Mercedes admit there’s ‘still a lot to do’ to iron out ‘teething troubles’ after Australia practice

Mercedes’ communications chief has admitted that Kimi Antonelli and George Russell were caught out by some “unexpected” issues on the first day of running for the Australian Grand Prix, but predicted a stronger showing through the rest of the weekend.

For everyone across the F1 grid, the opening Free Practice sessions of the season were all about adapting to the unique Albert Park Circuit and learning how to maximise performance in the brand-new cars, with a few early niggles to iron out.

Mercedes placed a lacklustre P7 and P8 in FP1 with Russell leading, although his effort was over a second adrift of pacesetter Charles Leclerc. FP2 was a different story, with both drivers significantly cutting down their times to stake a claim in the top three behind McLaren’s Oscar Piastri.

Bradley Lord, Mercedes’ Team Representative and Chief Communications Officer, said: “We had a bit of a tricky first session – lots of snagging, lots of teething troubles and things like that.

“[It was] much smoother in FP2 and we got a decent long run in, and decent single lap work as well. The drivers were much happier with the balance of the car, the deployment, and the energy management. Lots of learning but still a lot to do overnight and into tomorrow.”

Expanding on the issues they faced, he added: “Some were unexpected, some caught us out and just little bits that reflect how much work we’ve had to do over the winter, what a big project this has been, and what a massive job it is to have so much change in parallel and to be ready for the first race.

“It’s not unexpected, albeit caught us out a little bit, but hopefully now in the rearview mirror and we can work overnight and into tomorrow with a bit more confidence.

“As much as anything, it was about doing the learning on this circuit rather than the more familiar territory of Bahrain, understanding how it’s working and then we’ll feed that into the simulations overnight. Hopefully we can get it balanced between the two cars tomorrow.”

Lord also admitted that Russell – who was noted for making contact with Arvid Lindblad in the pit lane – appeared more comfortable with the long run pace than Antonelli, with the Italian ending FP2 ahead of his team mate and just two-tenths off leader Piastri’s fastest lap.

“Of course there’s still work to do but we made a really good step in FP2,” Antonelli said. “It’s massive learning every time we go on track, every lap we understand more about the car and the PU, which is tricky at this track.

“Obviously I need to focus on tomorrow because the first Qualifying of the year is coming up. It looks like it’s a close fight with the top teams.

“It’s not going to be easy of course – Ferrari, McLaren, Red Bull all look strong. We just need to keep our heads down and keep focusing on ourselves in order to try and improve even further.”