Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton says he wants to “understand” Mercedes’ advantage after his former team and title contenders dominated the front row at the season-opening Australian Grand Prix.
Mercedes dominated the first qualifying session of the year in Melbourne, with George Russell taking pole position from teammate Kimi Antonelli, underscoring their status as favorites from pre-season.
The Silver Arrows’ lap time advantage over Red Bull’s Isaac Hajjar in third place was a whopping 0.785 seconds, with both McLaren and Ferrari more than eight tenths off the pace.
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Craig Slater has explained why he wants to “understand” Mercedes’ advantage after Lewis Hamilton dominated Australian Grand Prix qualifying.
F1’s short winter was dominated by controversy over engine compression ratio rules.
As part of F1’s sweeping new regulations for the 2026 season, the compression limit has been lowered from the previous 18:1 to 16:1, but is currently only measured by the FIA when the engine is ‘cold’.
The dispute focuses on allegations by rivals that suggest Mercedes exploited a component thermal expansion loophole to run at higher limits when the power unit was at its maximum running temperature on track.
Mercedes has consistently downplayed the claims, saying its engines comply with the regulations and making no claims about the improved lap times that such “tricks” can produce.
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Australian Grand Prix qualifying highlights from Albert Park.
After weeks of discussions, F1’s governing body confirmed last week that a compromise has been found that satisfies all parties, with new tests testing compression limits at both ambient and 130 degrees Celsius (as things stand, after the seventh race of the season) and coming into force from June 1.
After qualifying in Melbourne on Saturday, Hamilton brought up the perennial topic, claiming Mercedes’ advantage in each sector around Albert Park was “more than two-tenths in power alone”.
Hamilton said he wanted to understand why exactly this happened and whether Ferrari needed to respond.
“What’s clear is that they didn’t have the engine power in any of the practices (sessions),” said Hamilton, who qualified seventh amid energy distribution problems to Ferrari’s unit Mercedes’ SkySport F1.
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George Russell took the season-opening pole position for Mercedes at the Australian Grand Prix.
“There’s a lot of talk about compression ratios and they’ve done a solid job with their engines and we have that too.
“We would like to understand why electricity alone accounts for more than 2/10 of each sector.
“If it was about compression, I would like to understand why the FIA did nothing and what was done to rectify it.
“If that’s not the case, and it’s just power, then we have to do a better job.”
Russell: Mercedes also showed they have a strong chassis – but admits surprise at difference to Melbourne
Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff described the compression story as a “storm in a teacup”.
“Whether we stay like this or change to new regulations, nothing will change for us,” Wolff said at the final test in Bahrain last month.
Speaking after qualifying, pole sitter Russell said that while the power unit had been in the spotlight throughout pre-season, the W17 chassis, which was built to meet F1’s revised regulations, also clearly stood out.
“I think we have a really great engine,” said the pole sitter.
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George Russell and his Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff were thrilled after taking a commanding pole position in the opening race of the season.
“But I think we’re developing a really great car, and I think that’s probably not been emphasized enough in the press over the last few weeks.”
But the Briton was surprised by the size of his advantage in Melbourne.
“I think we knew as a team, or thought as a team, we had a really good package underneath us and everyone at Brixworth and Brackley has worked really hard to make that happen,” he added.
“But I don’t think we expected it to be that good.”
Sky Sports’ F1 experts feel compression conditions cannot explain Mercedes’ early-season advantage.
Bernie Collins said: “There are four teams running this (Mercedes) engine so if it was just the compression ratio you would have those four teams at the top of the timesheets, but that’s not the case at the moment.”
Martin Brundle quipped: “I think it’s all a storm in a cylinder.”
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Charles Leclerc spoke about whether Ferrari had an advantage over their rivals at the start of the race, before Jenson Button and Martin Brundle previewed Sunday’s developments.
Hamilton remains positive about Ferrari’s form despite qualifying setback
Speaking about his qualifying session, Hamilton said he would have been fighting for a spot on the second row (where teammate Charles Leclerc qualified fourth) had there been no issues with the car’s energy deployment after a promising Q1.
Hamilton, who finished 10 seconds behind Leclerc, said: “It wasn’t my best qualifying, but I felt good throughout the weekend.”
“I’m really motivated and I was running on medium tires until Q1 and I was feeling good. I was third or fourth on just medium tires.
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Craig Slater explains why Ferrari were able to start fastest at the Australian Grand Prix.
“But when we got into Q2, we had some problems with the engine and the deployment, and then we had a lot of spanners in the mix, so we struggled to get the best out of it after that.”
“If there were no problems, we would have been third or fourth. I don’t think we would have been close to Mercedes.”
Sky Sports F1 Australian GP Schedule
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Grammy-nominated Tate McRae’s ‘Just Keep Watching’ will be the new title track of Sky Sports’ F1 coverage from this season onwards as F1 enters a new era
Saturday, March 7th
9:45pm: F3 Feature Race*
Sunday, March 8th
12:20am: F2 Feature Race*
2:30am: Preparation for Australian Grand Prix: Grand Prix Sunday*
4am: Australian Grand Prix*
6am: Australian Grand Prix reaction: Checkered flag*
7am: Ted’s Notes*
7.55am: Australian GP race replay*
10am: Australian GP Highlights (also on Sky One)*
*Also held at Sky Sports Main Event
Watch every race of the 2026 F1 season live on Sky Sports, starting with the Australian Grand Prix this Sunday. Stream Sky Sports now – cancel anytime with no contract
