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Lewis Hamilton has hinted that Mercedes’s engine power advantage could still be a result of the compression ratio saga which dominated pre-season after the Silver Arrows dominated qualifying in Australia.
F1 title favourite George Russell claimed a dominant pole position in Melbourne with teenager teammate Kimi Antonelli, who crashed earlier in practice, locking out the front row in second place. Red Bull’s Isack Hadjar was next-best in third after Max Verstappen dramatically crashed out early on.
As for Ferrari, they were handicapped by energy deployment issues in qualifying, with Charles Leclerc managing fourth on the grid – but Hamilton will start the season-opener down in seventh.
Mercedes have found an engine loophole with this new breed of car, which will be negated by the start of June after a recent FIA ruling. However, Hamilton is still suspicious of just how his former team have such an advantage.
“What’s clear is that they [Mercedes] didn’t show the engine power through any of the practice,” he told Sky F1. “All the compression ratio [stuff]… they’ve done a solid job with their engine.
“I want to understand… it was two-tenths or more just through power in the first sector. If it’s the compression ratio, I want to understand why the FIA haven’t done anything.
“But if not, then we have to do a better job.”
Martin Brundle, responding on Sky F1’s coverage, cleverly insisted the whole situation was a “storm in a cylinder.”
Asked directly if he was surprised by the gap to Mercedes, which amounted to nearly a full second, Hamilton sharply replied: “No.”
Nonetheless, the 41-year-old Briton was still upbeat with his own start to the season, despite starting behind the McLaren pairing of Oscar Piastri (fifth) and Lando Norris (sixth).
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Lewis Hamilton could only qualify seventh in Australia (Getty Images)
“It was not the best qualifying, but I’ve felt solid all weekend,” he said.
“I feel happy in the car and super motivated. Up until the end of Q1, it felt great, third or fourth on medium tyre. In Q2, we had some problems with the engine and deployment, some spanners in the mix.
“If we didn’t have an issue, we could have qualified third or fourth. I don’t think we can catch Mercedes.”
Leclerc also believes Mercedes are uncatchable heading into Sunday’s first race at Albert Park.
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George Russell claimed pole position for the Australian Grand Prix (Asanka Brendon Ratnayake/AP) (AP)
“We’ve got a lot of work to do,” he said. “Mercedes… I had that feeling yesterday, I thought it was five-tenths, it’s eight-tenths.”
On race starts being a potential advantage for the Scuderia, Leclerc replied: “I don’t think it will look like that tomorrow, I might be wrong.
“When everyone is in the optimal window, there’s not that much from the cars. It’s harder for Mercedes to reach that optimal window, but if they do everything perfect, I don’t expect them to struggle.”
British rookie Arvid Lindblad impressed on his F1 debut, reaching Q3 and putting his Racing Bulls car ninth on the grid. The race starts at 4am (GMT) on Sunday morning.
