Following weeks of speculation of just how strong Mercedes would be, Australian Grand Prix qualifying finally gave customer team McLaren some much-needed clues on where it is lagging behind Formula 1’s new dominant force.
As expected, Mercedes locked out the front row in Melbourne, with George Russell taking pole by three tenths over team-mate Kimi Antonelli and – more significantly – around eight tenths on the competition from Red Bull, Ferrari and McLaren.
It had always been the F1 paddock’s expectation that Mercedes would unleash hell in F1 2026’s opening gambit, but until the Silver Arrows truly showed their hand, it was difficult to grasp exactly how they would manage to do it – and how big the damage would be.
With all cars finally on low fuel and boasting the most competitive engine modes in Saturday’s qualifying session, Mercedes customer McLaren in particular found a treasure trove of information on where the works team is making the difference with exactly the same power unit.
“As you can imagine, this was one of the key points in our post-qualifying debrief, trying to understand how you can exploit these power units to the best of their potential,” Stella explained.
“In itself it’s partly good news, because it means that there’s a lot of lap time available, if you give the right input from a driving point of view and you do the right exploitation from a control systems point of view and programming.
“We discussed what might have been different with what we have seen on Russell’s lap. I think we have a good understanding. Somehow it took a qualifying [session], it took [for us] to all in the same conditions, same power unit, to actually have enough of a reference to understand what is possible. This doesn’t have to do with the hardware. This has more to do with learning about the hardware and identifying the best way to exploit it.”
Ferrari and McLaren will be wondering how to catch up to Mercedes as the Silver Arrows finally showed their hand.
Photo by: Steven Tee / LAT Images via Getty Images
Looking at the GPS traces comparing the best qualifying efforts of Russell with those from fifth-placed Oscar Piastri and sixth-placed Lando Norris, what is catching the eye is Russell’s vastly superior energy deployment on what is supposed to be a flat-out blast from Turn 6 to Turn 9. That snaking section is a rather embarrassing eye-sore under the new regulations, as drivers are forced to downshift after running out of energy. But Russell is able to sustain his speed much more effectively than the McLarens – at some point by well over 20km/h – before coasting into Turn 9 and picking up the throttle.
It’s not that Mercedes’ straightline speed advantage between Turn 6 and 9 is a red herring, because it yields a laptime gain of more than three tenths. But it really is a consequence of what is happening earlier on the Albert Park lap, with Russell somehow able to get his battery to the optimal state of charge by Turn 6 while still being faster in the first sequence corners than the competition.
According to McLaren team principal Stella, that’s where Mercedes’ real advantage appears to be on this track, and it is not just limited to the power unit.
“We are certainly entering a new era of Formula 1 in which these factors become essential – the sensitivity of the driver’s input, the way you use your energy in the preceding straight, to have the maximum deployment in the following straight, especially if it’s a long straight.
“It is true as well that Mercedes is quick in the corners, not only in the straights. There are a few corners in which we can compete with them, but overall they are faster in the limited sections. So, at the moment Mercedes is doing a better job than us at exploiting the power unit, but they have also done a better job in terms of overall grip in the corners. I guess this will have to do with the level of downforce.
“For McLaren, there are two clear objectives; one is working together with our [Mercedes] HPP partners to get more performance from the power unit, but at the same time we need to improve the aerodynamic performance of the car because we need to go faster in the corners as well.
Andrea Stella, McLaren
Photo by: Alastair Staley / LAT Images via Getty Images
The Italian added: “What we see is that whenever we kind of maximise the power unit, somehow everything works better and you go faster in the corners as well. This might also have to do with the fact that the tyres were operating at the lower end of the grip window from a temperature point of view.
“We saw that McLaren, probably Ferrari as well, kind of lost performance as it got colder and colder. And what we observed is that anytime we get more from the power unit, we seem to get also more in the corners. But this may be dependent on the cold conditions.”
If Stella’s theory is correct, then it makes Mercedes’ real advantage more multifaceted than simply being ahead with its understanding of the new power unit deployment, which is a scary prospect for the Brackley squad’s opposition. But the season is long and the development rate will be vast, so there is equally no reason to panic just yet.
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