Toto Wolff has stated that Mercedes must improve their tyre management if they want to challenge the likes of McLaren and Red Bull following the F1 Australian GP.
Drivers George Russell and Kimi Antonelli finished P3 and P4 respectively after a penalty against Antonelli was rescinded following the Australian Grand Prix on Sunday. The team currently leads the constructors’ championship alongside McLaren – both with 27 points.
However, Wolff argued that, based on merit alone, his two drivers would have been further down the grid. A late spin for Oscar Piastri meant that Russell swooped in to take third position, but in reality he was a long way off Lando Norris and Max Verstappen, who completed the podium.
“P3 and P5, that’s the result. If you look at the real pace today, pace result would be P4, P5, and I think it’s a solid first weekend,” said Wolff in his print media session.
“But looking at it always from the glass-half-empty side, you have to say that the pace of the McLaren is just very strong. Something which we need to understand [is] the way they are able to manage the tyres and extract performance from these. We need to get better if we want to fight on merit for race victories and for a championship.”
Tyre management is key
This result was not necessarily where Mercedes expected to be, and Wolff recognises where his team stands behind their rivals:
“How [Red Bull] managed to turn around a non-performing car from the Friday to the Saturday [is] something which you always need to bear in mind. They hit the sweet spot there.
“I think when you look at the pecking order in terms of tyre management, it’s McLaren, then it’s Red Bull and then it’s us this weekend.”
Wolff stated that Mercedes simply needed to figure out what those teams have already mastered when it comes to tyres:
“I think we would have wished to have a fight with the McLarens and with Verstappen under normal conditions. We have a deficit in keeping the tyres in the window. They are able to do that better and get faster, and with us we’re seeing a degradation because they’re simply getting too hot.
“That’s why I would have liked to be a bit closer to them, but that’s the reality.”
McLaren’s pace “reminiscent” of Mercedes domination
Speaking after qualifying, George Russell seemed to write off any chance of Mercedes catching up with McLaren this season given their impressive pace, stating that the Woking-based outfit is at a point where it can now just focus on 2026.
However, Wolff has argued that Mercedes must not stop progressing:
“It’s an impressive gap. It’s reminiscent to these years where we just wanted to disappear into the distance, but you must never give up. We’ve just done the first race weekend, we’ve finished third and fifth. It would have been fourth and fifth on merit, but we are where we are and that’s why you can never take your foot off the throttle.
“We have to analyse what is it we can do to manage the tyre better. We’re not missing 20 points in downforce, that’s not the thing. It’s just literally on the mechanical side what we can do to keep in the sweet spot. So it hasn’t changed anything in terms of how do we prioritise 2026 versus this year just after the first race weekend. You have to keep your cool and continue your trajectory.”
