The countdown has begun: at 2:30 on Friday night (Italian time), the 2026 Formula 1 season will officially kick off with the first free practice session in Australia. A championship still full of unknowns due to the new and complicated technical regulations, which are raising question marks not only about who will be the next world champion, but also about who will be the driver to win the first round of the world championship in Melbourne.
Someone who has not expressed the slightest doubt on the matter is former McLaren driver David Coulthard, who is convinced that a driver from the Woking team can win this weekend’s race. In this case, however, it will not be the reigning world champion Lando Norris who makes it, but rather his teammate Oscar Piastri. A success that, again according to the Scotsman, would have great significance.
Read more Norris: “In recent years we have managed to change things with developments and updates”
In addition to being born in the city where the race weekend will take place, Piastri would become the first Australian in history to win his home GP. A goal never achieved by a world champion like Alan Jones (the Australian GP was included in the world championship after the retirement of another world title winner like Jack Brabham, ed.), nor by two other drivers like Mark Webber or Daniel Ricciardo: “I’m going straight for the home hero, I’m betting on Oscar Piastri for the win – Coulthard commented on the Up to Speed podcast – Australia hasn’t had this for a long time, if ever. Webber didn’t manage it, Ricciardo didn’t manage it either. It’s been a long time coming.”
