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Pegaso's aggressive approach on a result to forget

05.06.2026 - Yesterday marked the start of Season 66 of Formula One in My Racing Career, the first one after the announcement of new engine rules coming in Season 68. When new regulations are expected, teams that already have good engines try to make the most of them before they lose them. This is especially the case with Red Bull, Porsche, Toyota, McLaren, and Senna, whose cars' versions presented in Australia are better than their equivalents from Season 65.



There is just one exception among the upper-half teams: Pegaso. The Spanish Flying Horse decided to save costs on their 266 competitor after already fulfilling their main targets for the current engine cycle. Still, expectations were high for them in the season opener after finishing in a record third position in the last championship.

The qualifying session didn't go badly at all, with the returning Bonmatí and a high simulator experience missing out P5 by just 0.005s, and Remco Raveel missing out Q3 by just 0.018s. With the latter out of position, it was clear that a normal strategy could not be followed if they wanted to achieve anything out of this Grand Prix.

Even if Melbourne is one of the hardest circuits to overtake, and even more starting on P12, a combination of a shorter first stint and pure driving aggression allowed the Belgian driver to sit on P8 at the end of lap 2, and on P6 in lap 34, trailing his teammate in P5 by just one second.

However, Pegaso's Australian fairytale started to go wrong on lap 35. Their pit crew was caught off guard when their compatriot Carlos Luque crashed, deploying a Safety Car to which they didn't react in time. Apart from that, Bonmatí suffered from tyre wear issues, which caused him to pit twice in the following ten laps, while Raveel's suspension let him down at the beginning of sector 3 in lap 51.

At the end of the day, their overall performance leaves Team Manager nicorz more frustrated than disappointed, scoring zero points after Bonmatí only managed to finish in P21.

"Usually, we have some of the highest pit windows of the grid. However, with Remco out of position, and taking into account that Safety Cars are generally unlikely here, or they occur on the first or last laps, when nobody pits, we thought of omitting them. The first time we do this definitely doesn't set a good precedent!"