Mercedes suffer power unit issues on Friday at F1 Australian GP

Mercedes may have displayed strong pace and got its Formula 1 rivals talking, but it didn’t have a completely trouble-free Friday at the Australian Grand Prix.

Although Mercedes did not set the outright headline lap times on the opening day of on-track running in 2026, with Andrea Kimi Antonelli and George Russell ending Friday second and third quickest, the Silver Arrows caught the eye of its rivals with its highly impressive race pace.

Both Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc and McLaren’s Oscar Piastri labelled Mercedes as the benchmark in Melbourne, with the general consensus in the F1 paddock that the German manufacturer is the early favourite.

But it was not a totally smooth day for Mercedes, with power unit-related problems striking during the opening practice session.

“It was a difficult birth today also for us, but not unexpected, I guess, when you start with new regulations. We weren’t in such a good place on the chassis side, power unit side, but all things that are surmountable,” Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff said when speaking to media including Crash.net after FP1.

“It’s not inherent problems that we have in the hardware. Some of the software, it’s just teething problems. Now, having said that, I’ve always stated that I think Red Bull and Ferrari are very fast, and people try to continue to talk us up, and that’s flattering, but I’m not sure it’s 100% the reality, and certainly not what we have seen in FP1.”

At the end of the day, Russell added: “We didn't have the smoothest first Friday of the season. FP1 was a tough session where we were struggling to optimise our battery harvesting and deployment.

“That demanded most of our attention and we therefore couldn't get stuck into our set-up work until much later in the hour. When we did, the car had a lot of understeer, and we also didn't have the time to put together a long run.

“Thankfully, we made a positive step for FP2 and had a much better session. The car felt more put together and we completed a good amount of single lap and long run work. That puts us in a decent position for the rest of the weekend. The front of the field looks very competitive and we will have to take another step overnight if we are to be in the fight for pole position.”

Expanding on the issues Mercedes faced on Friday, trackside engineering director Andrew Shovlin said: “Overall the day finished in a decent place, but our first session was very messy.

“We had a few configuration issues on the power unit side that took a couple of runs to unpick. On top of that, the balance of the car wasn't great for either driver. That affects our cornering speeds, which in turn impacts the deployment.

We had a good recovery ahead of FP2; the power unit was working as intended and the car was responding a lot better after a few set-up changes. Having finished the morning somewhat on the back foot, we were able to put together a solid programme with decent long runs from both drivers.

“That's given us good information ahead of the race on Sunday but there are still a few areas that we need to make progress on overnight. We're into that work already and hopefully can find a bit more pace to deliver a strong team result in Qualifying tomorrow.”