At McLaren, the first official race weekend of the 2026 Formula 1 season began with a performance trend that could best be described as steadily improving. After a relatively quiet and uneventful FP1 session, during which the Woking-based team also encountered a few minor technical setbacks, the second free practice session saw McLaren begin to reveal more of its true pace. A similar pattern could also be observed from Mercedes, which likewise appeared to step up its performance during the afternoon running.
At the end of Friday’s action in Melbourne, it was Oscar Piastri who topped the timesheets with the fastest lap of the day, finishing ahead of the Mercedes drivers George Russell and Kimi Antonelli. For the Australian driver, the day ended with a series of positive sensations about the car and its development across the sessions. On the other side of the McLaren garage, however, Lando Norris explained that his Friday had been more complicated, largely due to track time lost earlier in FP1 as a result of a gearbox issue.
Piastri: “We are aiming to be on the front row”
With a lap time of 1:19.792, Oscar Piastri emerged as the fastest driver of the opening Friday of the 2026 Formula 1 season at the Albert Park circuit in Melbourne. The impressive time was the result of a steady progression throughout the day, with the Australian driver gradually building pace across the two practice sessions.
Shortly after the green light signaled the start of FP1, Oscar Piastri had reported a sudden loss of power and was forced to return immediately to the pit lane for checks by the McLaren mechanics. In terms of outright performance, the McLaren car remained largely anonymous during the opening practice session, with the team apparently choosing to keep a relatively low profile before showing more of its pace later in the day.
FP2 therefore marked a clear step forward for the reigning world champion team, which appeared far more competitive during the second practice outing.
“I think FP2 definitely went our way. It was much better than FP1,” Oscar Piastri said at the end of the first day of running in Melbourne. “There are quite a few things that we still have to deal with. It is very different from what we were experiencing last year, but I think FP2 as a session went quite smoothly. I was able to build some consistency and start really learning things about the car, which was positive. We will try to apply what we learned today. I think everyone will find a lot of pace from one day to the next, so I think we need to try to do the same.”
The final timesheet showed Piastri at the top with a margin of around two tenths of a second over the Mercedes of Kimi Antonelli and three tenths over the other Mercedes driven by George Russell. However, drawing definitive conclusions about the competitive order at this early stage of the weekend would still be premature.
“Hopefully we can be on the front row. Whether that means pole position or not, I don’t know,” Oscar Piastri continued. “I haven’t really seen what our long-run pace looked like, but I’m not sure it was as strong as some of the others around us.”
The reference was directed primarily toward Mercedes, which during FP2 began to show more of its potential, displaying encouraging signs of consistency during the long-run simulations with heavier fuel loads. At the same time, the true level of performance of both Ferrari and Red Bull still remains somewhat uncertain, given that both teams had appeared competitive during the opening free practice session earlier in the day.
“In any case we should look pretty decent,” Piastri added. “I think the most important thing right now is trying to build consistency, making sure everything works as it should, and in FP2 it looked like we got much closer to doing that.”
Norris slowed by FP1 problem: “With the new regulations, time in the car is very important”
Lando Norris experienced a more difficult Friday compared to his teammate. The reigning Formula 1 world champion was affected by a gearbox problem during the opening practice session, which forced him to spend a significant portion of FP1 in the garage and ultimately limited his running on track.
The loss of valuable track time proved particularly frustrating given the introduction of the new technical regulations this season, which place an even greater emphasis on maximizing mileage during practice sessions.
“This morning we didn’t run as much as we would have liked because of some reliability issues, so we are a bit behind in terms of mileage and learning,” Norris said at the end of the first day of track action in Melbourne.
“With these new regulations, time in the car is very important, so we have a bit of work to do tonight to catch up. We have some good data to review from the second half of FP2, and we can learn a lot from what our rivals have done.”
At the end of the second free practice session, Norris finished in seventh position on the timesheets, approximately one second slower than the sister McLaren driven by Oscar Piastri. Despite the gap, the British driver remains confident that the team will be able to make progress overnight by analyzing the data gathered during the day.
Marshall: “The car behaves well, but it is too early to draw conclusions”
McLaren technical director Rob Marshall also spoke about a day that clearly improved as it progressed into the afternoon session.
“FP2 definitely went better than FP1,” Marshall explained. “We didn’t start particularly well, but the second session went reasonably well. Everything seems very tight. There are a lot of fast cars out there, so I wouldn’t draw any conclusions just yet. There is still a long way to go this weekend.”
Alongside the challenges introduced by the new technical regulations, teams must also continue the traditional work of refining the optimal car setup for the circuit. According to Marshall, this remains one of the most complex tasks for the engineers at this early stage of the season.
“Setting up these cars is difficult and managing the energy systems is very complicated. I think everyone still has a lot of work to do tonight in those areas, especially when it comes to the traditional adjustments of the car. We feel we are in a reasonable position and I think the car is behaving well.”
When asked about McLaren’s ambitions ahead of the first qualifying session of the 2026 Formula 1 season, Marshall chose not to make bold predictions.
“I think we are in the fight,” he said cautiously. “In reality I think there are probably four teams that look strong. They are the same four teams that looked strong during testing. And here I don’t think we have seen anything that would suggest a different situation.”
With the field appearing closely matched and several teams showing competitive pace during the opening day of practice, the battle for pole position and the front rows of the grid promises to be particularly intense as the weekend continues in Melbourne.
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