Lewis Hamilton: Ferrari driver ‘wants to understand’ Mercedes advantage after rivals dominated Australian GP qualifying | F1 News

Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton says he wants “to understand” Mercedes’ advantage after his former team and title favourites swept to a front-row lockout at the season-opening Australian Grand Prix.

Mercedes underlined their status as championship favourites from pre-season by dominating the year’s first qualifying session in Melbourne, with George Russell taking pole from team-mate Kimi Antonelli.

The Silver Arrows’ lap-time advantage over their nearest rival, Red Bull’s Isack Hadjar in third, was a large margin of 0.785s while McLaren and Ferrari were both over eight tenths of a second off the pace.

F1’s short winter had been dominated by a row over engine compression ratio rules.

As part of F1’s sweeping new regulations for the 2026 season, a reduced compression limit of 16:1 from the previous 18:1 is in place – although it is currently only measured by the FIA when engines are ‘cold’.

The dispute has centred on suspicions from rivals suggesting that Mercedes have exploited a loophole via thermal expansion of components to run at a higher limit when the power unit is at full running temperature on track.

Mercedes have consistently played down the claims, saying their engine complies with the regulations, and the lap-time gain any such ‘trick’ would produce.

After weeks of debate, F1’s governing body confirmed last week that a compromise solution had been found to satisfy all parties via a new test to come into force from June 1 – after the season’s seventh round, as stands – which will test compression limits at both ambient temperature and 130 degrees.

After Melbourne qualifying on Saturday, Hamilton brought up the long-running topic as he claimed Mercedes’ advantage in each sector of the Albert Park lap was “two tenths or more just through power”.

Hamilton said he was keen to understand why exactly that was and whether Ferrari needed to react.

“What’s clear is they didn’t show their engine power through any of the practice [sessions],” said Hamilton, who qualified seventh amid energy-deployment issues from Ferrari’s unit, of Mercedes to Sky Sports F1.

“There’s a whole talk of compression ratios and they have done a solid job with their engine, which we have.

“I want to understand why it’s two tenths or more just through power, per sector.

“If it is a compression thing, I want to understand why the FIA haven’t done anything and what’s been done to rectify it.

“If it’s not, and it’s just pure power, we have to do a better job.”

Russell: Mercedes showed chassis strong too – but admits surprise at Melbourne gap

Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff has described the compression saga as “a storm in a teacup”.

Wolff said at the final Bahrain test last month: “It doesn’t change anything for us, whether we stay like this or whether we change to the new regulations.”

Speaking after qualifying, polesitter Russell said that while all the focus had been on their power unit through pre-season, the W17 chassis built for F1’s revised regulations was also clearly standing out too.

“I think we’ve got a really great engine beneath us,” said the polesitter.

“However, I think we’ve also got a really amazing car beneath us, and I think that probably hasn’t been highlighted enough in the press these past few weeks.”

The Briton was, though, taken aback by the size of their Melbourne advantage.

“I think we knew as a team, or we thought as a team, we had a really good package beneath us, and it’s been so much hard work from everyone in Brixworth and Brackley to deliver this,” he added.

“But I don’t think we quite thought it was that good.”

The Sky Sports F1 pundits feel the compression situation does not explain Mercedes’ early-season advantage.

Bernie Collins said: “Four teams are running this [Mercedes] engine so if it was just down to compression ratio we’d have those four teams at the top of the timesheet and that’s not how it stands at the minute.”

Martin Brundle quipped: “I think the whole thing’s a storm in a cylinder.”

Hamilton still positive about Ferrari form despite qualifying setback

In terms of his own qualifying session, Hamilton said he would have been fighting for the second row – where team-mate Charles Leclerc qualified, in fourth – had it not been for an energy deployment issue on his car after a promising Q1.

“Not the best qualifying but I felt solid all weekend,” said Hamilton, who finished a tenth slower than Leclerc.

“I’m feeling super motivated and up until Q1 on the medium tyre, I was feeling great. I was third or fourth just on the medium tyre.

“But when we got into Q2 we had some problems with the engine and deployment. It then threw a bunch of spanners in the mix, so we struggled to get the best out of it after that.

“If things hadn’t been an issue, we would have been third or fourth. I don’t think we would have been anywhere near Mercedes.”

Sky Sports F1’s Australian GP schedule

Saturday March 7
9.45pm: F3 Feature Race*

Sunday March 8
12.20am: F2 Feature Race*
2.30am: Australian GP build-up: Grand Prix Sunday*
4am: THE AUSTRALIAN GRAND PRIX*
6am: Australian GP reaction: Chequered Flag*
7am: Ted’s Notebook*
7.55am: Australian GP race replay*
10am: Australian GP highlights (also on Sky One)*

*Also on Sky Sports Main Event

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