Welcome to RussellMania: George Russell kicked off the new season and a new era in Formula One with a commanding victory Sunday at the Australian Grand Prix.
Kimi Antonelli recovered from a hiccup at the start to finish just under three seconds behind his teammate to make it an impressive 1-2 finish for Mercedes.
Ferrari's Charles Leclerc completed the podium in a distant third, 12.5 seconds behind Antonelli.
Mercedes sent a statement during Saturday's qualifying, with Russell and Antonelli locking out the front row. Russell was almost eight-tenths of a second faster than his nearest competitor, Red Bull's Isack Hadjar, who qualified third.
But Ferrari was fast in their practice starts during pre-season testing and played their hand early, too. As the Mercedes cars were slow off the line, Leclerc threaded the needle through the middle of the track from fourth on the grid and leaped into the lead at the first turn.
Leclerc and Russell engaged in a frenzied see-saw battle, exchanging the lead back and forth through the opening set of laps. Maybe a little too frenzied, as Russell believed Leclerc was driving too dangerously. Officials took a look, but no further investigation was conducted.
That tangle ended when Hadjar pulled off to the side of the track on lap 12, and Mercedes took advantage of the ensuing virtual safety car period to double-stack Russell and Antonelli in the pits for hard tires.
The Ferraris of Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton stayed out and were unable to follow suit and capitalize while the field was moving at a snail's pace.
Another VSC soon followed and gave Ferrari a mulligan when Cadillac's Valtteri Bottas bowed out. Once again, neither driver came in before the pit lane closed.
Both Leclerc and Hamilton made their stops when the race was green, as Ferrari opted for a one-stop strategy. That may have worked if not for Russell and Antonelli stretching their tires all the way to the end and not needing a second stop with enough race pace to keep Ferrari in the distance.
And yes, that was the famous T-pose making a return to the podium.
Russell now finds himself at the top of the standings for the first time in his career after the opening race of the season. Will he still be in that spot at the end of the season?
Mega drive from Antonelli
Antonelli was playing on expert mode this weekend. The 19-year-old sophomore driver crashed hard in the final free practice Saturday just before qualifying. His team scrambled and repaired the car just in time for qualifying and even though they weren't even able to set it all up properly, he still managed to put it on the front row.
The poor start saw Antonelli slip to seventh, but his Mercedes car showed its might, slicing through the field and making it up to fourth and in contention by lap 16.
Mercedes will have to figure out what caused the battery issue at the start, but if they solve that, then this could be the start of another dominant Mercedes era.
Silver linings for Ferrari
The strong start off the line is one big positive Ferrari can take away from the Australian GP.
Seeing Leclerc hold his ground with Russell, and Hamilton in the hunt as well, was promising, but we don't know if Ferrari could have kept pace through the duration of the race, as the questionable strategy call not to pit under the VSC took them out of the equation.
Still, it was nice to see the seven-time world champion Hamilton in good spirits after a dreadful first season last year with Ferrari, as he closed within almost half-a-second of Leclerc.
"I wish the race was longer," Hamilton said in the media pen. "I think another five laps or so, I would have definitely, I think I would have gotten third, so there's lots and lots of positives to take from today, and the car was feeling great, and it was actually a really fun race."
McLaren off the pace
Reigning world champion Lando Norris finished fifth, fending off Red Bull's Max Verstappen to the line.
The pace just wasn't there for Norris, who was victorious in Melbourne last year but was 51 seconds adrift of Russell this time out.
"P5 is a good result, I think we maximized what we could achieve today," Norris said in a team release. "The gap to the guys ahead is pretty big, and we clearly have a lot of work to do, which we thought might be the case coming into this weekend.
"The fact that we could defend against Max and keep him behind, even though he had a lot more pace, was positive. We managed the strategy well, protected our position, and managed the tires well to keep him behind."
That's still better than his teammate, Australia's own Oscar Piastri, who didn't even make it to the starting grid for his home race. A combination of battery issues, cold tires and cutting the curb exiting turn four created a perfect storm as he spun around and smashed into the barrier.
The good thing for Piastri is that he doesn't have too long to dwell on it, with another race just around the corner next weekend in China and another pseudo home race.
First impressions of the new regulations
Only six cars finished on the lead lap, multiple cars that did not finish and a couple that didn't even start. Sounds like the start of a new regulation era.
F1 underwent its biggest overhaul of regulations since 2014, with active aerodynamics and a greater reliance on energy management to go along with lighter, slightly smaller cars.
There was a lot of griping from the drivers leading up to the race — Norris called them "the worst" after qualifying — but we really wouldn't know how it would all play out until the lights went out to get a real sense of where these new cars were at.
For a viewer, it sure was entertaining watching Mercedes and Ferrari fighting back and forth with multiple lead changes at the start.
Verstappen was among those who expressed displeasure with the new cars and started on the back foot after his rear axles locked up on him in qualifying, sending him off the track and into the barrier.
Some things haven't changed. In typical Verstappen fashion, the four-time world champion battled from 20th on the starting grid to finish sixth.
Simply lovely? Not quite. Hadjar's DNF will be a cause for concern for the team that has an all-new power unit this season in partnership with Ford.
Meanwhile, Leclerc said on the team radio, "This is like a mushroom in Mario Kart." Let's-a-go?
There's a lot for drivers and teams to learn from the season opener and it'll be interesting to see who figures it all out the fastest.
At least one person is enjoying these new cars, though.
"Very nice! Very nice! I like this car. I like this engine," Borat, ahem, Russell said over the team radio.
Pit stops
• It was a mixed bag weekend for Audi. The team earned its first couple of points since completing its takeover of Sauber, with Gabriel Bortoleto finishing ninth. Unfortunately for them, Nico Hulkenberg didn't make it to the grid due to a mechanical issue.
• Racing Bulls driver Arvid Lindblad finished eighth to earn four points in his F1 debut. Outperform your teammate and score points? That's a positive, for sure. Of course, the 18-year-old leads the rookie points race regardless, as he's the only rookie on the grid to start the season.
• Lindblad's teammate Liam Lawson finished out of the points in 13th, but his unlucky break came early as he was slow at the start. Alpine's Franco Colapinto had a danger-close moment as he squeezed by Lawson. Those are some cat-like reflexes.
• Separate from that, Colapinto was issued a stop-and-go penalty for a race start incident, although that's not what the on-screen graphic said.
• Aston Martin exceeded expectations, and by that we mean Lance Stroll managed to put in 43 laps, while Fernando Alonso completed 21 before bringing it back to the garage. Both drivers believed before the race that they could do no more than 15-25 laps before experiencing nerve damage due to vibrations in the car, as Aston Martin's partnership with Honda is off to a disastrous start.
