Five things we've learned from first half of F1 season

Formula 1 teams head off on their summer break this week after a hectic 11 races to start a new era of the sport.

F1 2026 has been full of storylines - controversy over new rules, a new star emerging, the rebirth of an old one, and calendar disruption caused by a war.

Even now, as they head off on holiday for a couple of weeks, the teams still don't know how many races are left this season.

But those so far have revealed plenty. Here are five things we have learned so far in F1 2026.

Title race would be 'done and dusted' without Mercedes reliability issues

Kimi Antonelli started his Formula 1 career in 2025 hyped as the next generational talent - but did not live up to that billing in his maiden season.

This was supposed to be his team-mate George Russell's year.

Mercedes have delivered on the expectation they would be the team to beat with eight wins and 10 pole positions in the first 11 grands prix, and Russell dominated his rookie team-mate in 2025.

But Antonelli took a gargantuan step in development over the winter and, while Russell started the season strongly with a win, the Italian soon took control.

Initially, the competitive picture between the two was slightly clouded by some poor luck for Russell in the opening races of the season.

But, as time has passed, it has become increasingly clear that Antonelli is dominating his team-mate so far this season in the best car.

While Russell has floundered a little, less comfortable with the car, and is still afflicted by bad luck, pace seems to flow from Antonelli so easily. Along with devastating pace, his driving is decisive, committed and cool.

The 19-year-old will be tough to stop in the second half of the season.

Russell proud of resilience after string of problems

The 'yo-yo racing' of this season's regulations was particularly felt by Charles Leclerc and George Russell in Australia, passing each other seven times

This year's F1 championship introduced the biggest rule change in the sport's history, with new aerodynamic and engine regulations.

While the chassis rules have generally been a hit - even if the cars are a little slower than last year - the new engines most definitely have not.

The nominal 50-50 split between internal combustion and electrical power (more like 53-47 in reality) combined with the architecture of the engines, has left them energy starved.

And when the battery is empty, the cars have only about 540bhp - less power than a Formula 3 car, but with loads more grip.

The need to constantly charge the battery has neutered many of the best corners on many of F1's greatest tracks, reducing them to what Fernando Alonso has called "charging stations".

The flip side is the energy starvation has led to some interesting battles, known as "yo-yo racing", with cars swapping positions repeatedly over a number of laps.

But the drivers point out this is artificial, and that overtakes are often happening simply because one driver suddenly has 350kW (470bhp) more than the other.

As four-time champion Max Verstappen says: "Sometimes people say: 'Ah yeah, but this was a great race.' I say: 'Yeah, but it's not really realistic the way we are racing.'

"And then you arrive to some tracks and you're driving on not a lot of horsepower for F1 standards. And it's a little bit painful, which I could see coming already for years. So, it's then, of course, not the most exciting.

"At one point I'm also a little bit fed up with repeating myself, because it's already hard enough just having to drive it."

The drivers - especially Verstappen and Fernando Alonso, but most of the others, too - were very vocal about this from very early in the season. The sport as a whole recognised there was a problem, and has reacted.

Tweaks to the rules to lessen the problem were made after just three races, and the engine split will be modified to become 60-40 by 2028, with an intermediate step for next year.

That will significantly reduce these issues, but not eradicate them completely.

F1's governing body the FIA was warned repeatedly in the years leading up to 2026 that this energy starvation issue would happen.

This has left an easy target for FIA president, Mohammed Ben Sulayem, to propose a return to naturally aspirated V8 engines for 2031.

It's an idea with distinctly limited support among F1's stakeholders. It lacks imagination and analysis, comes with its own set of problems, and is effectively turning the clock back 15 years.

The issue is not hybrid engines or turbos per se; it is the lack of energy recovery possibilities.

It's a situation F1 forced on itself by removing the MGU-H, which recovered energy from the turbo and exhaust, and not allowing recovery from the front axle.

The sport needs to take a pause, intelligently and rigorously analyse what it wants from its engines in the future.

Then it needs to come up with a package that satisfies the manufacturers, has road-relevance, embraces concerns about the climate crisis, does not create a noise-hazard threat to some of the sport's most high-profile races, is cheaper, allows the drivers to almost total access to full power, and gives a facility for overtaking.

Seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton secured his first Ferrari race win in Barcelona and currently sits second in the drivers championship

Lewis Hamilton's career reached its lowest point in 2025, during a maiden season with Ferrari the seven-time champion himself described as a "nightmare".

Hamilton's struggles - in the context of a difficult final season at Mercedes in 2024 - raised all sorts of questions.

He has admitted he doubted himself at times last year.

Hamilton said: "There were definitely moments that I was like: 'Sheesh, maybe it is true that, you know, when you get to a certain point, you lose it.'"

Those comments came in the wake of his victory at the Spanish Grand Prix - the zenith of a first half-season that has definitely proved he has not "lost it".

Hamilton, 41, is rejuvenated this year - back to something close to his best - and the battle with team-mate Charles Leclerc - pretty much entirely one-sided in 2025 - is neck and neck.

He's even sort-of in the championship fight - in second place, 50 points behind Antonelli.

Is this down to the new cars behaving more to his liking than the ground-effect ones of the past four seasons, assiduous work behind the scenes to integrate himself more closely with Ferrari, or the team accommodating some of his preferences into the car design this year?

Even, as his former team boss Toto Wolff has said, "maybe the new girlfriend helps" - a reference to Hamilton's relationship with American media personality and businesswoman Kim Kardashian.

There is still some room for improvement - four penalties in the past three races is very much not Hamilton-esque. But his revival is a relief - for him, and all those who have witnessed his incredible career so far.