CAR ADVICE

A strong team and competent driving ability won’t hold Piastri back from glory, according to manager Mark Webber, but a strong competitive field could. Australia’s Oscar Piastri is the big hopeful to take out the 2026 Formula One Championship, according to his manager, and former F1 driver, Mark Webber. Speaking to Drive on the upstart’s chances this year to take top honours ahead of the inaugural race in Melbourne, Webber laid out the biggest hurdles Piastri will need to overcome. “Of course, I hope Oscar [wins this year], I hope it’s his turn,” Webber said. “There’s going to be stiff opposition, but he is with an amazing team in McLaren . MORE: 2026 Formula One Australian Grand Prix: On-track schedule “I think they’ve got to back up more world titles, and there’s no reason they can’t do that, but Mercedes , Ferrari – you never discount Max and Red Bull – they’re always there, they always just find a way. “But when you’ve got someone of Oscar’s calibre, he fin...

In the ‘Drive to Survive’ era, F1 is the hottest sporting ticket in town. So why doesn’t motorsport legend BMW have an entry? Formula 1 is in rude commercial health. This year, the grid will contain entries from Mercedes-AMG, Audi, Ferrari, Cadillac, Alpine, McLaren and Aston Martin. Honda is supplying engines to Aston Martin, while Ford is adding its expertise to Red Bull’s engine program and Toyota is a major sponsor of Haas.  All of which makes you wonder, where the heck is BMW? RELATED: Five things Max Verstappen hates about the new F1 cars After all, few car manufacturers have a more storied competition history than the Bavarians. It’s in their blood. The company’s fabled M Division was founded with the M3, a competition car that featured an engine that could trace its lineage back to some of the most exciting Formula 1 cars ever. Chasing the dream The last time we saw an F1 car bearing the BMW roundel on the grid was in 2009, when the BMW Sauber team was sold bac...

A five-star ANCAP score – under now-superseded criteria – has been confirmed for the new-generation 2026 Audi Q3, along with the latest Audi A3 and Cupra Leon. Audi Q3 ANCAP testing The 2026 Audi Q3 has received a five-star ANCAP safety rating, along with the updated Audi A3 and Cupra Leon small cars – but none of the vehicles were assessed under the latest 2026 criteria. ANCAP has this week confirmed the results for local examples of the 2026 Q3 , A3 and Leon , based on testing conducted in Europe by Euro NCAP in 2025 under the now-superseded 2023-2025 assessment criteria. Both safety organisations have yet to announce any crash-test results from their latest 2026-2028 assessment criteria, which introduce several changes, as detailed here . All Q3 grades are covered by the result in Australia, scoring 87 per cent for Adult Occupant Protection, 86 per cent for Child Occupant Protection, 80 per cent for Vulnerable Road User Protection, and 83 per cent for Safety Assist. M...

Victoria Police recovered four stolen vehicles and arrested 19 people during an operation last month, according to new details. Recovered Nissan Patrol is towed. Image: Victoria Police Victoria Police have released new details on an operation last month to tackle car theft in Melbourne’s west that arrested 19 people over four nights. Between 11 and 14 February 2026 in Brimbank and Melton, Victoria Police claim to have checked over 860 cars, recovering four stolen vehicles as a result. The west Melbourne local government areas (LGAs) of Brimbank and Melton respectively experienced the sixth and thirteenth highest average monthly car thefts in Melbourne over the first nine months of 2025. The LGA of Casey in Melbourne’s south east has the highest average monthly car thefts in the city area. However, all these LGAs are also among the most populous in Melbourne, according to 2024 Australian Bureau of Statistics estimates . Casey ranks first for population in Melbourne (405,4...

Leveraging its relationship with a Chinese OEM helps rather than hurts Mazda, according to the Japanese brand’s local boss. Mazda 6e Mazda believes its team up with China’s Changan Automobile, which has born the 6e and CX-6e electric vehicles (EVs), is a boon for the Japanese brand as it navigates a more electrified future. Mazda Australia will be one of the only legacy brands to offer a Chinese-made model that shares the same platform and underpinnings as an existing Chinese product, with the 6e and CX-6e sharing commonality with the Changan Nevo A07, Deepal SL03, and Deepal S07 . The Changan Mazda joint venture first started in 2012 during a time when the Chinese government mandated partnerships from foreign car brands to sell models in the biggest region globally. Rules have since relaxed, but the Changan Mazda partnership has continued, with models like the CX-30 , CX-50 , and Mazda 3 available in China, while also giving the Japanese brand access to Changan’s tec...

BMW has been quietly developing hydrogen power for road cars, but the technology remains a long way away from reaching a performance model. Hydrogen power in a BMW M car remains a distant thought – if it ever becomes a reality – according to the performance division’s boss, Frank van Meel, citing struggles with packaging the technology into compact race and road cars. “It’s not that easy right now. We need fuel stacks, and that’s not the only thing,” van Meel told Australian media. “We need a couple of them if you want to have the performance, and then of course you need the cooling for them, and that makes the car grow into [the size of] a truck.” BMW has one of the few major car brands still working on hydrogen fuel-cell technology, most recently fitting it to a fleet of iX5 prototypes built since 2019, ahead of plans to commence series production of a hydrogen-powered, next-generation X5 in 2028. MORE: 2024 BMW iX5 Hydrogen review – quick drive “We haven’t found...