Drivers React After The Race | 2026 Australian Grand Prix

It kind of was a race that we were anticipating, like difficult start, potentially yo-yoing with the overtakes. I knew we had the car pace so I probably left a bit more margin while fighting Charles and he was quite aggressive in some of the defensive manoeuvres. At the end of the day, I think we created a really good race for you guys watching at home. As challenging as it was, it was still fun from within the cockpit and yeah, maybe these new regs aren't as bad as everyone's making out. Yeah, with the initial start with the battery, the procedure was very, very stressful. I had a lot of wheel spin and it was a pity. I couldn't even do burnouts going into the grid but the pace was very strong and I think it's very promising and I think it's going to be a fun year. Of course, the team did incredible and today was possible because of yesterday. The team was able to fix the car yesterday and it allowed me to still perform and yeah, super, super happy. It looks like we are much better in the race than in qualifying, this for sure, compared to Mercedes but I don't know if they've shown all the pace that they had but on my side, it's been quite a poor race in terms of performance. I was quite slow all race long so we've got to look at that. The car felt very strange in general so I don't think I was in the right window of the setup. This is something I will work for in order to be in a better place in Shanghai but it was a crazy start. It was good to be first. There was lots of expectations on us and yeah, we delivered so that was good. Yeah, I feel great. I feel great. I feel like I could have kept going. I wish the race was longer. I think another five laps or so, I think I would have got third so there's lots and lots of positives to take from today and the car was feeling great. It was actually a really fun race. Tough, of course, trying to learn on the go and understand things. Difficult, not an easy thing to try and understand and to maximise but I think we learned through the race. We clearly did because at the beginning of the race, we were pretty slow but comparing to Max, comparing to the cars ahead, not even close. We have a lot of things to look into to try and understand. I think we have to understand the engine more, the power unit more but that's what today was for and we'll see what we can learn for next week. We'll look at stuff and see what we can improve. It was okay. Of course, we also have quite a bit more pace in the midfield so I just needed to clear that clean which we did. I learned a lot, of course, with the battles and how to use the battery and stuff so that was, I think, quite a positive thing. At one point, I was quite by myself just settling in and I think the two hard compounds today didn't really work for us so a lot of degradation, a lot of graining and that made me then, of course, do a two-stop. Yes, it's a special feeling to start off the new regs like this. It's a great result for the entire team, best of the rest. Of course, we benefited from a few retirements from people ahead of us but regardless, those are points and we're going to take every one of them. Really, really proud, like I said yesterday, of the effort that the team has made and putting the car in P7 just shows and validates all of their hard work and that was on a track where we were struggling a bit, let's say, in deployment and missing a bit to competitors so it's a really proud moment and I'm really happy with this result. I think I was P3 or something on lap one which is pretty nuts. Yes, definitely showed people that if there's an opportunity and stuff, I'm going to get stuck in and I'm not going to hang about. Yes, I don't know, I had a lot of fun. I've enjoyed this weekend a lot. I think there's a few things from the race today that I could have managed slightly better but in general, it's been really positive. I'm very happy with the weekend. I think I've almost got the maximum out of the car in every session so, yes, looking forward to China now. Yes, it's incredible. I'm extremely happy and the team deserves it. A lot of hard work put in, reliable car, reliable engine. Yes, great point to start. Yes, we had a very good start, put ourselves in a good position and then, yes, I could feel there was this opportunity. We had to fight hard for it but, yes, ultimately pleased with that point. We want more and we'll have to work out to get more because overall performance was slightly underperformed compared to what we expected. Yes, still got a point out of it and we need to build on that. Supposed to get in the points after the mega first lap that we did. We moved further a massive amount. It was definitely awesome the way we launched but after that, the pace was very bad which was a big surprise. It's just flashback of last year really. We don't seem to have the same cars, myself and Ollie. One car has a lot of instability, the other one has a lot of understeer but you would have taken the understeering car in that race. It is frustrating to say the least because I think there was a lot more that the car could have done if it was in the right shape but, yes, it's disappointing that we didn't end up in the points obviously. You need pace to make progress and we didn't have it today. Honestly, that was the race. It felt like we were about half a second to a second off the midfield which is quite tough but that's just where we are. Struggled a lot with graining today and then, yes, just not where we want to be. Obviously, lights went out very quick but thought I nailed the reaction and the procedure but I don't know. Obviously, I have to review it but the car didn't move, lost all power and I couldn't get power for another five seconds. I was just sitting there so it's pretty frustrating. Yes, a long race. I think I'm glad to have passed at the race start after. I was just really, really close so, yes, a bit sketchy. I'm happy to have finished the race after that and after the penalty. Then, it was about taking some data and information about the car. Overall, it was better, I think, more competitive than on low fuel. We need to understand a few things but try to bounce back stronger in China. I think whenever I've been on track I've been competitive. I've been fast. I did a good start today but it is true we have too many issues in the car, too much weight, a lack of downforce so we need to improve every issue. That was a big win with this huge regulation change. This has been the best result that we could aim for. I think we have a lot of information to go through, a lot of procedure to tie the up and, yes, I think, as you know, unfortunately, in Formula 1 there is no time so we need to do bigger steps as soon as possible to be able to move forward. Yes, it was like a practice session for us. Just getting laps, we came back in the box, we tried some different things to solve some of the issues we had this weekend and, yes, at least we got out and did some laps so, yes, hopefully, we can be in a better position for China. Yes, I think that was the best part of the race, for sure, the start. Then we fall back a little bit to our natural position and then, yes, we have an alarm on the car. We have to stop the car once. I think we cleared that alarm. We had another problem. We had to retire for the second time so it was a little bit of an on-off day but, yes, we probably collected good data for the team. We did the formation lap, a start, pit stops, all these. It sounds normal things for everybody. For us, it was new because we never got to 7 p.m. in Bahrain when everyone was practicing the start. For us, to be able to run with both cars and to do all these kind of things, for sure, it's a very good day for the learning. It's a shame but it seems like we had two different issues. I came to the pits, we swapped the steering wheel and that seemed to fix, I think, some clutch issues or something but then another issue appeared. We had to stop the car ASAP on track so still lots of positives we can take from this weekend. It's still the very start of this journey together and we're still learning so I'm still proud of the whole team. I can't even count the amount of issues on the car I had so it was not fun. I've got on the kerb a little bit but from what we've seen as well, I think everything kind of reacted the way it should within the rules but essentially, I had 100 kilowatts more power than I've had the whole weekend at the point that I shifted and when I shifted, went into a wheel spin and given that I was on the kerb already, it was a combination of bad factors so obviously just very disappointed. We developed some sort of technical problem on the Leipzig grid and just made it there but then something we couldn't fix quickly so obviously taking the car apart now, investigating what happened. Very unfortunate obviously not to make the start at all. Missing out on learning but very obviously frustrating and bitter for the team. It's not what anybody wanted in the team after a positive weekend thus far but on the bright side, points for the team. Gabi got P9 in the bank so starting with points immediately as Audi is I think also worth mentioning and very positive.