It's Russell in F1, Newgarden in IndyCar, and Blaney in NASCAR

The 2026 season of the Formula One World Championship began with drama and intrigue Sunday at Melbourne’s Albert Park Circuit, where George Russell captured victory in the Australian Grand Prix.

The British driver led teammate Kimi Antonelli across the finish line to deliver a dominant one-two result for Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One Team, kicking off the 2026 new campaign in style.

Behind the silver cars came the Ferrari machines driven by Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton, while McLaren’s Lando Norris completed the top five.

The race opened with immediate excitement. Starting fourth, Leclerc launched aggressively off the grid and surged into the lead ahead of Russell during the opening laps. The two front-runners traded positions in a tense early duel, setting the tone for a strategic contest that would ultimately determine the outcome.

A key moment came when a virtual safety car was triggered after Isack Hadjar parked his Red Bull Racing car off the circuit with a mechanical problem. Mercedes quickly seized the opportunity to bring both Russell and Antonelli into the pits, while Ferrari gambled by keeping its drivers on track.

That decision temporarily put Ferrari in control of the race, but the balance shifted again once Leclerc and Hamilton eventually made their stops. When the pit cycle concluded, Russell and Antonelli had reclaimed the lead, setting up a strategic standoff between the two powerhouse teams.

Ferrari appeared poised to run its tires to the finish, while Mercedes faced the possibility of needing another stop later in the race. Instead, the Silver Arrows committed to staying out. Despite their increasingly worn tires, Russell and Antonelli maintained enough pace to keep the Ferrari pair at bay.

The gamble paid off. Russell crossed the finish line 2.9 seconds ahead of Antonelli to secure the sixth victory of his Formula One career. Pre-race favorite Max Verstappen delivered an impressive recovery drive, climbing from 20th on the grid, after crashing in Q1, to finish sixth. Oliver Bearman claimed seventh place for Haas, while Sergio Pérez finished 16th for Cadillac in the squad’s very first F1 race appearance.

The event also marked the debut of Formula One’s new technical regulations, featuring revised aerodynamics and power units with a 50-50 split between combustion and electric power. The changes place greater emphasis on battery management, sometimes forcing drivers to conserve energy rather than push flat-out through corners.

Teams and drivers are still adjusting to the new machinery, and the competitive picture remains far from clear. With the championship now heading to the Chinese Grand Prix — which will include the season’s first sprint race — the paddock expects to learn much more about the true pecking order in the weeks ahead. 

The NTT IndyCar Series made a long-awaited return to Phoenix Raceway Saturday afternoon, and the result was a dramatic finish reminiscent of the track’s last open-wheel race in 2018.

The last time IndyCar raced at Phoenix Raceway, Josef Newgarden took the win with a late-race charge. On Saturday, it was deju vu all over again as the Team Penske driver took his Dallara DW12/Chevy machine to victory in the Good Ranchers 250.

Newgarden’s win echoed his triumph the last time IndyCar visited the one-mile oval, which was originally built for the 1964 season, specifically with champ car racing in mind. As the laps wound down, the two-time series champion made a late pit stop for new tires and then powered to the front to secure another memorable victory at the historic track with the unique dogleg.

Note: The Arizona State Fairground hosted AAA/USAC Champ Car racing on a 1-mile dirt oval from 1950 to 1963. It was notorious for dangerous conditions, resulting in the deaths of drivers Rex Mays (1949), Jack McGrath (1955), and Al Keller (1961). In 1962, Elmer George lost control and went into the crowd, injuring spectators, and sealing the track's fate.

Kyle Kirkwood (Andretti Global DW12/Honda) finished second after running near the front throughout the race, while pole sitter David Malukas completed the podium. Pato O’Ward crossed the line fourth, followed by Marcus Armstrong, Alexander Rossi, Scott Dixon, Scott McLaughlin and Graham Rahal.

The day was less kind to defending series and Indianapolis 500 champion Alex Palou. After starting ninth and climbing to fourth, the Ganassi Racing driver’s race ended early when he was hit from behind by Rinus VeeKay on lap 21 of 250.

Another storyline involved Christian Rasmussen and Will Power. Power had already endured a difficult weekend after crashing in qualifying and starting from the back of the field. Despite that setback, he impressively fought his way forward and even led a lap before Rasmussen, who had one of the fastest cars in the field, made contact with him on lap 207, ultimately leaving Power 16th and one lap down at the finish.

One of the weekend’s curiosities was the difference in speeds between IndyCars and the NASCAR stock cars that were racing on the same oval. Joey Logano captured the pole for the Cup Series race at 135.5 mph, while Malukas’ IndyCar pole lap was a much quicker 175.3 mph. But to put this in perspective, Jimmie Johnson still holds the Cup record at Phoenix with a 146.3-mph lap from 2015, while Helio Castroneves set the all-time IndyCar mark at 194.9 mph during that same high-downforce era.

More important than speed, however, was the quality of the racing. When IndyCar last left Phoenix after 2018, the track had developed a reputation for single-groove racing and limited passing. Saturday told a very different story. Fans witnessed 19 lead changes among 11 drivers, along with new event records for total overtakes (565) and passes for position (323), signaling a successful return for IndyCar to the desert mile.

Next race: The Inaugural Java House Grand Prix of Arlington, March 13-15.

Ryan Blaney continued to cement his reputation as one of the most consistent performers at Phoenix Raceway with a hard-fought victory in Sunday’s Straight Talk Wireless 500.

Driving a Team Penske Ford, Blaney once again proved his mastery of the desert oval. Since the introduction of NASCAR’s Next Gen car, the former champion has been nearly unbeatable at Phoenix, finishing inside the top five in eight of the nine races held with the current Cup car. This latest win, however, required resilience as much as speed. Blaney twice faced setbacks on pit road that dropped him to the back of the field. Each time he fought his way forward, slicing through traffic to rejoin the leaders during the race’s decisive closing stages.

Runner-up honors went to Toyota driver Christopher Bell of Joe Gibbs Racing, who dominated much of the afternoon by leading a race-high 176 of the 312 laps. Bell appeared to have the strongest car, but the race ultimately turned on pit strategy. During a late stop, Bell opted for four fresh tires and restarted eighth, five positions behind Blaney. Although he charged forward quickly and closed the gap in the final laps, he simply ran out of time to reclaim the lead and the win.

Kyle Larson finished third in his Hendrick Motorsports Chevy, followed by Ty Gibbs in fourth and Denny Hamlin in fifth.

Tire management became one of the day’s biggest storylines. After several failures during last fall’s championship race at Phoenix, teams remained cautious about running extremely low tire pressures for extra speed. Still, the new short-track rules package — which increased horsepower from 670 to 750 — made the cars more difficult to handle. Drivers frequently slid through the corners, putting additional strain on the tires.

The result was a race filled with interruptions. A total of 12 caution flags flew, tying the record for a NASCAR Cup race at Phoenix, with 86 laps run under yellow.

Tyler Reddick entered the race attempting to become the first driver since Jimmie Johnson in 2007 to win four consecutive Cup races, but that streak came to an end with an eighth-place finish.

Reddick still leads the championship standings by 60 points over Blaney, with Bubba Wallace, Chase Elliott, and Shane van Gisbergen rounding out the top five in the early season title chase.

Next race: The Pennzoil Las Vegas 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, March 14-15.