Though it appeared safety concerns had been overstated, F1 rode its luck at Albert Park this weekend.

Of course, one of the main talking points, safety-wise, was actually missed at the time, as all eyes were focussed on the front of the grid after weeks of fearmongering that eventually led to a revised start procedure.

Though the Mercedes pair were sluggish out of their traps, all looked good as the field streamed into Turn 1.

However, further back, in a nerve-wracking moment, Franco Colapinto had somehow avoided running into the back of Liam Lawson who had struggled to get going.

With breathtaking reactions, the Argentine went to the right of the Racing Bull avoiding it and somehow also missing the pit-wall which was inviting him siren-like to his right.

"At the start I almost had a massive shunt with Liam as he was stuck on the grid," explained the Alpine driver post-race. "That was pretty lucky to be honest.

"Things like that happen but it was just very dangerous and quite sketchy," he added. "I'm glad I got through that," he smiled, in a masterpiece of understatement.

"Honestly I have no idea," admitted Lawson, when asked what happened, "I launched and didn't move and lost all power, and then I couldn't get it back for another five seconds.

"Then a couple of seconds later I got it back and then got wheelspin," he added. "I don't know what happened, I haven't had that in testing."

"These things can happen with these new cars," said Colapinto, "but it was just very dangerous and quite sketchy, so I'm glad I went through that. I hit the wall a little bit with the rear right but generally was just that."

Later in the race, when the VSC was deployed for the third time, a couple of marshals ran on to the track to clear debris even though the cars were still circulating and the offending carbon fibre was in a blind corner. This at the track where trackside marshal Graham Beveridge was killed after being struck by a wheel in 2001 following a clash involving Jacques Villeneuve and Ralf Schumacher.

Over the weekend we witnessed countless unexplained incidents that were clearly more about the new regulations and not driver error, not least Oscar Piastri suffering a sudden surplus of energy on his way to the grid today.

"Certainly, these power units can be quite aggressive when they release all the power," admitted Andrea Stella. "We talk about a thousand horsepower coming all together, and when the tyres may be a little bit on the cold side, or if this power comes in an unpredictable way, like it happened to Oscar, then it can become very tricky.

"I don't want to be here and saying I have an easy solution, I don't," he admitted, "but I'm here saying we should look into the regulations."

Asked about the similar, mysterious incidents involving Kimi Antonelli and Max Verstappen, the Italian said: "The accidents you mentioned, they are kind of not a near miss, they are a very material indication that there's work to do, so we should do this work as an F1 community."

"It is chaos," said Lando Norris, "and we are going to have a big accident, which is a shame because we are driving and the ones just waiting for something to happen and to go quite horribly wrong and that is not a nice position to be in.

"Depending on what drivers do, you can have closing speeds of 30, 40, 50kph, and when someone hits another driver at that speed, you are going to fly and go over the fence and do a lot of damage to yourself and maybe to others and that is a pretty horrible thing to think about," he added.

However, ever the PR man, yet the very first to snitch on a rival, race winner George Russell dismissed the 2025 world champion's concerns.

"Yeah, well, he's always... I don't know. If he was winning, I don't think he'd be saying the same," said the Mercedes driver.

"We weren't happy with how stiff the cars were last year and the porpoising, and everyone had a bad back, and drivers were complaining about that, but McLaren drivers said there was no porpoising, even though we watched their car and they were porpoising," he added.

"So everyone's always looking to themselves," he continued, without a hint of irony, "we're all selfish in this regard. The truth is, last year we had the same engine as them and McLaren did a better job than us, and they beat us.

"Now McLaren have got the same engine as us, the same as Williams and the same as Alpine, and so far we've done a better job than them. So that's just how the game goes."

Fact is, the majority of today's 'overtakes', each joyfully recounted by the broadcasters as 'proof' of the success of the rules overhaul, was down to the fact that a driver was either slowing to harvest energy or pushing a button to release it, the enormous speed differentials pointed to by the likes of Stella are a fact.

Check out our Sunday gallery from Melbourne here.

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READERS COMMENTS

1. Posted by Anthony, 7 hours ago

"The UK edition of The Economist magazine has an article this week on F1 with the heading “In pursuit of a new track record - The race is on to draw in a different sort of motor racing fan”. Referring to a world of TikTok and Instagram, the Liberty chief executive is quoted as saying “distribution fragmentation” means that watching a race “is only part of a much bigger sort of construct” and some fans, perhaps drawn in by DTS, “may barely watch the race but do want to know what Lewis Hamilton had for dinner”.

How depressing is that….?"

Rating: Positive (3) Rate comment: Positive | NegativeReport this comment

2. Posted by Team Hack, 9 hours ago

"One interesting point.
Did anyone notice how (sporadically) hard revving the Hadjar motor was as it was slowing down just before it let go?
Two Good points
Hamilton was happy again and fighting at the front-lets hope this continues.
As McLaren did not win it prevented us from having to listen to ZB shouting ‘YYYeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhh all the time."

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3. Posted by Anthony, 11 hours ago

"I totally agree with @motorsport-fan. Also it is interesting that two of the new manufacturers are Ford and (eventually) Cadillac, neither of whom I would have put at the forefront of needing to showcase hybrid technology. "

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4. Posted by Editor, 11 hours ago (moderated by an Adminstrator, 10 hours ago)

"I've posted this (below) elsewhere... surely one of the new venues for a race must be Korea... North Korea!

Yesterday, a tweet posted by the official @F1 account was community noted. The community note read: F1 is actively censoring the fans' opinion about the new regulations, as seen in "hidden replies".

The official F1 Twitter/A account was effectively hiding any negative responses – and there were many - to its tweet in which it claimed “Action EVERYWHERE you looked” along with a picture suggesting there had been 120 overtakes yesterday compared to 45 in 2025.

By the way, anyone notice the lack of radio interaction during the race... just in case any drivers expressed negative comments.

https://x.com/F1/status/2030543003476005088"

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5. Posted by ffracer, 11 hours ago

"We are done. Could barely watch 20 laps - last 10 on mute because the Sky broadcast of David Croft, Martin Brundle ( you betrayed true, pure F1 drivers and real people's champions) and Simon Lazenby was absolutely revolting - before switching off, first time in almost 50 years... so disillusioned with it all.

So looking forward to Indycar once again, this series listens and celebrates its growing fanbase."

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6. Posted by Motorsport-fan, 11 hours ago (moderated by an Adminstrator, 10 hours ago)

"If the manufacturers want to keep some kind of pointless "road relevence" thats fine, but the set up at the moment is just wrong and dangerous, more power from the engine and a smaller battery so its the driver again that controls the speed of the car and not battery recharging."

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7. Posted by KKK, 08/03/2026 19:21

"Like Domenicali would say, it was like watching MERDE drying. The spectacle of F1 has died. So to all who have see my posts before, you are on your own fellas, Im gone. It's more fun to watch the repeating Friends. Last post? Please let me know"

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F1 dodges a bullet... or two

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