Active aerodynamics are a huge feature of the fresh regulations this year - both the front and rear wings move in 2026 - and Ferrari's upside down wing, seen briefly in Bahrain, was a talking point of pre-season testing. Will the Scuderia bring it out in Melbourne? It hasn't made an appearance yet.

But that hasn't stopped Charles Leclerc. The newly married driver is top of the timesheets with a 1:21.635 on the medium compound.

New Red Bull driver Isack Hadjar, who gained a promotion after his solid rookie season for Racing Bulls last year, is second - he did have a little stint at the top ahead of Leclerc - and the other Ferrari of Lewis Hamilton third quickest.

Image source, Getty Images

Andrew Benson
BBC F1 correspondent in Melbourne on Radio 5 Sports Extra

It's absolutely inexcusable from a company, Honda, that won the world championship with Red Bull two years ago. They haven't answered any questions about why and how. It's almost unbelievable and yet it's not because it happened in almost exactly the same way when Honda started with McLaren in 2015.

Image source, Getty Images

The first three races of the season take place when most of us will be in bed here in the UK, so if you're planning on staying up especially to follow along with us this weekend, you'll get an F1 live page gold star.

Automatic gold star if you're working nights - don't worry, we'll keep you company and (hopefully) make your shift go quicker.

Any opinions, questions, thoughts and feelings you have during the three days of track action, send them in using the yellow 'Get Involved' button on the page.

Max Verstappen couldn't secure a fifth consecutive drivers' championship last year but the Dutchman has been in good spirits in the paddock this week, despite not being the biggest fan of the new regulations.

Red Bull are starting life using their own power unit this season in partnership with Ford and so far, it's been a thumbs up from the two tests in Bahrain.

Verstappen went quickest on the medium tyre, was then bumped down by the Mercedes of Kimi Antonelli and the Ferrari of Charles Leclerc, but now he's back on top with a 1:22.305.

Jennie Gow
F1 pit-lane reporter in Melbourne

It might be the start of the session but it's already game over for one driver: Fernando Alonso will not take to the track in his Aston Martin. They've found a suspected power unit-related issue.

Andrew Benson
BBC F1 correspondent in Melbourne on Radio 5 Sports Extra

There is excitement and there is also nervousness. This is going to be a learning process for you Harry, me, Marc and everyone in Formula 1, just as much as it is for everyone watching it for the first time.

The virtual safety car has vanished and cars are continuing to join the Albert Park circuit.

Lando Norris, the reigning world champion, has just watched his team-mate Oscar Piastri crawl after an issue with his car and now the Briton is in a spot of bother. "Downshifts are shocking. All shifts, something isn't right," he tells the McLaren pit wall.

Image source, Getty Images

Marc Priestley
Former F1 mechanic on BBC Radio 5 Sports Extra

I don't think I can remember a season getting under way as anticipated as this one.

The VSC is flashing now, as Brit rookie Arvid Lindblad is also stranded at the end of the pit lane in his Racing Bulls. The teenager is being pushed back to the garage by some helpful crew members.

Oscar Piastri, meanwhile, is still on track but he gives further information to his team to say something is not right.

Yellow flagpublished at 01:33 GMT 6 March

01:33 GMT 6 March

There's an early yellow flag in first practice and unfortunately, it's for home driver Oscar Piastri.

"I've got no power," says the Australian to his McLaren pit wall.

"I'm idling but I've got no throttle."

Another fresh face (sort of) is Audi, who have taken over the Swiss-based Sauber team. The German outfit have jumped straight in at the deep end by designing and building an in-house power unit for their debut.

Veteran driver Nico Hulkenberg and Brazilian Gabriel Bortoleto are back for a second season together and team principal Jonathan Wheatley has set the bar high already: "We want to make Audi the most successful F1 team in history," he said.

And it's German Hulkenberg who is the first car out on track and the phones in the grandstands shoot up to take a picture.

Image source, Getty Images

And so it begins.

The first practice session of 2026 is green!

Image source, Getty Images

The F1 paddock welcomes an 11th team this season with the arrival of Cadillac, the sport's first start-up entry since fellow American team Haas joined 10 years ago.

With former Red Bull driver Sergio Perez and ex-Mercedes man Valtteri Bottas as their driver line-up, Cadillac are hoping to lean on the experience of the two multiple race winners to help guide them through their debut campaign.

Team principal Graeme Lowdon is expecting Cadillac, who will be using a Ferrari engine, to be at the back of the field this year but says if the going gets tough, "that's where that grit, that fight, that persistence comes".

Rewind to the end fo the 2024 season and Bottas, who was driving for Sauber, was slapped with a five-place grid penalty for an incident at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. As he was sat on the sidelines last year, it looked like the Finn was going to have to serve his penalty this weekend in Melbourne.

But a change in the rules by the FIA means he's now in the clear and free to start in his qualifying spot on Sunday.

BBC Radio 5 Sports Extra

Our first 'hello' to the commentary team this season.

Jennie Gow, Harry Benjamin, F1 correspondent Andrew Benson and former McLaren mechanic Marc Priestley are with us all weekend out in Melbourne.

For today's two sessions, you can tune in at the top of this page by clicking on the 'listen live' tab, via the BBC Sounds app or by asking your smart speaker to "play BBC Radio 5 Sports Extra".

The 2026 driver line-up is pretty much the same from last season but one new addition is British teenager Arvid Lindblad, who is taking the place of Isack Hadjar at Racing Bulls.

The 18-year-old is making the step up from Formula 2 and will become the fourth youngest driver in Formula 1 history - behind Max Verstappen, Lance Stroll and Kimi Antonelli - when he starts in Melbourne this weekend.

Lindblad may be a rookie in 2026 but he made the most of his time in the car during the second Bahrain test, banking 240 laps and covering 1,298km - the highest total of any driver.

Andrew Benson
BBC F1 correspondent in Melbourne

Image source, Getty Images

The team have worked at finding ways to prevent the vibrations from the engine leading to failures in the batteries in the engine's hybrid system, which afflicted them during pre-season testing.

These have been introduced on the car for the Australian GP.

Honda F1 boss Koji Watanabe said they would only know whether the countermeasures were effective once the car starts running on track on Friday.

The fix introduced only stops the vibrations reaching the battery. They are still being transmitted into the chassis, and from there into the steering.

"There's no point in not being open and honest in this meeting on our expectations," Newey said.

"We are going to have to be very heavily restricted on how many laps we do in the race until we get on top of the source of the vibration and improve the vibration at source."

Andrew Benson
BBC F1 correspondent in Melbourne

Image source, Getty Images

Aston Martin team principal Adrian Newey says vibrations from their Honda engine are risking permanent nerve damage for their drivers within 25 laps of running.

The vibrations in the Honda engine caused Aston Martin to do the lowest mileage of any team in pre-season testing and are likely to impact the team's potential to finish Sunday's season-opening Australian Grand Prix.

"That vibration into the chassis is causing a few reliability problems," Newey said.

"Mirrors falling off, tail lights falling off - all that sort of thing, which we are having to address.

"But the much more significant problem is that the vibration is transmitted ultimately into the driver's fingers.

"So Fernando [Alonso] is of the feeling that he can't do more than 25 laps consecutively before he will risk permanent nerve damage to his hands.

"Lance [Stroll] is of the opinion that he can't do more than 15 laps before that threshold."

Image source, Getty Images

"Can you imagine if you've owned a Formula 1 team for 10 years and then another team rocks up and beats you? You would be apoplectic."

Cadillac boss Graeme Lowdon, the brand new 11th team on the grid, may want to keep one eye on Aston Martin this season, as one of the main talking points of pre-season testing was how much the team struggled in both the private test in Barcelona and in Bahrain.

With a car designed by the legend Adrian Newey and a new power-unit partnership with Japanese manufacturer Honda, reliability issues curtailed the running of drivers Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll, and now the team arrives at Albert Park in Melbourne with barely any mileage on the clock.

Yesterday, Newey, who is also taking on the role as principal this year, sat down in front of the media with Honda F1 boss Koji Watanabe - and it wasn't good news...

Image source, Getty Images

If the changes feel a bit much for this early hour of the morning, here's a quick summary of what to look out for this season.

If you're ready to dive deep into the 2026 rules, F1 correspondent Andrew Benson has written an all you need to know guide, which you can read here

• Cars - shorter, lighter, nimbler and more environmentally friendly
• Engines - now a near 50-50 split between electric and internal combustion power - and use fully sustainable fuels
• DRS overtaking aid gone - replaced by overtake mode, a burst of extra electrical power when a driver is within one second of the car ahead at a detection point, usually the final corner
• Active aero - both the front and rear wings adjust angles to reduce drag on straights (straight mode) and increase downforce in corners (corner mode)
• Recharge - cars can recover energy during braking, running the engine at high revs in corners, lifting off early and coasting at the end of straights and from not being at full throttle
• Boost mode - not exactly a new feature but at the push of a button anywhere on track, drivers can get maximum power from the battery to aid with an attack or defense

Lorraine McKenna
BBC Sport Journalist

Image source, Reuters

Hello, folks. The 2026 Formula 1 season is finally here and we've touched down in Melbourne, Australia for round one of the 24-grand prix campaign.

What the racing look like this year, though, is the big unknown, as the sport is stepping into a brand new era of engines, chassis, tyres and fuel. Drivers have already had their say on the cars and chages which range from "Formula E on steriods" to the rules being "ridiculously complex".

Briton Lando Norris starts the defence of the maiden world title he clinched at the finale in Abu Dhabi three months ago, while his team McLaren are aiming to win a third consecutive constructors' championship this year.

Will the two succeed? The early pre-season predictions suggest George Russell and Mercedes might be the ones who hold the advantage.