3 Winners and Losers so far in F1 2026

15th April 2026 0 By Kamron Kent

We are amongst the break now, and we have enjoyed three race weekends before the calendar came to a crashing halt, but who have been the biggest winners and losers so far?

Feature image credit: Getty Images // Red Bull Content Pool

Formula 1 is well and truly enduring its unscheduled spring break, but instead of a holiday in Florida, the 11 teams will be no doubt checking, double-checking and triple-checking over their data for signs of performance.

All of the teams have plenty of data to go off, with three pre-season tests, three grand prix race weekends and a sprint race.

As such, here are my winners and losers of the 2026 F1 season.

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Winner: Kimi Antonelli

The young Italian has proved he can put in an early fight for the championship, taking the lead in the drivers’ standings after three rounds to edge out his experienced teammate, George Russell.

Antonelli has shown signs that he can lead the team to glory, but perhaps in the briefest moments of his early career, after being primarily overshadowed by Russell.

However, with back-to-back pole positions and grand prix victories in both China and Japan, the Italian has momentum on his side. Let’s hope this break doesn’t snuff out his bright start to the 2026 season.

Loser: Oscar Piastri

For a driver who you’d expect to be looking to right his wrongs from last year, letting a championship slip away in the second half of 2025, and looking set to get a challenge going straight out of the box, Piastri probably had one of the hardest starts to his F1 season so far.

It initially started at his home race, where he crashed out on his own; granted, it wasn’t helped by the extra electrical power that caught him out. However, in the following race weekend, the Australian failed to start his second grand prix as McLaren endured their first double DNS since Indianapolis 2005.

Fortunately, the Australian didn’t make it a trio of DNS’s as he finally got his first grand prix start of 2026 under his belt in Japan and secured a podium finish.

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Winner: George Russell

After seasons of watching Mercedes win glory in his Williams days, and then playing catch-up in the ground effect era with Mercedes, it seems like 2026 might actually be George Russell’s year.

After a strong start for the Briton, with his season-opening win, sprint victory and recovery in Japan, after an untimely safety car, it seems things might be aligning for the #63 Mercedes driver, laying the foundation for a championship-winning season.

The only problem he faces right now is his rapidly improving teammate, Antonelli, after the British driver lost the lead of the championship going into the April break.

Loser: Max Verstappen

Max Verstappen has endured a slow start to his season, and a car he doesn’t necessarily enjoy. Whether it’s down to car performance itself, or other factors like the current regulations, balance issues or the lack of a dominant edge that Red Bull could produce, fans would expect Verstappen to be dragging the car in places it doesn’t belong – but he is struggling to do that so far this season.

However, writing the four-time world champion off the championship would be foolhardy as we know if one driver can turn around a deficit, Verstappen certainly can.

Additionally, Verstappen is set to lose one of his closest allies at the Red Bull Stable, Gianpiero Lambaise, who is set to join McLaren in 2028. It remains to be seen if this would be another negative in the Dutchman’s season, or motivation to at least end one of their last seasons on a high.

Max Verstappen race engineer Gianpiero Lambiase to leave Red Bull

Winner: Ferrari

Ferrari may be waiting for their first win of the new season, but it feels like an inevitability rather than an ‘if’ like recent seasons. Whilst race pace and qualifying trims are something the team can work on, their best weapon is race starts.

It was expected that Ferrari would be good getting off the line thanks to their workaround regarding concerns about the race start procedure, which was highlighted during pre-season and then the opening races of the season.

If others struggle to improve their race starts, but the Scuderia improve their pace to challenge Mercedes – and the growing threat of McLaren behind – it won’t be hard to expect the Prancing Horse to be challenging for wins and titles.

Loser: Aston Martin

It certainly has been a bruising start to the season for the Aston Martin squad, with little to be pleased about. The only positive so far is that Fernando Alonso managed to classify a race weekend in Japan: their first completed GP of the season.

Hopes and expectations were high for Aston going into the season with Adrian Newey at the helm as their Team Principal and their car designer. However, reliability problems and power unit struggles, in the pre-season and opening races, had flattened their ambitions before the season really got going.

At this point, getting both cars to finish a race could be considered a win for the Silverstone-based team. At least, when you’re at the bottom of the barrel, the only way you can look is up.

Kamron Kent

Hi, I'm Kamron. I created ApexMotorsports.co.uk in the dying embers of the 2021 Formula 1 world championship. It allowed me freedom to write whatever I wanted to write about which was all things motorsports, my passion. I have put a lot of effort in over the years to keep this website in its best shape and I've loved seeing the brand grow consistently, month-on-month, year-on-year. My ambition is to keep watching this brand grow into a primary outlet of news for all things motorsports whilst fueling my desire to pursue a career in sports journalism, specialising in motorsports.

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Kamron Kent

3 Winners and Losers so far in F1 2026