George Russell led a Mercedes one-two in qualifying. This marks Mercedes’ first front-row lockout since the 2024 British Grand Prix, where Russell was on pole and Lewis Hamilton started alongside him.
Russell’s ‘Perfect Storm’ in Melbourne
George Russell believes a “perfect storm” accounted for the gap between Mercedes and their rivals in qualifying. Russell referenced Max Verstappen’s crash without setting a time as part of this.
The grid may reflect new rules in F1. These rules are possibly the most controversial F1 has ever seen.
Norris Unhappy with New Cars
Lando Norris said after qualifying sixth in Melbourne: “We’ve come from the best cars ever made in Formula 1, and the nicest to drive, to probably the worst.”
Norris was talking about the impact of electrical energy management on the way drivers operate their new cars. The engines have a 50-50 split between internal combustion and electrical power. Optimising this split has an unusually large impact on lap time.
Drivers are constantly managing the charge in their batteries throughout a lap. They do so through driving techniques that many would not typically associate with the ultimate motorsport challenge.
“You just decelerate so much before corners,” Norris said. “You have to lift everywhere to make sure the (battery) pack’s at the top. If the pack’s too high, you’re also screwed.”
Impact of Reliability Issues
Not having the information one needs to maximise the engine has an impact. Norris had lost out by reliability issues on Friday.
“It’s certainly just not been an easy weekend for me,” he said. “Just not a lot of laps, a lot of issues.
“The problem is now, it’s not like you can just get back in the car and drive what you once knew and just click. This car is just odd.
“Just getting into the rhythm of lifting everywhere to go quicker and using gears you don’t want to use and just understanding that when you lift more, you brake later but you have to brake less.
“That’s why laps are more valuable than ever. In the past, miss P1, not too bothered. Now, you miss five laps, not only do you as a driver have to figure things out quicker, the engine doesn’t learn what it needs to learn and then you’re just on the back foot.”
Verstappen’s Unexpected Crash
Max Verstappen said of his crash: “I just arrived to Turn One and the rear axle just completely locked up out of the blue while hitting the pedal, so this is something very weird that I’ve never experienced in F1 before”
Russell ended the day leading a Mercedes one-two from team-mate Kimi Antonelli and 0.785 seconds quicker than Isack Hadjar.