Mercedes dominated the first three races of the 2026 Formula 1 season, while teams like Williams and Aston Martin struggled. The early performance indicates a significant shift in competitiveness among the 11 teams.
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Having raced on three very different circuits in Melbourne, Shanghai andĀ Suzuka, the early stages of 2026 have provided a first look at which teams hit the ground running in Formula 1's bold new era and who has missed the mark.
Mercedes came out swinging with a clean sweep of the first three races, while questions will be asked at struggling Williams and Aston Martin. Here's an overview of all 11 teams, in order of last year's constructors' table.
Oscar Piastri, McLaren Team
The reigning world champions certainly got off to a rocky start, with home heroĀ Oscar Piastri unceremoniously crashing out on the laps to the grid in Australia. In China, neither Piastri nor Lando Norris made the start due to battery-related issues with McLaren's Mercedes power unit.
Those were the most visible and painful examples of a tough acclimatisation phase to what are inherently very competitive power units, and as the team started figuring out how to better deploy Mercedes' grunt, it proved more and more competitive.
Piastri took second in Japan after leading the early running, a result that McLaren felt flattered its car performance but also provided some optimism. McLaren is behind Mercedes, but it's not a world away as the 2026 development race is set to yield its first results.
"There are some indications of progress from a performance and overall competitiveness point of view. I think this progress comes from the fact that we are getting a little bit more out of the chassis through the setup. But mostly we are getting more out of the power unit. It's positive that in qualifying we are there with Ferrari, but Mercedes is still one step ahead. We know that we have to improve the car and above all we have to bring some upgrades."
Andrea Kimi Antonelli, Mercedes
The start of 2026 couldn't have gone much better for Mercedes. As was the case in 2014, its power units are the class of the field as it aims to avenge a frustrating spell under the outgoing ground-effect regulations.
Coinciding with Mercedes's return to form, Kimi Antonelli has stepped up his game in year two and looks a more mature and well-rounded package, going toe-to-toe with George Russell by taking two out of three wins so far.
Mercedes's strong power unit shouldn't be diverting too much attention from what is an excellent all-round car in the W17, though.
"People have learned now how to optimise these systems to their benefit. What looked like a home run in the first two races for us isn't the case as we've always warned. Miami is going to be a restart. How are the upgrades going to work that people are bringing? How have we optimised all the other systems? We need to stay feet on the ground, we're three races in, we're looking like the heroes, but three races from now on people could be saying no heroes anymore because the others got stronger. But definitely we'd never stop believing that we would eventually land a car and build the structures that can do that with the right drivers. And to see that finally coming together is nice."
Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing
The team that came out on top of the previous seismic regulations shift, now looks utterly lost. Ahead of the year, the biggest talking point was how Red Bull would fare on its debut as aĀ bona fide power unit manufacturer, a huge gamble and investment as it took on the established might of Mercedes and Ferrari. While no match for Mercedes, the Red Bull-Ford Powertrains effort did in fact deliver beyond all expectations and produced a power unit that is roughly in the ballpark.
The real concern is the car itself, which has proven hard to balance and set-up due to fundamental flaws, which will take a long time to iron out. Red Bull was able to keep up appearances in Melbourne, partly down to the track characteristics and partly due to rival teams underperforming on the first weekend of 2026. But China and especially Japan have now shown Red Bull's new weapon is around one second per lap slower compared with the Mercedes, and barely the fourth-fastest car in the grid. Amid confirmation that Max Verstappen's long-time race engineer is the latest key figure to head for the exit by 2028, the squad needs to show progress, and quickly, to turn around the narrative.
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"We are a distant force. That's the reality. And I think it's a combination of underlying performance and a layer of us not being able to extract enough from the package and to give something Max [Verstappen] and Isack [Hadjar] can push with. There is something we are wrestling with on the car that adds to our underlying lack of performance. Trying to solve these complex issues and trying to understand complex limitations is our core business. It feels bad now, but I have full confidence that that's exactly what our team is very good at."
Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc, Ferrari
Even the most scepticalĀ tifoso will have to acknowledge Ferrari has gotten off to a promising start. After a disappointing slide in performance over the 2022-2025 era, Ferrari put all of its eggs in this year's basket and delivered a car that appears to be much better poised than its predecessor.
Ferrari's power unit is not up to the level of Mercedes, and it is believed its smaller turbo design is handing it a crucial advantage at the start of races, but adding to its deficit over a race distance. But its chassis is a good platform to build on, and it's a good sign that both Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton get on well with it. Between its rotating rear wing and other gadgets, Ferrari has shown a renewed spirit of innovation. It will need more of that to take the fight to Mercedes.
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"We have a lot of work like everybody in the paddock. It is the beginning of the homologation of the car. It means that we have tonnes of things to improve. Now we have good data after three races to understand the competitiveness of the car, where we are OK-ish and where we are not. It means that performance is coming from everywhere, but we have to do a step in every single area of the performance. I am sure that it is true for us, but it will be true for everybody on the grid."
Alexander Albon, Williams
If Williams was the positive surprise package of the 2025 season, then it undid a lot of that goodness into 2026. Despite an overt focus on this set of regulations at the expense of short-term gains, Williams appears to have bitten off more than it could chew over the off-season, leading to a car that is significantly overweight and lacks development.
Like other Mercedes customers, it has also appeared to initially struggle optimising the all-important energy deployment requirements.
"I want to make [Japan] a line in the sand and make sure we add performance every race going forward this year and fight back towards a point-scoring position every weekend. We need to maximise these next five weeks in front of us. These next five weeks will be some of the hardest for us, purposefully so, as we dig deep and make sure that we come back with a car in Miami that is worthy of scoring points."
Arvid Lindblad, Racing Bulls
Racing Bulls has somewhat flown under the radar this year, not enjoying the headline results of fellow midfield squad Haas, but quietly gathering points at every opportunity. It shows the VCARB 02 is a well-rounded car that will stand the Anglo-Italian squad in good stead as the development race ramps up. A specific highlight is Arvid Lindblad's rapid adaptation to F1, 2026's only rookie ticking off two boxes with his first points and first Q3 berth.
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"We feel very happy to have scored points at every race so far this year. We're looking forward to a break now with some good upgrades to the car planned for Miami. Liam and Arvid will do a mix of training and simulator work in preparation for the upcoming races."
Lance Stroll, Aston Martin Racing, Fernando Alonso, Aston Martin Racing
The start of Aston Martin's Honda marriage has been an unmitigated disaster. Having barely run in pre-season, Aston came to the Melbourne season opener in the knowledge it wouldn't be able to finish the race due to crippling vibration issues from the engine, which also wreaked havoc elsewhere on the car, including the drivers' wrists.
It is slowly trying to crawl out of that hole, having put in place stopgap measures to allow Fernando Alonso to at least finish a race in Japan. But amid all the talk about an uncompetitive and heavy power unit, Aston Martin's AMR26 isn't particularly quick either, which is a huge setback for a would-be superteam that had put so much stock in 2026.
"The mood in the team is no celebration, that is clear. Our objective, it is a modest objective, was to finish the race [in Japan] with both cars. We managed with one, so it's one small step on the list with many, many, many small steps to be done. But as a team, you cannot destroy yourself. We are in a difficult situation, we need to take the positives. As soon as you fix your reliability issues, everybody is just focussing on performance. And looking at that, we have seen that we have some major steps to take, not small steps that we have now done with reliability. We have to use the break now to make the first step, but there is a big mountain to climb."
Oliver Bearman, Haas F1 Team
Who could have predicted Haas would occupy fourth in the 2026 championship after three race weekends? Not the team itself, which is still the smallest in the paddock and could have easily seen itself struggle with the biggest regulation change in recent F1 history. But headlined by a fifth place in China, Haas is now suddenly ahead of a struggling Red Bull heading into the April break.
Haas's shining light is sophomore driver and Ferrari protege Oliver Barman, who appears to have taken another step to pair his natural talent and turn of speed with more consistency and maturity. Whenever Lewis Hamilton is done at Ferrari, the Scuderia won't have to think too hard about the seven-time world champion's replacement.
"It's extremely encouraging. This new regulation is a huge, huge challenge for everyone, as you can see across the pit lane. And then we are the smallest team, and we really pushed on the development towards the end of last year as well. The way you produce the VF-26 is far from perfect, but it has the coherent characteristics. Again, that doesn't happen overnight. It's an accumulation of learning from previous generations of cars."
Gabriel Bortoleto, Audi F1 Team
Entering F1 as a power unit manufacturer was never going to be plain sailing for Audi, but the base performance of its engines is probably stronger than most observers expected. But against midfield rivals armed with power units from Mercedes and Ferrari, Audi's weaknesses have been clear, having less efficient energy management and suffering from dreadful starts. Given the timelines involved in improving the hardware of its power units, it is unlikely the team will be able to find rapid gains in the near future, but this is something Audi chiefs had taken into account. Two races in, the former Sauber team already lost its team principal Jonathan Wheatley, who is expected to end up at Aston Martin in the future.
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"We have assessed, I believe, that most of the gap we got to the top teams is from the power unit, which is not unexpected. We knew that would have been the biggest challenge. And we have a plan to recover. We cannot create miracles, but we are here to have proper plans to address and to improve in the future. And I think that's also possible."
Pierre Gasly, Alpine
Alpine has made its strongest start to a season in years, reaping the rewards for a painful write-off of the 2025 season to fully focus on this set of regulations. Australia proved somewhat of a false start as the Enstone team grappled with its new Mercedes power units, but it has since taken major strides that have allowed the underlying potential of the A526 to come out.
Leave it to Pierre Gasly, possibly one of F1's most underrated drivers, to do the rest with more stellar qualifying performances, while Franco Colapinto has also put himself on the board for Alpine with a point in China.
āI think itās the best car Iāve had in my career, maybe alongside the 2021 AlphaTauri. I think we have a solid foundation to build on. Iām quite satisfied to see that over the first few weekends, the car seems to be working ā we're able to find performance pretty much everywhere. We know the areas where weāre limited and need to improve. Thereās a month ahead of us, weāre working on some things for Miami, so overall, itās very encouraging.ā
Valtteri Bottas, Cadillac Racing
There is no team that faced a bigger baptism of fire in 2026 than start-up squad Cadillac, F1's first proper newcomer in a decade. The US-owned team helmed by former Manor chief Graeme Lowdon defied expectations by being in the ballpark from the start rather than being an ugly duckling, although it's clear the squad will have to find a lot more performance to trouble the other midfield runners. With veteransĀ Sergio Perez and Valtteri Bottas, Cadillac aimed for respectability in year one. There's still a long way to go to genuine success, but its first target has already been achieved.
"It has been very promising, but on the other hand, we also look at the lap times and we can see that we need to develop. Develop means out-developing our rivals, which is quite a hard thing to do in Formula 1. That's the biggest challenge that Cadillac as a team faces. But I believe that we have a good structure, the team is in a good place, and hopefully when we start to develop, we can make significant steps. We all want to see massive progress, and we want to start closing up the gap right now."
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