McLaren’s Oscar Piastri believes the pecking order at this weekend’s season-opening Australian Grand Prix is not going to completely decide who’s in the end profitable within the first season of F1’s new guidelines period.
McLaren boss Andrea Stella has already stated that Mercedes, the bookmakers’ world championship favourites, and Ferrari are a “step ahead” of his group and Purple Bull after pre-season testing in Bahrain.
McLaren are the defending two-time constructors’ champions, whereas Piastri’s team-mate Lando Norris is the reigning drivers’ champion and gained final 12 months’s season opener in Melbourne.
Talking to Sky Sports activities F1 on the eve of his house race at Albert Park, Australia’s Piastri stated: “I think we’re in the mix at the moment.
“We’ll discover out for certain quickly sufficient, however I do not suppose we’re fairly within the place we had been 12 months in the past the place we felt like we had been the strongest.
“I feel this season is just not going to be gained by who’s quickest, or who’s the perfect, on the first race.
“There’s going to be a lot of development, a lot of learning, especially for us as drivers, and whoever can get on top of that the quickest in what is a very long season is going to end up on top in the long run.”
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Craig Slater and Martin Brundle evaluate and rank all of the F1 groups after pre-season testing
And even when McLaren do begin behind their rivals this weekend, Piastri has backed them to shortly catch again up.
“I think every time there’s a regulation reset there are a few different pathways you can go down and I think we’ve probably seen a few teams go down different pathways,” stated Piastri.
“So it’s going to be interesting to see which one ends up being the best. If there’s one thing I do know, it’s just how competent our team is and especially our engineering team.
Piastri is chasing a primary house podium in Melbourne after spinning within the rain final 12 months
“We’ve shown over the last two or three years just how quickly we can get things back on track and how quickly we can turn things around.
“So I feel, it doesn’t matter what guidelines we get thrown at us, I feel we’ll get there.”
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Lando Norris says his McLaren group must additional enhance their automotive in the event that they’re to problem for the world title as soon as once more this season
Melbourne ‘positively going to be difficult’ with new vehicles
The Australian weekend would be the aggressive debut for the game’s all-new 2026 vehicles and engines, which characteristic a close to 50-50 break up between inside combustion and electrical energy.
A 3-fold enhance in electrical power over 2025 locations completely different calls for on how drivers want to reap and deploy this throughout a lap, necessities that are anticipated to be completely different from monitor to trace throughout the season.
Albert Park options fewer heavy braking zones than Bahrain, as an example, and Piastri admitted: “I feel Melbourne’s going to be a fairly distinctive problem.
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Sky Sports activities F1’s Ted Kravitz appears to be like nearer at how F1 in 2026 will look as the game begins a brand new period of recharge mode, extra electrical energy, new groups and engine suppliers
“Different circuits are going to be more challenging with these cars, especially in terms of how you kind of manage the power unit and the battery charge and stuff like that.
“So we’ll see what Melbourne’s like, however positively going to be difficult a method or one other.”
Sky Sports F1’s Australian GP schedule
Thursday March 5
3am: Drivers’ Press Conference
6am: Paddock Uncut
9.45pm: F3 Practice
10.55pm: F2 Practice
Friday March 6
1am: Australian GP Practice One (session starts at 1.30am)*
2.55am: F3 Qualifying*
3.30am: Team Bosses Press Conference
3.50am: F2 Qualifying*
4.35am: Australian GP Practice Two (session starts at 5am)*
6.15am: The F1 Show*
Saturday March 7
0.10am: F3 Sprint*
1.10am: Australian GP Practice Three (session starts at 1.30am)*
3.05am: F2 Sprint*
4.10am: Australian GP Qualifying build-up*
5am: AUSTRALIAN GRAND PRIX QUALIFYING*
7am: Ted’s Qualifying Notebook*
9.45pm: F3 Feature Race*
Sunday March 8
12.20am: F2 Feature Race*
2.30am: Australian GP build-up: Grand Prix Sunday*
4am: THE AUSTRALIAN GRAND PRIX*
6am: Australian GP reaction: Chequered Flag*
7am: Ted’s Notebook*
7.55am: Australian GP race replay*
10am: Australian GP highlights (also on Sky One)*
*Also on Sky Sports Main Event
Watch every race of the 2026 Formula 1 season live on Sky Sports, starting with the Australian Grand Prix from March 6-8. Stream Sky Sports activities with NOW – no contract, cancel anytime
