Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 Team and Toto Wolff were thrilled with a dominant start to the 2026 F1 season at the Australian GP. The team secured a brilliant 1-2 as George Russell stormed to victory with Kimi Antonelli in second.
Speaking after the race, Mercedes Team Principal Toto Wolff expressed his satisfaction with the team and his thoughts on the Ferrari battle.
For the first time 2021, Mercedes hold the lead in both championships.
When asked how it feels to be properly back after so long at the 2026 F1 Australian GP, Wolff stated:
“Most importantly, there’s so much contentment that I feel in the team at the moment.
“We’ve had such a winning streak with these eight championships and then very difficult years. We still won races and finished second in the championship, but a solid one and two where you feel a season ahead that means you can fight for a World Championship.
“That wasn’t for a long time and therefore, you’re probably more grateful when you bounce back like this having known the difficult years that you just got to continuing. That’s why I’m just very happy for everyone.“
The threat of Ferrari at the F1 Australian GP
The start of the race saw Scuderia Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc take the lead from George Russell. The two engaged in several on-track battles, constantly swapping positions as they were both eager for P1. However, it eventually became clear that Mercedes had a significant pace advantage. Despite Ferrari’s efforts, Russell and Antonelli’s Mercedes remained in front of the pack.
The Team Principal was asked about Ferrari’s threat level and if a different strategy could have brought them closer, given their strong starts.
“When it comes to Ferrari, before the race, people were saying ‘you’re going to disappear in the distance, we’re looking at your long runs’. That wasn’t the case.
“We knew that they were strong on the starts and that’s what happened. It was a out, and out, battle between Charles [Leclerc] and George [Russell] at the beginning. Kimi [Antonelli] was a bit unlucky that the battery wasn’t on the level that it should have been and on either car actually to a certain degree.
“It was a three–way fight at a certain stage with the two Ferraris and George. Eventually, Kimi caught up, so for me the prevailing feeling is now we have a fight on our hands with Ferrari.
“The worry that we had was that it wasn’t exciting in terms of the fighting and the boost and the overtake. Overtake modes made it actually quite interesting to watch on a track that is particularly difficult for energy. So we’ll see how that goes in Shanghai. Most of all is being a certain degree of contentment that we are, Mercedes is, back.”
The nature of racing in F1 at the 2026 Australian GP under the new regulations
Wolff seemed delighted with the team after the 2026 F1 Australian GP. Before the GP, there were many concerns about the thrill of racing under new regulations. However, the Mercedes boss deemed that the overtake modes made it more exciting.
The Austrian was asked whether the nature of racing now is that you cannot get free or pull clear because of low battery when trying to fight and pass, or if there is instead a performance reason why the shift changed from the first part to the second part of the race.
“Like you see, I think that how the regs are at the moment, is that in a close fight close proximity to other cars, it’s very difficult to break free, and therefore performances converge, which makes for good excitement if it was really to continue like this.
“And once you have free air then the pace shows, but both components are part of a great race. The race pace at the end was very encouraging from our side, but at the beginning, there was nothing between Ferrari and Mercedes.”
