Three F1 drivers sent to stewards on first day of 2026 season after breaching rules

Three F1 drivers have already been summoned to the FIA stewards at the Australian Grand Prix for various rule breaches - on the first day of the new 2026 season.

FP1 and FP2 took place in the early hours of Friday morning UK time, with Ferrari's Charles Leclerc and McLaren's Oscar Piastri respectively setting the pace across the two sessions.

Red Bull and, particularly, Mercedes look like they will also challenge for the upper reaches of the grid in qualifying, though a more exact picture won't become clearer until the end of FP3 as each team competes single-lap runs.

Practice on Friday was more chaotic than usual given the new regulations, with a number of drivers sliding off the track as they looked to test the new limits of the cars.

Max Verstappen caused floor damage to his Red Bull after he went into the gravel coming out of turn 8, while Sergio Perez had to stop his Cadillac at the side of the track.

There was also a bizarre incident to begin FP2, with George Russell inadvertently driving his Mercedes into the side of Racing Bulls' Arvid Lindblad as he exited his pit garage.

Not the way Russell or Lindblad wanted to start FP2! 🫣

Here's the moment between the pair in the pit lane 👇#F1 #AusGP pic.twitter.com/5cgKP41xYb

— Formula 1 (@F1) March 6, 2026

Russell has been summoned to the stewards over the incident, with Lindblad given his summons shortly afterwards.

Russell is also under investigation for allegedly failing to follow the race director's instructions, meaning it will be a busy first evening of the season for both the Mercedes driver and Silver Arrows sporting director Ron Meadows.

Alpine's Franco Colapinto, meanwhile, is the third driver to be summoned, for allegedly driving unnecessarily slowly during the session.

The Argentine suffered an apparent power unit issue on the pit straight during FP2 but remained on the racing line, with Lewis Hamilton having to swerve to avoid him.

The FIA have since confirmed that Russell has received a warning and a reprimand respectively over his two rule breaches, while no further action will be taken against Colapinto.

A decision on Lindblad is yet to be reached.

Had any sanction been taken against Russell over the pit lane incident, it would likely have related to an unsafe release, though the FIA are more lenient towards such a breach in practice and any punishment would have been a team fine.