Formula 1 drivers point at Mercedes' engine compression after George Russell's dominant Melbourne pole
F1 NewsSaturday, 07 March 2026 at 15:04
Mercedes locked out the front row on the starting grid for the 2026 Australian Grand Pix with Georg Russell on pole and Kimi Antonelli alongside him in second.
But the surprise was the eight tenths gap Russell enjoyed over his closest none-Mercedes rival which was Red Bull Racing's Isack Hadjar who qualified third.
Mercedes have been accused that they have found a way work around engine compression ratio rules whereby their engines would pass FIA tests in ambient temperature meeting the mandated 16:1 ratio only for the value to increase when the engine is running.
The FIA has moved to close this loophole by modifying the testing procedure from July due to lobbying from rivals, but by then it may be too late as Mercedes would've pulled out a considerable points advantage.
Several Formula 1 drivers commented on Mercedes' situation following qualifying in Melbourne on Saturday. Here is what they said.
Lewis Hamilton: I'll be disappointed
“I don't understand it exactly. They didn't show that they could turn it up in testing and now they've got this extra power from somewhere and we need to understand what that is. I hope it's not this compression ratio thing, hopefully it's just pure power and we've got to do a better job.”
“If it is the compression ratio [creating this performance gap] then I'll be disappointed that the FIA have allowed that to be the case. It's not to the book, and I'll be pushing my team to do the same thing so we can get more power.”
“If they have a few months of that, then the season's done – I mean, not done, but seven races, a few months, you lose a lot of points with a second behind in quali."
Charles Leclerc: Gap bigger than expected
“Yesterday [Friday] I said [the gap was] half a second, now it's [point] eight, so it's bigger than what I expected for sure.
“But it was a very significant gap yesterday already, so... I was very, very impressed this morning with the FP3, the power that they've shown was just crazy in the last lap of George.
“I looked at the data for the first time and I had to re-upload it because I thought there was a problem on the things I was seeing, but apparently not, so it's very, very impressive.”
Oscar Piastri: Mercedes will be quicker in the race
“No one's really done any long runs. Mercedes have and they looked even quicker than they did today. We did some short ones, but no one's done proper length stints.”
Max Verstappen: I told you so
“That's what I said already in Bahrain [Testing]. Let's wait and see in Melbourne and you will see how fast they are. So, for me, that's not a surprise.”
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