A handful of statistics after the 2026 Australian GP

The 2026 Australian GP race started the Formula 1 season, which means the return of statistical race summaries from the “Handful of statistics after the 2026 Australian GP” series. This year they return in a very similar form. In the text, you will find trivia and statistics regarding drivers, teams, engines, lap times, and grandstand attendance.

Read more Mercedes 1-2 at the 2026 season opener in the Australian GP

Achievements and records of drivers who finished on the podium

George Russell won an F1 race for the sixth time in his career.

Russell secured Pole Position for the eighth time in his career.

Russell won an F1 race for the fourth time after starting from Pole Position (he has a 50% success rate).

Russell leads the drivers’ championship for the first time in his career.

Russell in Mercedes colors at the Australian GP either stands on the podium or does not finish the race.

Russell recorded his 25. career podium.

Kimi Antonelli recorded his fourth career podium.

Antonelli always finishes in the TOP4 at the Australian GP.

Charles Leclerc recorded his 51. career podium.

Leclerc has achieved a podium in Australia three times, always standing on a different step.

Leclerc, like Kimi Raikkonen, has started 151 races for Ferrari. Only Michael Schumacher drove for this team longer – 180 races.

Achievements of other drivers

Lewis Hamilton has secured as many as eight Pole Positions in Australia, but has only won the race there twice. He most often had various problems there, but in return, he has ten podium finishes there.

Hamilton has led for at least one lap in 193. different F1 races.

Hamilton has led for at least one lap in 20. different (and consecutive) F1 seasons. This is a definitive F1 record; in second place is Michael Schumacher, who led F1 races during 16 seasons.

Lando Norris lost qualifying to a teammate in Australia for the first time in his career.

Max Verstappen set the fastest lap in a race for the first time at the Australian GP and for the 37. time in total in his career.

Verstappen has fastest laps on 22. different tracks, just like Kimi Raikkonen. Only Hamilton (27) and Schumacher (24) are better.

Verstappen has stood on the podium three times at the Australian GP, scored points for positions 5-10 four times, and failed to finish three times due to breakdowns. He has good qualifying results there (except for the 2026 season when he crashed at the start), but he fared much worse in the races. Statistically, it is one of the worst tracks on the calendar for him.

Verstappen finished qualifying in Q1 for the eighth time in his career.

Verstappen was beaten by a teammate in qualifying for the first time since the 2024 Azerbaijan GP, i.e., for 1,5 years.

Verstappen ended a streak of ten consecutive podium finishes – the seventh-best result in F1 history.

Verstappen gained 14 positions in the race compared to his starting position.

Arvid Lindblad scored points in F1 at 18 years and 7 months old. This is the third-best result in history; only Max Verstappen was younger – 17 years 5 months and 29 days, as well as Kimi Antonelli – 18 years 6 months and 19 days.

Youngest F1 point scorers:

1. Max Verstappen – 17 years 5 months and 29 days
2. Kimi Antonelli – 18 years 6 months and 19 days
3. Arvid Lindblad – 18 years 7 months and 0 days
4. Lance Stroll – 18 years 7 months and 13 days
5. Oliver Bearman – 18 years 10 months and 1 day#F1PL pic.twitter.com/cgCYVW3g9c

— Karol z CyrkF1 (@Karol_CyrkF1) March 8, 2026

Lindblad is the 70. driver in F1 history to score points on debut.

Pierre Gasly scored points at the Australian GP for the second time (out of seven occasions).

Esteban Ocon equaled Romain Grosjean’s anti-record for the number of F1 races without a Pole Position. Both Frenchmen have 181 F1 races to their credit.

Carlos Sainz has started the Australian GP ten times: he won once, finished at the end of the TOP10 four times, was out of the points twice, and did not finish three times. With one exception in 2024 when he won, it is a very poor track for him.

Lance Stroll did not participate in qualifying and was not classified in the race, so he is currently not in the general classification.

Isack Hadjar recorded a career-best F1 qualifying result – third position.

Nico Hulkenberg had a breakdown on the way to the starting grid and did not start the race at all. This was the fifth time in his career he had such bad luck. These types of situations happen extremely rarely; there are drivers with over 200 races who have never had such bad luck, while Hulkenberg has had it five times.

Oscar Piastri crashed on the way to the starting grid and did not start an F1 race for the first time.

Piastri formally always scores points in his home race, because in the statistics, he will not have the 2026 race credited.

Statistics regarding teams and engines

Mercedes recorded its 132. victory in Formula 1, including its fifth at the Australian GP.

Mercedes waited seven years for another victory in Australia.

Mercedes recorded its 61. 1-2 finish in Formula 1, including its fourth at the Australian GP.

Mercedes recorded its 144. Pole Position in Formula 1, including its seventh for the Australian GP.

Mercedes equaled Ferrari’s historical F1 record. Both teams can boast a streak of 15. consecutive seasons with at least one Pole Position.

Mercedes occupied the entire front row at the start of an F1 race for the 83. time in its history.

Read more Qualifying analysis before the 2026 Australian GP

A Mercedes driver leads the general classification for the first time since 2021.

Since the introduction of hybrid V6 Turbo engines, at least one driver from the Mercedes factory team has always finished on the podium at the Australian GP, with the exception of the 2024 race, when both drivers failed to finish.

Red Bull Racing drivers have only won Australian GP races twice: in 2011 and 2023. It is one of the tracks with the least success for them on the F1 calendar.

In the last six qualifying sessions in Australia, one of the Red Bull drivers was eliminated in Q1 four times, always a different one: Gasly, Perez, Lawson and Verstappen.

The Red Bull junior team recorded its best qualifying result in Australia since 2017.

Audi scored points in its Formula 1 debut.

The Cadillac team debuted in Formula 1, but it was a very mediocre debut, as they had no achievement (other than participation) worth mentioning.

Cars with Mercedes engines have secured a total of 250 Pole Positions in Formula 1. Only Ferrari engines are better – 256 Pole Positions.

Other statistical trivia after the 2026 Australian GP

The 2026 Australian GP was the 29. Formula 1 race at the Albert Park circuit in Melbourne.

For the 24. time, the F1 season began with the Australian GP race at the Albert Park circuit.

If the Australian GP race started the F1 season, the world champion at the end of the competition was a driver who stood on the podium or secured Pole Position in Australia. If this is to continue, this year’s world champion will be Russell, Antonelli or Leclerc.

No Australian has ever achieved a podium in their home Formula 1 race. Daniel Ricciardo stood on the podium in 2014, but was later disqualified for breaking technical regulations. Australians have finished in fourth place four times: Mark Webber in 2012, Daniel Ricciardo in 2016 and 2018, and Oscar Piastri in 2024.

Drivers from eight different teams scored points in the 2026 Australian GP.

The division of F1 qualifying into three segments was introduced in 2006 and only eight F1 drivers advanced to Q3 on their debut: Kubica, Hamilton, Vettel, Kwiat, Magnussen, Sainz, Norris and Lindblad.

20. drivers participated in both qualifying and the 2026 Australian GP race, even though there are 22 in the field this year.

Bernd Mayländer served as the safety car driver for the 500. time in his career this weekend.

Lap times, top speed, and pit stops at the 2026 Australian GP

George Russell won qualifying for the 2026 Australian GP with a time of 1:18,518. The Mercedes driver’s result was 3,422 seconds slower than the current qualifying record for the Albert Park Circuit, which has belonged to Lando Norris since 2025 – 1:15,096.

Max Verstappen set the fastest lap time during the race. The Dutchman set a time of 1:22,091 on the 43. lap. The official record for the Albert Park Circuit remains Charles Leclerc’s 2024 result – 1:19,813.

The highest top speed during the race was achieved by Esteban Ocon. The Frenchman recorded 325,8 km/h at the speed trap at the end of the second sector. This is 6,0 km/h slower than Charles Leclerc’s 2025 result. In 2026, F1 cars accelerate very quickly, but they lack energy for the entire length of the straights, so top speeds are reached earlier and are lower at the measurement point. According to telemetry data published by F1, the highest speed in the race was recorded by Franco Colapinto – 344 km/h.

The fastest pit stop during the 2026 Australian GP was performed by Mercedes mechanics, who changed a set of wheels on George Russell’s car on the 12. lap in 2,17 seconds. This is, of course, the fastest pit stop this year. The record for all of Formula 1 remains the pit stop with Lando Norris set by McLaren during the 2023 Qatar GP – 1,80 seconds.

Attendance at the 2026 Australian GP

In 2026, record fan attendance was recorded at the Albert Park circuit in Melbourne. The 2026 Australian GP was the second most-visited event in the country’s history in terms of total attendance. The record belongs to the final F1 race at the circuit in the city of Adelaide in 1995. In 2026, organizers stated on their social media that there were 86 210 fans at the track on Thursday (a definitive record for that day), 125 725 on Friday (slightly more than last year), 134 130 on Saturday (two thousand fewer than last year), and 137 869 on Sunday (six thousand more than last year). Total attendance for the four-day weekend was 483 934 fans, which was over 18 000 better than in 2025 – details in the table below.

The Melbourne track has been systematically modernized in recent years; this year, the grandstands were expanded to 141 000 seats. It is likely that not all tickets were sold or some fans from other countries did not arrive due to the war between the USA and Israel with Iran, which heavily affected air traffic. In 2028, after the completion of the new pit building, the capacity of the Melbourne track should increase to a level where weekend attendance exceeds 0,5 million. This year, a better weekend attendance result may only be seen at the British GP (500 000 in 2025).

Statistical summaries of previous Formula 1 races and more can be found under the Statistics tag.

Read more F1 2026 Fan Guide – download for free