Although George Russell posted a series of impressive lap times on Pirelli’s hard and medium tyres, the Briton struggled for one-lap pace on the red-walled rubber, urging Mercedes to find a solution for the rest of the weekend.
Having made a promising impression across the three days in Sakhir, Mercedes continued to impress on the first day at the Australian Grand Prix. George Russell looked very strong on Pirelli’s hard and medium compound, although he struggled to extract the maximum from his W16.
Despite the promising performance on the harder compounds, Russell had a few moments throughout the day. The Briton dipped a wheel on the grass in FP1 and spun, fortunately just into a wide run off area and not into the barriers. Russell then also locked up in the afternoon session, but it did not have any serious consequences.
“It was an interesting first day of the season. We looked particularly quick on the Hard and Medium compounds, and the overall balance of the car felt strong. On the Soft tyre, we didn’t improve as much as you might expect.
“That is something we will evaluate overnight but, with the track temperature over 40°C today, that may have played a part. It is encouraging that there is inherent pace in the car though, as we’ve seen on the C3 and C4 compounds. Our focus is now unlocking that pace across all three tyre compounds and hopefully we can do that tomorrow.
“It felt good to be back out on track here; the fans are always incredible in Melbourne and it’s a fun circuit to drive. I had a couple of moments out there but was able to keep it out the wall. I am confident that we can find the improvements we are looking for overnight and have a smoother day on Saturday.”
His new team-mate Andrea Kimi Antonelli had a quiet start in Melbourne. The Bologna-born driver finished down in P14 in the first session, and dropped back even further in FP2 to finish 16 quickest.
Despite the seemingly low-key performance, the Italian completed an eye-catching race simulation in the dying stages of the second session, indicating that he has more to offer for the rest of the weekend.
“It was a positive first day of the season. Overall, I was pleased with how everything went. I’m getting more and more confident with each lap and continue to build my learning. The long run in FP2 was good and gives us a strong platform for the rest of the weekend.
“We’ve got some work to do on the single lap to find a bit more performance; that is mainly linked to getting the tyres in the right window and something we will focus on improving overnight. We’ve got plenty of data to work with to do that ahead of Saturday.
“It is slightly too early to make any predictions on our relative performance. We don’t know what the other teams are doing, and we were offset on tyre strategy today. The car was feeling good though and we will see what we can do in Qualifying tomorrow.”
