F1 Australian Grand Prix: Lewis Hamilton is the biggest winner in Melbourne - this is why

Charles Leclerc, Lewis Hamilton, Ferrari, Australia, 2026 — Photo: © IMAGO

Australian Grand Prix

Lewis Hamilton is the biggest winner from the Australian Grand Prix - this is why

Hamilton started 2026 looking good at Albert Park on Sunday afternoon

Chris Deeley

Sunday 8 March 2026 17:52

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It's a nice, easy media thing to write a 'winners and losers' column after a sporting event, because people like to read them (we do as well! That's how we know!) and they're so straightforward to write.

It would be impossible to do one of those for the Australian Grand Prix without being very unkind to Oscar Piastri, and that's what Twitter is for. So, just winners here.

That was the idea, but...well, writing about George Russell winning a race from pole in the best car isn't very fun. Good for him and all that, but what's there to say about that except 'yep, that's what we expected, now we're on to China?'

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Lewis Hamilton, then. On the face of it, more of the same to start his second season in red. Still no podium in 25 grands prix with the team. But...well, maybe the 1am alarms have done more damage than we thought, or maybe this felt a bit different?

F1 RESULTS: Mercedes dominate chaotic Australian Grand Prix

Lewis Hamilton, race winner (sort of)

Ferrari's strategy department is still an absolute basket case, but they very clearly have the second fastest race car on the grid leaving Australia. That's not something they've been able to say since Hamilton arrived.

Last year they were chopping it up with Mercedes (faster car, slower second driver) and Red Bull (the same...we think?) while McLaren sped on ahead. Now they're coming out of the race having beaten the lead Red Bull and McLaren by more than half a minute?

The strategy snafu probably didn't cost the team a race win, but it certainly saved a slightly uncomfortable afternoon of looking over their shoulders for Mercedes. In those first dozen laps before the strategy divergence, there was an honest to god, wheel-to-wheel race on, and Ferrari were right in the thick of it.

That isn't what we had expected 24 hours before! And this at a track we're told probably suits the Mercedes a little better than many others.

'Wait, why are you calling Hamilton the winner here and not Charles Leclerc as well? He's driving the same car, all of the above is true for him too? Also...he's the Ferrari driver who finished on the podium?'

Thank you, convenient questioner I just made up. The Ferrari being competitive (and, unlike the Red Bull, reliable thus far) is good for both drivers. They're both winners in that sense.

Hamilton, though, came into this season looking absolutely cooked. Leclerc has been comfortably ahead of him in just about every prediction column and every bookie's odds, because of everything we saw last year. Lewis Hamilton, the prevailing narrative said, was the second best driver on his own team and fading fast.

Finishing barely half a second behind your team-mate – and closing fast, in part because you made the decision to stay out three laps longer and create a tyre delta – is not the sign of a cooked driver. Making your first-lap passes stick and then driving away from the field to close up to the fight for first is not the sign of a cooked driver.

Why is Lewis Hamilton the biggest winner from this weekend? Because he started to remind everyone that he's Lewis Hamilton. Everyone who matters remembers what that means.

F1 Lewis Hamilton Ferrari Australian Grand Prix