Wolff praises Mercedes for having "taken a step forward over the winter"

On the back of a strong result from the season-opening Australian Grand Prix, Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff insisted that his outfit has made great inroads with the competitiveness of its F1 car, but it will need to find more performance to challenge the field-leading McLaren.

George Russell was unable to challenge McLaren and Red Bull's Max Verstappen in qualifying, and as a consequence, he started only from fourth spot on the grid. The King's Lynn-born driver ran fourth for much of the day, but he appeared to be unable to keep up with the pace of the front runners.

When the late rain arrived, Russell made the right calls, and he also inherited third when McLaren's Oscar Piastri went off in the closing stages of the race to grab a well earned podium.

His new team-mate Andrea Kimi Antonelli started from the back of the field after a tough qualifying. However, he performed a series of good overtakes in the early stages of the race.

When the late rain arrived, he came in for intermediates at the right time, and he managed to climb through the field and take the flag in fourth. Although he dropped to fifth thanks to a time penalty for an unsafe release, Mercedes managed to overturn the penalty, and Antonelli regained his impressive fourth-place finish.

Reflecting on the first race of the season, Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff noted that while the team and the drivers maximized the W16's performance, the Brackley-based outfit will need to find more pace to fight for the victory.

"Both drivers did a great job today in very challenging conditions. George drove a superb and controlled race to finish on the podium, whilst Kimi showed a great deal of maturity, in addition to the speed we know he has, to fight through from P16 to P4. The team executed the race well and operationally performed strongly.

"We saw many other drivers fail to make it to the flag, and other teams unable to take advantage of the opportunities that presented themselves, so we can be pleased with our Sunday.

"The McLarens were incredibly quick today. We know we have to find more performance to be able to challenge them in normal conditions. We have clearly taken a step forward over the winter though and we can be encouraged by that.

"Both drivers have been working well together, the car is responding to their inputs, and it’s a solid platform to build on. We look forward to doing that in China next weekend."

Assessing the German-British outfit's performance at Melbourne, trackside engineering director Andrew Shovlin praised the drivers for keeping themselves out of trouble in challenging conditions.

"We can be pleased with the start we made to the new season today. The conditions were difficult out there for both the drivers and the team operationally. They handled everything the race could throw at them calmly and efficiently though. We had many different conditions out there, and several challenging decision points, but we made the right choices at the right time. That is what helped us achieve a strong result today.

"George drove a considered race and maximised the result possible. We didn’t have the pace to challenge the McLarens at the front, so he focused on conserving his Intermediate tyres in the first half of the race. He handled the falling rain on the dry tyres well and brought the car home in the closing stages to secure our first podium of the season.

"We are also delighted with how Kimi performed on his debut. He was unfortunate in Qualifying yesterday but didn’t let that deter him. It was an accomplished fightback, cutting through the field in the early stages, and then keeping the car on track when others were unable to do so as the rain fell. P4 is a great return for him.

"We now head to China where we continue to build our knowledge of the W16, and our relative performance compared to our competitors. It is a very different type of circuit to Melbourne so will provide useful learnings. We will be looking for another strong weekend and to build on this positive first race of 2025."