The 2026 Formula 1 world championship kicks off this weekend in Melbourne, where new teams, more brands and even more unknowns will make the Australian Grand Prix one of the most eagerly anticipated F1 season-openers in years.
To be held over March 5-8, the event will culminate on Sunday afternoon with 22 cars lining up for 58 laps of the 5.278km track at Albert Park, where the first Australian GP was held in 1928 and the modern event has been held since 1996.
Round one of the 24-round championship brings the biggest ruleset change since 2022, meaning the previous form guide can be thrown out the window.
The pecking order won’t be known until the Melbourne event, and even then it won’t be until Saturday afternoon’s qualifying session that the gloves will truly come off.
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Melbourne’s own Oscar Piastri returns in his McLaren, sans the world championship trophy he seemed to have a firm grasp on mid-way through last season before it went to teammate Lando Norris, ahead of Red Bull’s Max Verstappen.
A reset Piastri will be even more determined to claim a home victory at Albert Park after threatening winner Norris in damp conditions in last year’s race, before team orders – and a spell on the grass – promoted a courageous comeback to score crucial points in ninth.
World champion Norris remains Piastri’s teammate in 2026, but will McLaren – winner of the last two Constructors titles – be a championship contender like it was last year?
Pre-season testing has seen Ferrari, Mercedes-Benz, and Red Bull in the mix with McLaren, yet in reality not even the most seasoned commentator, driver or team boss truly knows where they will sit, adding to the anticipation.
Who is racing in the Australian Grand Prix?
Piastri is the only Australian driver on the grid – with Jack Doohan now a reserve driver for Haas – but New Zealand’s Liam Lawson (Racing Bulls) makes it two Antipodeans on the grid.
That’s if you don’t count Finland’s Valtteri Bottas as an Aussie.
The cheeky Finnish driver has adopted Australia as his home, building a strong local following with his mullet hairstyle and comedic social media clips alongside his bike racing partner, Australian Olympian Tiffany Cromwell.
The two-time Australian GP winner returns as part of the new Cadillac race team, whose first race will be this weekend, with ex-Red Bull racer Sergio Perez as his teammate.
The arrival of Cadillac makes it 22 cars on the grid, two more than the field that started in Melbourne last year – and there’s been only a handful of driver changes.
The most prominent is the promotion of Isack Hadjar to replace Yuki Tsunoda – demoted to become reserve driver – at Red Bull alongside Verstappen.
British driver Arvid Lindblad, only 18 years old, is the only rookie on the 2026 grid and will take Hadjar’s vacated seat at Racing Bulls alongside Lawson.
Every other team has the same driver pairing as in 2025, including Aston Martin which will again field two-times world champion Fernando Alonso, who turns 45 in July and remains the oldest in the field.
Seven-times world champion Lewis Hamilton, 41, will start his second season for Ferrari this weekend, too.
Cadillac will use Ferrari engines this season, when it will become the first all-new team in F1 since Haas – now Toyota-backed but also running Ferrari engines – joined in 2016.
There are other new and returning names on the grid for 2026: Verstappen’s Red Bull has switched from Honda to Ford power, as has the Racing Bulls junior team, with Honda engines replacing Mercedes-Benz engines at Aston Martin.
Aston Martin’s new car is the first under legendary designer Adrian Newey – the man behind Red Bull’s championship-winning cars, as well as the title-winning McLarens and Williams driven by the likes of Mika Häkkinen, Damon Hill and Ayrton Senna.
The Sauber team, too, is now officially rebranded Audi as the German automaker enters F1 for the first time, having competed in GPs back in the 1930s before the modern era kicked off in 1950.
The new teams arrive with new rules – intentionally, to save the cost and effort of developing cars across multiple rulesets – and Verstappen said after pre-season testing that the 2026-spec cars are not fun to drive.
This year the cars are shorter, narrower and use smaller tyres, and bring new ‘active’ aerodynamics in which the front and rear wings automatically open on straights, effectively replacing the previous driver-operated Drag Reduction System (DRS).
There are also redesigned hybrid power units running on sustainable fuel, bringing three times the electrification and new ‘Overtake’ and ‘Boost’ modes alongside Recharge mode.
After being tested in Europe and the Middle East, they’ve proven far more difficult to drive despite being marginally slower, so don’t expect lap records to tumble around Albert Park in 2026.
Below are the teams and drivers contesting the race, with past AGP winners denoted in bold and rookies denoted by asterisks.
| Team | Drivers |
|---|---|
| McLaren | #1 – Lando Norris (2025) #81 – Oscar Piastri |
| Mercedes-Benz | #12 – Kimi Antonelli #63 – George Russell |
| Red Bull Racing | #3 – Max Verstappen (2023) #6 – Isack Hadjar |
| Ferrari | #16 – Charles Leclerc (2022) #44 – Lewis Hamilton (2008, 2015) |
| Williams | #23 – Alex Albon #55 – Carlos Sainz (2024) |
| Racing Bulls | #30 – Liam Lawson #41 – Arvid Lindblad* |
| Aston Martin | #14 – Fernando Alonso (2006) #18 – Lance Stroll |
| Haas | #31 – Esteban Ocon #87 – Ollie Bearman |
| Audi | #5 – Gabriel Bortoleto #27 – Nico Hülkenberg |
| Alpine | #10 – Pierre Gasly #43 – Franco Colapinto |
| Cadillac | #11 – Sergio Perez #77 – Valtteri Bottas |
Where and when can I watch the Australian Grand Prix?
If you’re not trackside at Albert Park, the Australian Grand Prix will be shown on both free-to-air (FTA) TV and paid streaming services.
Network 10 is the FTA broadcaster, with coverage available on Channel 10 and live streamed on 10 Play.
Foxtel will broadcast the event live on Fox Sports channel 507, with live streaming on Foxtel Go and Kayo services.
Below are the session and broadcast times for Formula 1.
| Session | Time (AEDT) |
|---|---|
| Free Practice 1 | 12:30-13:30, Friday, March 6 |
| Free Practice 2 | 16:00-17:00, Friday, March 6 |
| Free Practice 3 | 12:30-13:30, Saturday, March 7 |
| Qualifying | 16:00-17:00, Saturday, March 7 |
| Race | 15:00-17:00 or 58 laps (whichever comes first), Sunday, March 8 |
What support categories are at the Australian Grand Prix?
Four motorsport categories supporting the Formula 1 show will be at the 2026 Australian Grand Prix.
This includes Formula 2 and Formula 3 open-wheelers – the stepping-stones to Formula 1 – while Australia’s premier racing category, Supercars, will hold races across all four days (Thursday to Sunday) of the event.
It will be the second round of the 2026 Repco Supercars Championship, following the debut of the Toyota GR Supra in Sydney last month, alongside the Chevrolet Camaro and Ford Mustang.
The perennial Porsche Carrera Cup will also be on track Thursday, Friday and Saturday.
| Category | Formula 2 | Formula 3 | Supercars Championship | Porsche Carrera Cup |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Thursday, March 5 | – | – | Practice 1: 10:35-11:05
Practice 2: 12:25-12:55 Qualifying for Race 1: 14:20-14:32 Qualifying for Race 2: 14:42-14:50 Race 1: 16:55-17:40 or 19 laps (whichever comes first) |
Practice: 09:45-10:15
Qualifying: 11:35-12:05 Race 1: 15:35-16:10 or 15 laps (whichever comes first) |
| Friday, March 6 | Practice: 10:00-10:45
Qualifying: 14:55-15:25 |
Practice: 8:50-9:35
Qualifying: 14:00-14:30 |
Race 2: 17:25-18:10 or 19 laps (whichever comes first) | Race 2: 18:30-19:05 or 15 laps (whichever comes first) |
| Saturday, March 7 | Sprint Race: 14:10-15:00 or 23 laps (whichever comes first) | Sprint Race: 11:15-12:00 or 20 laps (whichever comes first) | Qualifying for Race 3: 09:00-09:12
Qualifying for Race 4: 9:22-9:30 Race 3: 17:35-18:15 or 19 laps (whichever comes first) |
Race 3: 18:40-19:15 |
| Sunday, March 8 | Feature Race: 11:25-12:30 or 33 laps (whichever comes first) | Feature Race: 8:50-9:40 or 23 laps (whichever comes first) | Race 4: 10:10-10:45 or 14 laps (whichever comes first) | – |