Ford has ended Chevrolet’s 12-race winning streak in Supercars racing after Brodie Kostecki took victory in the opening race of the Australian Formula 1 Grand weekend at Albert Park.

Kostecki led a Ford Mustang domination of the opening race on Thursday. The Dick Johnson Racing driver took pole position (the fifth different driver to do so in five races) under odd and somewhat brave circumstances. Feeling unwell, he was ill inside the car during his fastest lap and then had to shake off the effects, and wash out his helmet, before the second session, immediately after.

But that did not hamper his form in the race. He won the start, built a small gap and led Triple Eight’s Broc Feeney home by 0.46s, despite a mid-race safety car period that saw the race shortened from 19 laps to 17 laps.

“I need a little more in race trim, Matty [Payne] was breathing down my neck at the end there,” said Kostecki after his third career win at Albert Park. “I have had better days. The last time I felt like this I was a race at the Mountain!

"I knew that I had the car underneath me, but we did not execute that well [in Sydney last month].”

After the restart, the top four Fords – Kostecki, Payne (Grove Racing), Feeney (Triple Eight) and James Golding (Blanchard Racing Team) built a small gap to the next group of cars. That was led by the Walkinshaw TWG Toyota GR Supra of Chaz Mostert, who was under fire from Cam Waters, who was followed closely by Triple Eight’s Will Brown.

Kostecki ended Chevrolet's run of 12 race wins

“I think we were pretty close, we got right to the back of him on the last lap,” said Payne who, with second, takes a narrow championship points lead from third-placed Feeney.

“It’s chess racing; I was trying to save the tyres, but we just ran out of laps at the end.”

Feeney was satisfied with a podium finish, his fourth in five races.

“Not a bad day, a podium but not what we came here for,” he said. “I was happy with that one [the start] but I just didn’t have the pace of these two guys. We are just lacking a little bit of speed.”

Ryan Wood took eighth in the other WTWG Supra ahead of Anton De Pasquale, the best-placed Chevrolet Camaro driver in ninth place.

There were two impressive fightback drives, one from Kai Allen, who found himself facing backwards on the opening lap of the race. The Grove Racing Ford stormed through the pack from there, Allen getting up to 11th place after passing 13 cars.

United Autosports exits Supercars venture ahead of McLaren Hypercar programme

It was a mixed day for Jayden Ojeda. The Supercars rookie topped the opening practice session but in the second session, he found the wall at the exit of Turn 5. The PremiAir Racing team could not repair the Chevrolet Camaro in time for qualifying, but made it to the back of the grid with the repaired car and recovered to 16th.

In other news, Supercars has confirmed that it will remain on the Australian Grand Prix support program for the next three years. The deal will see the Supercars race at the historic circuit until at least 2029.

The Supercars will return to the Albert Park circuit for Friday’s second race of four over the weekend.

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Max Verstappen reckons it’s too late to make tweaks to the 2026 Formula 1 regulations despite Carlos Sainz calling for the FIA to listen to feedback and be fluid with any changes.

This year, F1 is debuting what’s arguably its biggest regulation overhaul in history with changes to both the chassis and power unit, the latter of which is the biggest point of contention. 

That’s because it’s now more reliant on electrical energy with a near-50:50 split against the internal combustion engine, meaning that battery management will play a greater role in races - leading to drivers potentially downshifting on straights. 

So it obviously goes against any techniques they have previously utilised and this has split the grid: Lando Norris called it “a lot of fun”, whereas Verstappen claimed it’s “anti-racing” and like “Formula E on steroids”. 

The four-time world champion has been the biggest critic of these regulations, amid worries that they could be too complicated for the average Joe watching. But, it might also excite the fans given the races are expected to be more chaotic with drivers “yo-yoing” for position.

It was, nonetheless, put to the grid ahead of this weekend’s Melbourne season opener and Sainz said: “It could go both ways. That's why evaluating and trying to predict how it will be on TV before it even happens, I think it's not worth it.

“Let's see, whatever rules we've come up with for this year, let's put them on track and then evaluate. The only thing I've told Stefano [Domenicali, F1 CEO] and the FIA is that we need to be open-minded if the first race is, or the first two or three races is, because China will be different and Japan will be different again.

“Give it maybe two or three examples, and then if clearly there's something off, something wrong, I hope we are able to change.”

Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing, Andrea Kimi Antonelli, Mercedes, Esteban Ocon, Haas F1 Team

Sainz’s comment was subsequently put to Verstappen, who downplayed the chance of any changes occurring as the new ruleset was years in the making and is due to continue until at least 2030. 

“We're a bit late with that,” said the Red Bull star. “The amount of money that has been invested into these regulations, it will be around for a while. You could have seen this coming. That suddenly now things are raised, it's a bit late.”

But one change that has been mooted is increasing super clipping - when cars harvest despite at full throttle - from 250kW to 350kW to prevent drivers being forced into too many “unnatural things” regarding energy management, such as lift and coast.

Yet Verstappen, again, is unsure if this’ll improve the regulations due to how circuit characteristics will be more influential this year with some tracks easier to harvest on than others. 

“I don't know,” said the Dutchman. “It also just depends a lot on the track layout as well. You can reduce the power, but then of course you also go slower in lap times.

“So I'm not sure. It's a difficult subject to actually say this is the best thing with what we have at the moment. I guess that's why they also just want to see how it goes here in the first place, but it's all pretty complicated.”

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Charles Leclerc believes Lewis Hamilton isn't in a "different place" at Ferrari compared to his first year with the team. Instead, he argues he's simply excited as the duo head into a bout of new regulations.

Hamilton's first season in red was a disappointing one as the seven-time world champion struggled with his Italian machinery. It was the saddest we'd seen the Briton as weekend after weekend he fought against the ground effect characteristics of the SF-25. But with a new set of regulations, Hamilton was on cloud nine as he answered questions from the press today.

"It's massively different to the first year," Hamilton said on how it felt starting his second year with the Scuderia. "And a much nicer feeling having spent a year at the team, understanding the culture, understanding ways, finding ways of working together. And I think we're in a good place now together as a team. And I feel very gelled with the team today. So much happier."

But Leclerc, with more years under his belt at Ferrari than his team-mate, is being careful to temper his expectations despite what seemed like an impressive bout of testing in Bahrain earlier this month.

"I'm quite neutral going into this season," he told the media ahead of the season-opener. "I've had quite a few years with the team now, and I know what it's like. To be driving for Ferrari is very, very special, but with that also comes a lot of noise and sometimes expectations that don't really reflect the real picture so I don't really have any expectations for now.

"I just go day by day. I try to do the best possible job and I hope that this means that on Sunday we are here celebrating the first win of the season but if not, we'll take it from there and try to work from that."

Charles Leclerc, Ferrari

He then turned his focus to Hamilton's positivity so far this season.

"Whether I see Lewis in a different place, I don't. I think he's just super excited. He was super excited to join the team last year, and he's super excited for these new cars to arrive, just like I am. So there's a lot of excitement really, to start this first race on the right foot and a lot of work also behind the scenes from both of us, but also for the whole team to try and arrive as ready as possible for this season.

"It's going to be an interesting race because over the years with the cars we've had before, which were a little bit more traditional, every time we did a change of regulation, we tested every scenario before getting to the first race.

"With these kinds of cars there are still quite a few scenarios that are unknown, like safety car restarts, all these kinds of things that you cannot really reproduce that might give us a few surprises so I'm looking forward to that."

Ferrari will get its first reference points when it turns a wheel in Friday practice in Melbourne. And come qualifying, we'll see if Leclerc was sensible in staying neutral. 

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Valtteri Bottas used the first FIA press conference of the 2026 season to poke fun at the Aston Martin team, joking that drivers Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll were his picks for a championship win.

It's been over a year since we've been treated to Bottas's dry humour in a press conference after he performed reserve driver duties for Mercedes in 2025. But with the driver's vast experience now being employed by Cadillac, Formula 1's 11th team of the 2026 season, we welcome the fan-favourite back to the grid. 

With a few days of testing under his belt, the Finn was asked to name his top pick for a championship win this season, and his answer didn't disappoint. 

“If I have to guess something now, I'm going to say Lance Stroll, Fernando Alonso," Bottas joked. "And... George Russell," he added. “Because I think they were saying that they would beat us at the very end in Abu Dhabi.”

Aston Martin arrives in Melbourne as the weakest team on the grid, with the Silverstone outfit confirming that it will be restricting the number of laps their drivers will complete this weekend due to intense vibrations caused by the Honda power unit. 

"What we have achieved for this weekend [is a solution] that tested on the dyno over the course of the weekend that has successfully, significantly reduced the vibration going into the battery," team principal Adrian Newey said. "But what is important to remember is the power unit is the source of the vibration, it's the amplifier.

"The chassis is, in that scenario, the receiver. A carbon chassis is a naturally stiff structure with very little damping, so the transmission of that vibration into the chassis, we haven't made any progress on."

Valtteri Bottas, Cadillac Racing

The famed car designer added that the vibrations aren't only affecting the drivers, but they're also shaking the cars apart - a cause of some of the reliability issues seen during Bahrain's testing. But their driver health is, unsurprisingly, most important.

"We are going to have to be very heavily 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," Newey said, referring to the power unit. 

While Mercedes and Russell - Bottas's realistic pick for the championship - look very promising heading into the season, Aston Martin's issues are staggering. 

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Oliver Bearman doesn't want to "draw any conclusions" from the Australian Grand Prix, arguing that the season-opening race could be the "worst-case scenario" for the new regulations due to the lack of braking zones at Albert Park.

While the 20-year-old driver has some reservations about the upcoming weekend of racing, he looked to the silver lining of capitalising on the chaotic moments.

"Definitely, with chaos comes opportunity, and I'm looking forward to getting out there," he told the media in Australia.

"Of course, this track is maybe not the best start for these regulations, simply because of the nature of the circuit. It's there with Monza, with Austria, with Jeddah as being one of the more challenging ones.

"We don't have much energy to play with, simply because there aren't many braking zones. I think it's going to be maybe the worst-case scenario of these regs. I'm remaining open-minded, I don't want to draw any conclusions after Australia.

Oliver Bearman, Haas F1 Team

"It's going to be interesting and the main thing is that it's a long championship and at the start there's going to be way more opportunity than in five or six races' time when we all have everything figured out. Hopefully, we can have a clean weekend, focus on our priorities and have a good one."

When asked if it was key to have a clean weekend, the Haas driver added: "I think so. There's no surplus of energy, we're always going to be running at the bottom of the pack everywhere and with nothing spare, it means that we're going to have to be on top of our efficiency and on top of our strategies and everything.

"It's going to be chaotic, but it's a great opportunity as well, so I'm looking forward to that."

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