Fail to prepare, prepare to fail. Success in Formula 1® can be distilled down to these six words. Planning is key in overcoming the immense technical, sporting, financial and logistical challenges this complex sport presents, and it’s why every team member is important.

The result may have come down to the efforts of George Russell and Kimi Antonelli piloting the Mercedes-AMG F1 W17 E PERFORMANCE, but getting them to the chequered flag depended on all 1200 or so links in the Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS F1 Team's chain being as strong as the next.

New season, new regulations

Any new season requires an immense amount of planning, but add to that the complication of the biggest technical regulation changes in more than a decade? Preparations take not weeks or months, but years.

“It’s been three and a half years since the engine development project began on this particular generation of power units,” explains team representative and chief communications officer, Bradley Lord.

“That’s an unusually long run-up, obviously, because it’s linked to the fact we’ve had to develop [an] entirely new power unit, cars, aerodynamic concepts and everything else. But generally, the work ahead of the race weekend ramps up probably four to six weeks beforehand.

The logistical element of sending sets of kit, equipment and garage panelling by sea freight is enormous. “That departed, I think, at the end of last year so that they [would] make it to Melbourne on time,” says Bradley.

“We’re basically sending six sets of kit around the world on a pretty complicated schedule in order to hit all the different flyaway races that we need to attend. It’s lower value, heavy stuff that we send on sea freight, because it’s more economical to have six sets and sea freight it than it would be to air freight it. It’s also significantly better for our carbon footprint.

“What does go in air freight is essential equipment, the car itself and the power units, and all of the technical componentry. They are all flown as part of roughly 25 to 30 tonnes of air-friendly equipment you’ll take to each race.”

Passing the tests

If ensuring all the requisite equipment shows up to the right racetrack at the right time isn’t a big enough challenge, car performance is a continually moving target in F1® – with the engineering and manufacturing teams not just building the new car, but also evaluating and preparing future upgrades.

With on-track testing and even physical wind-tunnel time heavily constrained in the modern era, computer simulation plays a huge role in car development and preparing for a race weekend.

“There’s the work in the virtual world to simulate drag and downforce levels, for example, to understand what wing level you’ll be running at all the different circuits,” says Bradley.

“That’s something that starts months beforehand, in terms of the aerodynamic development and modelling the entire range of circuits for the season.”

The engine revolution

One of the most important tools the Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS F1 Team has is the driver-in-the-loop simulator. This not only allows the drivers and engineers to finetune car set-up ahead of a race weekend, it’s also used throughout a race weekend, with reserve drivers and engineers at the factory using the data gained in the free practice sessions to try and find more performance.

Plus, the simulator allows drivers to get familiar with one of the biggest changes for the 2026 F1® season: the energy management required to optimise both qualifying and race laps in a car that now has a close to 50/50 split between combustion and electrical power (compared to the 80/20 split of previous years).

“[The drivers] will be in the simulator more this year than they ever have been, in order to ensure they’re on top of that energy management,” says Bradley.

“We’ll be talking this year in terms of energy-rich circuits, where you’ve got more than enough energy to be deploying at full power – generally those are the shorter ones like Monaco [and] Hungary – and we’ll be talking about energy-poor circuits where it’s very difficult to recover enough [energy].

“Albert Park is right in the top three of the season’s energy-poor circuits.”

While this low-energy might have created some challenges for the team’s drivers, engineers and strategists – especially because everyone was on such a steep learning curve – it was an excellent weekend of action.

“[It could have been] a recipe for a jumbled-up qualifying order and race outcome,” says Bradley. “Especially because some of the things we all take for granted in a F1® weekend – pulling away from pit stops, quick garage turnarounds in qualifying, making the race start – have become significantly more challenging with these new power units.”

A stunning victory at the Australian Grand Prix

After a busy week of marketing activities and engineering meetings as a new era of F1® began, the team was itching to get going.

“Our two [drivers were] very excited to get to Melbourne and get going properly,” says Bradley, “rather than the sort of phony warfare of testing. I think they’re enjoying driving a car that’s lighter, smaller, narrower and just feels a bit more responsive.”

The weekend got off to the perfect start, with George and Kimi lining up in first and second on the grid, but there were plenty of challenges to come. Both dropped positions at the start before fighting back against the two Ferrari drivers, Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton.

Both Silver Arrows drivers managed their car and tyres to the end, with George ultimately taking the chequered flag and Kimi coming in second.

“We had a difficult and chaotic start and, from there, were yo-yoing with the overtakes between Charles and me,” George said after the race.

“I could have perhaps used my energy more smartly to defend when I first overtook him and that cost me when he passed me back. It was quite stressful from in the car, but hopefully [it] meant we put on a good show for the fans.

“There is a lot we’ve learned about our car and how to operate within these new regulations this weekend. Whilst we were the strongest team in Melbourne, we are going to have to work really hard to stay ahead.”

Relive all the action from the 2026 Australian Grand Prix.