THE BIG PICTURE: It appears there is going to be a dichotomy between the fans (who might come to love these new rules) and the drivers (who are becoming hateful towards these new rules).

EVENT: When you are getting massive crowds for a Thursday -- when no race cars are on the track -- it's starting to get out of hand. In a good way.

TRACK: Albert Park is always a track not to draw too many conclusions from for a new season. Especially so with this new rule set as it is one of the worst for energy usage. But, it did present an interesting first look at what we might expect for a few years.

QUALIFYING: 2014 redux. Red Bull finally found a number two driver. McLaren regressed by three years. Antonelli owes his crew steak dinners. Verstappen shockingly crashes out. Ferrari has some spunk back.

RACE: Video game or not, you're not a racing fan if you didn't enjoy all that passing up and down the field.

START: Sure enough, Ferrari gets a lightning start as Leclerc jumps to the lead, Hamilton takes a little longer to gain his positions to third, Antonelli gets horrible wheel spin, Hadjar suffers from the Ferrari start, Colapinto is super lucky and skilled, Hulkenberg can't start from pit lane, and Piastri is crying his eyes out in the garage.

RUSSELL: George finally got the car he just missed out on and dreamed about when he joined Mercedes.

MERCEDES: That smile on Toto Wolff's face says it all.

FERRARI: Death, taxes, and Ferrari screwing up a strategy call.

LECLERC: He may have thought Ferrari didn't have the pace anyway, but Charles still has to wonder if he was able to fight the whole way.

HAMILTON: Lewis is one happy camper. He sees the potential of the car Ferrari gave him.

MCLAREN: If it wasn't for Red Bull's issues, they would clearly be the fourth fastest team.

NORRIS: Seeing his ability to defend the world championship evaporate in front of him.

PIASTRI: This idea that Oscar is never susceptible to mental errors has to be put to bed once and for all. His mistakes down the stretch in 2025 and in his home race last year and this are way worse than anything Norris has done.

VERSTAPPEN: Hate the car or not, we get the feeling Max will once again put this car on his back and take it to places it has no right to be. And that's before they improve the engine.

HADJAR: Isack hung with Verstappen all weekend until his engine didn't.

RED BULL: But will they screw that up by developing this new car specifically for Verstappen's needs, leaving their number two driver in disarray once again?

BEARMAN: Under the radar, but Ollie turned in a stellar drive.

LINDBLAD: What a spectacular F1 debut from FP1 through the race.

AUDI: Looks like they may have done a very good job with their engine. And would people stop calling this outfit a new team. Essentially everyone from Sauber last year are still there. Only the engine project can be considered brand new.

ALPINE: Not shocking to see this team is still slow despite now having the Mercedes engine.

GASLY: Shocking (or perhaps not) to see Pierre once again drag this slug into the points.

WILLIAMS: Disappointing as they start another new rule set behind the 8-ball and overweight.

CADDILAC: They made it to the grid! And they didn't embarrass themselves despite being the slowest car. Heck, they beat Aston Martin...

PEREZ: Sergio got pretty feisty out there on his return, especially with his old nemesis, Liam Lawson.

ASTON MARTIN: Has anyone seen Lawrence Stroll's head? Perhaps the remains are somewhere in the paddock after it exploded.

HONDA: Once again the pattern is being repeated -- drop out of F1, reassign all their brain power, come back with a new group, initially flub it all up, and eventually get it perfect.

ALONSO: All while Fernando has to suffer the worst of it, i.e., the "GP2 engine" phase.

FIA: Lost in all the noise about the new rules package is the fact all the driving standards and penalties have been changed, leaving much more discretion and common sense while abjudicating incidents. Which unfortunately may cause even more controversy.

F2: Paraguayan Joshua Dürksen once again wins the season opening sprint race with great passes. In the feature race, the two leaders took each other out and the pole winner had car problems allowing Bulgarian Nikola Tsolov to say thank you very much for the win.

F3: A huge crash in the sprint race meant only seven laps were run so reverse pole sitter Spaniard Bruno Del Pino easily won. In the feature race, American Ugo Ugochukwu started second, made the winning pass on the outside, and ran away with it.

WORD OF THE WEEKEND: Deployment.

STAT OF THE WEEKEND: 20 -- The number of consecutive years Lewis Hamilton has led a race, a record. (But he also holds the Ferrari record for most races since his debut without a Grand Prix podium -- 25.)

HISTORICAL STAT OF THE WEEKEND: It is amazing an Australian driver has never been on a podium in his home race. Sure, the event started (1985) after world champions Jack Brabham and Alan Jones raced. But they still had the likes of Mark Webber, Daniel Ricciardo, and Oscar Piastri. The closest was Ricciardo who finished second on the track (so physically did appear on the podium) in 2014 but then was disqualified due to illegal fuel flow. He finished fourth two other times; Webber and Piastri finished fourth once each.

TWEET OF THE WEEKEND: From @TorettoOffcl commenting on the announcement Max Verstappen will be competing in the Nurburgring 24:

I knew Max was crazy about racing, but not THIS crazy. Big race or small, he just wants to race & put his name everywhere. That level of obsession is unreal.

The way LEWIS lives and breathes f1, Max seems to live & breathe racing itself.

#LewisHamilton #MaxVerstappen #F1

QUOTE OF THE WEEKEND: In what may turn out to be the understatement of the year, George Russell said after the race, "I like this car! I like this engine!"

QUOTE OF THE WEEKEND RUNNERUP: Charles Leclerc describing the early battling, "This is like the mushroom in Mario Kart."

SCHEDULE: We know the next two races -- China (which could produce an entirely different energy deployment experience than Australia) and Japan. The two after that? It's anyone's guess.

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