The 2026 season of Formula One ushered in some of the most drastic regulatory changes in the sport’s history. As teams and drivers still try to get around the new cars, the year’s first half has been a mixed bag for on-track action. Nonetheless, there has been enough to keep the fans interested. With the F1 carnival reconvening after the summer break in Zandvoort this weekend, The Hindu reviews the major themes so far to see what could lie ahead.
The Italian, who will graduate out of his teens on Tuesday (August 25), has taken the F1 world by storm in his sophomore campaign, winning six of the 11 races and leading the championship by 50 points. He was once 66 points ahead and saw that whittled down to 25 before he built it back up. With a possible 12 races left this year, it is too early to pop the champagne.
One of the great joys of watching elite sport is to marvel at the ability of a wonderkid ruffling the feathers of the established order. Even as F1 has been besieged by negativity around the new regulations, the one bright light has been Kimi Antonelli. While Antonelli has a healthy lead, he has already experienced how fickle it can be. However, if he keeps doing what he has been doing, keeping a calm head, he could etch his name into the history books.
George Russell bided his time in an uncompetitive Williams for three years before earning a promotion to Mercedes in 2022 to partner Lewis Hamilton. Unfortunately, it came at a time when the German marque, which had won eight successive titles, messed up the 2022 ground-effect regulations. By the end of 2024, he was faster. A mixture of reliability issues, bad luck during races, and his driving style not suiting the current car has left the presumptive pre-season favourite 59 points off top spot. However, the nimble 2026 cars seem to have rekindled his mojo and the 41-year-old is now second in the standings.
So when he won the first race in Australia from pole and then dominated the sprint in China, he would have felt that his patience was finally paying off. He was saddled with a car that could at best fight for the occasional win. But in his three years alongside Hamilton, Russell showed he could go toe-to-toe with one of the greatest drivers in history. Even as Russell has endured a torrid time, his former teammate has found a new lease of life after four years of struggle in ground-effect cars. In fact, the Briton himself pondered if he was the right man for the job.
Yet, it has pretty much been downhill since then. Hamilton’s initiation into Ferrari was tumultuous, and there were times last year when one wondered if the seven-time champion was past his best.
