took an excursion at Turn Three having locked up. However, he recovered from that and his earlier crash to end qualifying second.
Isaac Hadjar impressed hugely on his Red Bull debut, setting a lap good enough for third behind the Mercedes duo.
Charles Leclerc will line up fourth for Ferrari, ahead of the two McLarens of Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris in fifth and sixth respectively. Sir Lewis Hamilton will start seventh. The Racing Bulls of Liam Lawson and Arvid Lindlad followed.
Audi’s Gabriel Bortoleto will start 10th having ground to a halt in the pit entry at the end of Q2 – an incident that caught Lawson and Lindblad by surprise. The latter nearly ended up in the barrier as a result.
Nico Hulkenberg was pipped into Q3 by team-mate Bortoleto and will start 11th, while the Haas cars of Oliver Bearman and Esteban Ocon will take to the grid in 12th and 13th respectively on Sunday.
Pierre Gasly ended qualifying in 14th ahead of the Williams of Alex Albon, a trip across the grass at the end of Q2 preventing any improvements for the Thai driver. Franco Colapinto will start the grand prix in 16th.
Fernando Alonso, during a torrid opening to the year for Aston Martin, set a time good enough for 17th, ahead of the Cadillacs of Sergio Perez and Valtteri Bottas.
Verstappen, following his shunt, ended the session in P20, while Carlos Sainz and Lance Stroll did not manage to get out on track.
Russell’s pole is his eighth in Formula 1, and his first in Australia.
A sensational start to the 2026 season with a thrilling race that came right down to the finish line.
David Almansa (LIQUI MOLY Dynavolt Intact GP) claimed a maiden Grand Prix victory in a breathtaking final-corner showdown with Maximo Quiles (CFMOTO Gaviota Aspar Team), the pair separated by just 0.003 seconds at the line. The finish was so tight it required a video review confirmation. The last time the class produced a margin this small was in 2013 at Phillip Island, when Alex Rins edged Maverick Viñales in Australia. Behind the leading duo, Valentin Perrone (Red Bull KTM Tech3) secured his first podium in third.
Photo Credit: Pirelli Press Office
Polesitter Almansa grabbed the holeshot and controlled the early exchanges, resisting Quiles in a drag race into Turn 3 to lead the opening lap. We had some early fallers with Cormac Buchannan (CODE Motorsports) and Matteo Bertelle (Level Up – MTA) crashing out early. They were followed by Ryusei Yamanaka (AEON Credit – MT Helmets – MSI) crashed at Turn 5 on Lap 2, while Guido Pini (Leopard Racing) also hit trouble at Turn 12 a lap later on his debut with the team, eventually recovering to 20th.
What initially appeared to be a four-rider escape group — Almansa, Quiles, Alvaro Carpe (Red Bull KTM Ajo) and Adrian Fernandez (Leopard Racing) — was soon swallowed back up. Rookie Veda Pratama (Honda Team Asia) and Perrone joined the fight, with just one second covering the top six in the opening phase. As the race developed, Almansa and Quiles turned the screw. By mid-distance, they had broken clear — and by the closing stages, the Spaniards were a remarkable nine seconds up the road from the chasing pack. It became a straight duel for victory, both riders circulating in the 1’41s and matching each other corner for corner.
Quiles briefly seized the lead on Lap 11 at Turn 12, only to hand it back after running wide at Turn 1. From there, it was a tactical chess match.
On the final lap, a small mistake from Quiles at Turn 12 handed Almansa half a second of breathing room. But the #28 responded with an outstanding final sector, closing rapidly and launching one last attack at the final corner. Almansa defended firmly, forcing Quiles to adjust mid-corner — and it looked settled. Yet on the drag to the line, Almansa found superior drive, inching ahead by 0.003 seconds.
Behind the runaway leaders, Perrone executed a decisive last-corner move on Carpe to clinch third and open his podium account in style. Pratama impressed hugely in fifth, top Honda on debut, ahead of Fernandez in what had been a brilliant four rider battle for the last podium place.
Photo Credit: Pirelli Press Office
Just behind the lead group, Brian Uriarte (Red Bull KTM Ajo) claimed seventh, followed by Marco Morelli (CFMOTO Gaviota Aspar Team), Joel Esteban (LEVEL UP – MTA) and David Muñoz (LIQUI MOLY Dynavolt Intact GP) completing the top ten. Rookie Casey O’Gorman (SIC58 Squadra Corse) narrowly missed out, finishing 11th.
Scott Ogden (CIP Green Power) took 12th followed by teammate Adrian Cruces. They lead both GRYD – MLav Racing riders Joel Kelso and Eddie O’Shea who picked up 14th and 15th in a rare double points for the Honda team.
After 85 days, Formula One finally returns this week to the homeland of Oscar Piastri, Jack Doohan and Mark Webber! The Australian Grand Prix marks Formula One’s 76th season and the second year since 2019 that the country has hosted the opening round, the first of a new engine era since 2014…the last era. Not many driver changes this season with Arvid Lindblad being the best (and only) rookie this season, Valtteri Bottas and Sergio Perez returning to the sport with Cadillac and Isack Hadjar moving up to the main Red Bull team.
Track Preview
This 5.278km long circuit displays the 30th anniversary since the first Grand Prix held here. There are 5 “Straight Mode Zones”:
Main straight
Turn 2 to turn 3
Turn 5 to turn 6
Turn 8 to turn 9
Turn 10 to turn 11
Formula One Australia Grand Prix Circuit Map. Image Credit: Formula One’s website
The active aero side of the cars, which is new for this season, will impact the races in a way we have never seen it before.
Along with Formula 1 starting, Formula 2 and Formula 3 also return this weekend which will see more drivers and teams take to the track and attempt to make their way to F1!
Countdown to the Weekend
Its a dream weekend for viewers in the oceanic region of the world and one of the rare weekends that happens before sunrise for many sections of the world.
Countdown to FP1
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Countdown to Qualifying
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Predictions
The Crew over here at Crew Towers have made predictions of the top 5 ahead of the Grand Prix.
I apologize for the long delay for his article. I’m trying to see the best way forward for these race reports in the future, especially with double headers. Feedback is appreciated!
Rounds 4 and 5 have come and gone from Formula E A few days ago with many storylines happening and coming out of the race weekend.
Round 4:
Mahindra Highs and Lows Oh boy, what a wild race for the Mahindra guys. Before we even went racing, De Vires had an issue that he could not even do a burnout or engage drive so that delayed the start and reduced the grid down to 19. Once the race got going though, Mortara had a MASSIVE amount of wheelspin and fell down a few places off the start. Thankfully for the Indian team and Swiss driver he climbed back up to P2, although it was a big “what might have been” for Mortara.
Marti vs Maloney Part 1: First lap and first contact between the full time rookie and sophomore rookie in the electric pinnacle of motorsport. On lap 1, Marti was fighting for position but Maloney went up the inside, Marti didn’t see him and ended up causing the boy from Barbados to DNF on lap 1 of race 1 of the weekend while Marti finished outside the points.
Pit Boost Change of Positions: Due to the safety car for Maloney’s Lola Yamaha Abt stuck at the side of the road, pit boost activation didn’t occur until lap 16. Rowland, Eriksson and Barnard were the first to take their pit boost but Eriksson went too far wide in his pitstop and received a penalty due to this.
Wehrlein Takes Off: After all of the pit boosts and attack modes were taken, Wehrlein had already reached a large gap between himself and the eventual P2 finisher of Mortara. Wehrlein eventually built an 8 second gap before Mortara took a late attack mode to get within 3 seconds of Wehrlein.
Position
Driver
Team
1st
Pascal Wehrlein
Porsche Formula E Team
2nd
Edoardo Mortara
Mahindra Racing
3rd
Mitch Evans
Jaguar TCS Racing
4th
Nico Mueller
Porsche Formula E Team
5th
Antonio Felix Da Costa
Jaguar TCS Racing
6th
Nick Cassidy
Citroen Racing
7th
Sebastian Buemi
Envision Racing
8th
Jean-Eric Vergne
Citroen Racing
9th
Jake Dennis
Andretti Formula E
10th
Taylor Barnard
DS Penske
11th
Max Guenther
DS Penske
12th
Dan Ticktum
Cupra Kiro
13th
Norman Nato
Nissan Formula E Team
14th
Pepe Marti
Cupra Kiro
15th
Felipe Drugovich
Andretti Formula E
16th
Lucas Di Grassi
Lola Yamaha Abt Formula E Team
17th
Oliver Rowland
Nissan Formula E Team
18th
Joel Eriksson
Envision Racing
DNF
Zane Maloney
Lola Yamaha Abt Formula E Team
DNS
Nyck De Vries
Mahindra Racing
Round 5: Maloney vs Marti Part 2 The battle of the 2 F2 graduates from 2024 has taken shape as they both had small contact going into the final chicane. It wasn’t as big as yesterday but this battle could rage on.
Cupra Kiro Controversy: At the latter stages of the race, the two cupra kiro teammates Dan Ticktum and Pepe Marti nearly collided and threw away a double points finish for the team. Marti used an expletive which was not good but he seemed very heated about it. Thankfully the situation didn’t result in either teammates DNFing but the debrief should have been spicy.
Championship Heats up Da Costa’s Jaguar journey had a slow start with not scoring points until Miami at the previous venue. However, his form has returned with Jaguar now winning 2 of the past 3 races and the battle for the championships heating up.
With Wehrlein then scoring 4 points in the final race of the weekend, the top 2 in the championship are seperated by 6 points with P3, P4 ,P5 and P6 seperated by 4 points.
