Australian GP verdict: rival driver believes Ferrari may already have the best car on the grid. Ferrari shows strong pace in Australia as rivals admit SF-26 strength.

Ferrari finished third and fourth behind Mercedes in Australia, but the SF-26 may currently be the strongest car on the grid

The Australian Grand Prix proved to be a positive race weekend for Ferrari, even though the Scuderia ultimately finished only third and fourth. The Ferrari SF-26 once again demonstrated impressive potential when the lights went out at the start, with Charles Leclerc immediately jumping into the lead while Lewis Hamilton managed to recover several positions and climb up to third place during the opening stages of the race.

Leclerc later produced one of the most entertaining moments of the race with George Russell, engaging in an exciting battle filled with overtakes and counter-overtakes that thrilled Formula 1 fans watching the action unfold at Albert Park.

The Virtual Safety Car triggered by Isack Hadjar ultimately disrupted Ferrari’s strategy and played into Mercedes’ hands, largely due to a questionable strategic call by the Italian team — although, as often happens in Formula 1, that judgment becomes clearer only with hindsight.

Despite this setback, Ferrari still delivered a strong overall performance, finishing only around 15 seconds behind the Mercedes duo by the end of the race, with an average deficit of roughly two to three tenths of a second per lap. Precisely because of this competitive pace throughout the Grand Prix, one Formula 1 world champion believes Ferrari actually demonstrated that it currently has the best car during the Australian Grand Prix weekend.

Norris admits Ferrari’s strength

The reigning Formula 1 world champion openly admitted that the Ferrari SF-26 may currently be the strongest car on the grid. “I think Ferrari has the best car,” said Lando Norris. “The cornering speeds are incredible.”

His comments confirm what was already visible in qualifying telemetry analysis, where Ferrari consistently gained time in several corners when compared directly with the Mercedes cars.

At the moment, Ferrari’s main limitation appears to be the management of the electrical systems and the software that controls the power delivery. In this area Mercedes seems to have an advantage, although the software-related issues could potentially be solved relatively quickly.

If Ferrari manages to put all the pieces together and optimize the overall performance of the SF-26, the Scuderia could become a serious challenge for the team currently considered the favorite for the world championship.

The next round in China, scheduled for next week, should provide further answers about the true competitive order. For now, however, the season has started in a promising way for Ferrari — with the much-discussed “Macarena wing” still waiting to make its debut.

Lando Norris’s verdict from Melbourne suggests that Ferrari has successfully built the most efficient aerodynamic platform of the 2026 era, even if the “brains” of the car—the software—are still catching up to Mercedes. If Maranello can refine their energy deployment maps to match their superior cornering speeds, the SF-26 will transition from being the “moral winner” in Australia to a genuine race winner as the championship moves to the high-speed challenges of Shanghai.