Australian Grand Prix: Practice Recap

Round 1 of the 2026 FIA Formula 1 World Championship began with Friday practice at Albert Park in Melbourne as teams prepared for Sunday’s season opener, the 58-lap Australian Grand Prix.

TGR Haas F1 Team drivers Ollie Bearman and Esteban Ocon kicked off first practice, FP1, running baseline stints on the Pirelli P Zero Yellow medium tires. Both drivers switched onto the Red soft compound later in the session with Ocon recording a best lap of 1:22.248 for P11 while Bearman landed P14 with a 1:22.682.

FP2 – held later in the afternoon, saw Bearman and Ocon sampling the White hard tire on their respective VF-26s to start the hour-long session. After a 10-lap stint each, they pitted and when they rejoined the track action it was for quali sims on softs. Ocon subsequently produced a fastest lap of 1:21.179, to take P9 on the timesheets, with teammate Bearman directly behind in P10 – courtesy of a best tour of 1:21.326. Friday’s circuit program concluded with high-fuel runs to the checkered flag.

TGR Haas F1 Team ran a total of 113 laps on Friday across FP1 and FP2 – 56 by Bearman and 57 from Ocon.

Ollie Bearman:

“It was a positive day in the sense that we learned a lot and found out a lot of things on a track which is very different from what we were used to in Bahrain. There are a lot more things to focus on, and I think we made progress, which is the goal. Now, it’s important tonight to consolidate everything and make sure we make a step for tomorrow – that’s the target.”

Esteban Ocon:

“There’s a lot going on, a lot of details and information to take in. It’s been interesting to go on a different track and see how the car feels. The balance feels okay, there are some small details to fix, but it’s not miles off. We need to optimize the energy delivery as there’s a lot to gain there, and it’s not that easy at the moment, however, it’s all up for grabs if we manage to maximize it with the engineers. So let’s see how it goes tomorrow.”

Ayao Komatsu, Team Principal:

“Well, first Friday with the brand-new regulations – I think operationally it was as tough as we expected it. We knew after pre-season testing that things that would previously take a day to solve, we now needed to solve within 15 minutes. So, in FP1 and FP2, operationally we were far from where we need to be, so we just really need to simplify everything, focus and prioritize – and get the high priority items correct. As we spend so much time on energy management, we actually haven’t worked that much, let’s say, on car performance – but the good thing is, car performance is decent, and both drivers were reasonably happy with the car. We have to really focus on the energy management, but we definitely made progress from FP1 to FP2, and our high-fuel run was okay too. We’ll focus on qualifying performance in FP3 tomorrow, that’s what it’s for, and that’s after we look at all the things we can learn tonight and give ourselves the best preparation for Saturday.”