2026 F1 Australian Grand Prix - driver ratings

The first race is officially in the books, and the 2026 F1 world championship is underway. 

A thrilling and attritional race kicked off the season in Melbourne, but who emerged from the chaos to drop our driver ratings from Albert Park, and who endured an embarrassing error?

Read on below to find out, and let us know if you agree with our ratings in the comments!

The top five

George Russell - 10

A statement win from a dominant pole position. Perfect throughout the weekend and was decisive in battle with Charles Leclerc when he needed to be. His championship to lose.

Charles Leclerc - 9.5

A very strong weekend, but is docked half-a-mark as he was out-qualified by Isack Hadjar in a Red Bull by 0.024s. A rocket start despite his battery issue and could do nothing about Ferrari's strategy call. A solid start.

Arvid Lindblad - 9.5 

Was running as high as third on the opening lap after a rocket start of his own, and did wheel-to-wheel battle with Lewis Hamilton, and also held up Max Verstappen in a fair fight. Thumped his team-mate Liam Lawson all weekend and announced himself. 

Isack Hadjar - 9.5 

Looked the better of the two Red Bull drivers throughout practice, and stepped up when his team-mate needed him following Max Verstappen's crash in Q1. Delivered everything expected of him in the race and was running fifth behind the two Mercedes and Ferrari cars when the engine lunched itself. The best performance from a Red Bull number two in a long time.

Gabriel Bortoleto - 9 

For a driver who could have qualified even higher than the 10th place he took after not getting to run in Q3, Bortoleto put in an assured drive to bank points on Audi's debut. Those ahead were all faster, but on a weekend, Audi caught the eye, so did its Brazilian. 

The bottom five

Liam Lawson - 5 

Lawson made the worst start of any driver on the grid, but given the difficulties of doing this for the first time in competition, it is not overly detrimental to his score. Was comprehensively thumped by Lindblad all weekend on the rookie's debut. But does earn marks back for reaching Q3, and even qualifying ahead of his team-mate, despite a problem for the Briton.

Carlos Sainz - 5 

An anonymous weekend for Sainz after gremlins wrecked his Saturday and meant he could not take part in qualifying. Had he started in the midfield, a point might have been there for the taking, but his race was only ever a glorified test session.

Valtteri Bottas - 5 

Was out-qualified by Sergio Perez and, indeed, Fernando Alonso on Cadillac's debut, even after Perez missed an entire session in FP2. The gap in qualifying was also over half a second.

Oscar Piastri - 4.5

Earns some credit back for out-qualifying his team-mate, but that is the sole saving grace. As he put it himself, crashing on the way to the grid before a race simply shouldn't happen, energy spike or not. Embarrasing in front of stunned home crowd.

Lance Stroll - N/A

Given he completed 16 laps all weekend prior to the race, then retired before coming back out again to finish 12 laps down, it is not fair to give Stroll a rating for the weekend.