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Mercedes boss Toto Wolff reckons they made a step forward at the 2023 Australian GP on Sunday.
The German team had their best race weekend of the season at Albert Park as Lewis Hamilton and George Russell qualified in P3 and P2 respectively. The race went even better, as Russell jumped Max Verstappen at the start of the race followed by Hamilton following suit at Turn 3.
Mercedes ran 1-2 in the early stages of the race. While Russell suffered a DNF, Hamilton held fort in P2 to secure the team's first podium of the season. After the race, team boss Wolff was ecstatic, saying:
"We had strong pace today, and it was really close with the Aston Martins and the Ferraris. That is good news for us, and I think we have made a step forward this weekend, both on one lap and race pace. We maximised what we have, and we need to now comb through the data and continue to learn about the car. This will help bring the upgrade packages, and that will be the key in challenging the leaders more often."
He added:
"It was unfortunate with George; he had a great stop from the lead and changed onto the hard tyre. It was absolutely the right call, and he would have been very much at the front. With the red flag, his race was not so good anymore. He still could have made it to the front, though, so he was unfortunate to have a power unit failure."
Day of mixed fortunes for Mercedes
After the race, Mercedes director Andrew Shovlin admitted that it was a day of mixed fortunes for the team. While Hamilton secured a podium, Russell could not finish. Shovlin said:
"It's great to get the first podium of the year with Lewis, but it was a day of mixed fortunes for the team. Lewis drove a difficult race well and had to find a fine balance between tyre management and defending. George had put together a strong weekend and was unfortunate that the Safety Car became a red flag. Things then got worse with the power unit issue."
He added:
"The pace of the car has been better than at the first two races; we've made some changes to the setup for the circuit, but, hopefully, we can take some of that learning into the upcoming races."
Mercedes are expected to bring a new upgrade package to Baku, the next race on the calendar. They will look for a better showing and an improved performance to challenge Red Bull.
