To the casual, outside observer, the revamped Formula 1 racing season for 2026, which began in Melbourne on Sunday, might appear to be the same old, same old. The cars still have wings, roll hoops, open wheels, and thick slick tires; they continue to vaguely resemble the world’s fastest-moving lobsters. And with the team that finished the event in first and second—Mercedes, with its drivers George Russell and Andrea Kimi Antonelli—being the same outfit that classified second in last year’s Constructors’ Championship as well as having dominated the inaugural race of the previous massive regulation change in 2014, it might feel like déjà vu all over again. Yet when the leading driver of the 2020s, Max Verstappen, crashes out in the first Qualifying session in his Red Bull and starts the Australian Grand Prix in 20th position, the local star Oscar Piastri destroys his McLaren on the way to the starting grid, and his teammate, the..
