‘Mercedes are back’ – Wolff ecstatic with Australia 1-2 but admits ‘we have a fight on our hands’ with Ferrari

Team Principal Toto Wolff has declared that “Mercedes are back” after George Russell and Kimi Antonelli brought home a 1-2 for the squad in Australia, but conceded that they could be in for a tense competition with Ferrari.

The 2026 season kicked off at Albert Park with the pecking order an unknown, but the Brackley outfit quickly established themselves as the frontrunner after Russell claimed pole position with Antonelli lining up alongside him – the gap between the Briton’s lap time and Red Bull’s Isack Hadjar in third was a dominant eight-tenths.

While both drivers lost positions at lights out – Russell engaging in a battle with Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc for the lead, and Antonelli tumbling down the order due to a poor start – they recovered to finish on the top two steps of the podium, leaving Wolff optimistic for the season.

“There's so much contentment that I feel in the team at the moment,” he said. “We've had such a winning streak with these eight championships and then very difficult years.

"We still won races and finished second in the championship, but a solid one and two where you feel a season ahead, that means you can fight for a World Championship.

“That wasn't for a long time and therefore you're probably more grateful when you bounce back like this, having known the difficult years and just continuing. That's why I'm just very happy for everyone.”

The transition from winning eight consecutive Constructors’ Championship titles between 2014 and 2021 to dropping back amid struggles with ground effect was tough for Mercedes, making their return to the top an extremely welcome change.

However, Wolff was eager not to downplay Ferrari’s potential as Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton, who was instrumental in the team’s previous run of success, crossed the line in P3 and P4 in Melbourne.

They executed much better starts on the opening lap and looked strong on the first stint, but elected to go for an alternative tyre strategy which limited their chances to continue challenging Mercedes for the win.

Asked whether he believes their rivals would have been a step closer had their strategy been different, Wolff replied: “When it comes to Ferrari, before the race people were saying, you're going to disappear in the distance, looking at your long runs.

“We knew that they were strong on the starts and that's what happened. It was an out and out battle between Charles and George at the beginning.

“Kimi was a bit unlucky that the battery wasn't on the level that it should have been, on either car actually to a certain degree. It was a three-way fight at a certain stage between the two Ferraris and George and eventually Kimi caught up. For me, the prevailing feeling is now we have a fight on our hands with Ferrari.

“The worry that we had was that it wasn't exciting in terms of the fighting, and the boost and the overtake modes made it actually quite interesting to watch on a track that is particularly difficult for energy.

"We'll see how that goes in Shanghai, but most of all is being to a certain degree of contentment that Mercedes are back.”