Toto Wolff rejects Mercedes sandbagging after George Russell Melbourne pole
George Russell and Kimi Antonelli pose for a selfie
Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff insists that his squad were not sandbagging, after unleashing dominant pace in Australian Grand Prix qualifying.
Mercedes outclassed the closest of its competition by eight tenths in the first qualifying of F1 2026. Wolff said that pace came as a surprise, and quickly shut down the idea that Mercedes had simply removed the sandbags. Wolff stressed that Mercedes did not yet have enough belief in understanding of the W17 to do that.
Mercedes did not sandbag ahead of Melbourne qualifying
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Heading into Melbourne, it was unclear how the top four of Mercedes, Ferrari, Red Bull and McLaren all stacked up against each other. Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc had a sneaky suspicion that Mercedes had more to come, and he was right.
George Russell took pole in Melbourne by three-tenths from teammate Kimi Antonelli. Red Bull’s Isack Hadjar claimed P3 on the grid, eight-tenths back from Russell.
“I’m so happy that those messy ground effect cars are gone. And finally, we do what we are best at,” Wolff declared to Sky F1 after Melbourne qualifying.
Mercedes faced a race against time to get both drivers into qualifying, with Kimi Antonelli having suffered a major shunt during the final practice session.
Max Verstappen crashing out during Q1 would offer Mercedes and Antonelli an accidental helping hand.
“But I’m feeling relieved,” Wolff continued, “feeling relief for the hard work that was put in from everyone in the UK, and then the mechanics today did an awesome job. That car looked like a Lego Formula 1 car that was thrown on the floor like literally two hours before.
“I said to them that, five minutes before the start of the session, we wouldn’t make it. And then obviously Max went off and that gained us the minutes to put the car out.”
After displaying such an advantage out front in Melbourne qualifying, Wolff was quick to shut down those who may try to suggest that Mercedes had been hiding performance.
“Everybody will say, ‘Well, they were sandbagging and there was much more in the pocket.’ You can’t really sandbag, or at least we can’t do that, because you never know where the car is,” Wolff stated.
“Did we have, sometimes, maybe 10 kilos more in the car? Maybe, yes. But, let’s say, we don’t have enough belief in understanding the cars yet to make it run artificially heavy.
“So we’re surprised there, but I’m taking it.”
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It was put to Wolff by Jenson Button – the 2009 World Champion turned Sky F1 pundit – that Russell seems to have a lot of confidence at the wheel in the way the car is working.
“For me, also George, as a person, has made another step in seniority and confidence in driving the car,” Wolff responded.
“And I think it’s just how he likes it. I mean, those cars have lost the downforce, but when you look at the aerodynamic and mechanical side, the car looks like on rail, at least today.
“And when the driver has confidence in the car, this is what you can do, and it’s just driver car combination and power unit. Today, everything worked together to put it on pole.”
The first qualifying of F1 2026 could not have gone much better for Mercedes from a performance point of view. Next up is the first grand prix.
Wolff believes it will be a “learning curve” out there, with race starts and energy management among the factors set to come into play.
Asked whether he is expecting F1 2026 to be an enormous development competition, Wolff replied: “Yeah, and especially learning.
“I mean, none of us did really a lot of starts, so we have to see tomorrow whether we make it off the line properly.
“And then the energy management in the race is something that’s a bit unknown. So, it’s a learning curve.”
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Read next – Australian GP: Russell storms to pole as Verstappen crashes out in Q1
