Wolff fires back at Mercedes ‘sandbagging’ claims after imposing pole

Mercedes boss Toto Wolff has dismissed accusations from Formula 1 rivals that his team had been sandbagging throughout pre-season testing.

The Silver Arrows lived up to its pre-season favourites tag as George Russell took an imposing pole position with a dominant performance in qualifying at the season-opening Australian Grand Prix.

Russell looked in a league of his own throughout qualifying and claimed pole by 0.293 seconds from team-mate Andrea Kimi Antonelli to secure a Mercedes front-row lockout that underlined the team’s apparent superiority at the start of F1’s new era.

Heading into the opening weekend in Australia, Mercedes had been billed as being the team to beat and faced claims of sandbagging from its rivals.

But Wolff stressed Mercedes did not intentionally sandbag as it did not have the confidence to do so.

“Everybody will say that we were sandbagging or there was much more in the pocket. You can’t really sandbag, or at least, we can’t do that, because you never know where the car is,” Wolff told Sky Sports F1.

“Did we have sometimes maybe 10 kilos more in the car, maybe yes, but we don’t have enough believe in understanding the cars yet to make it run artificially heavy, so we’re surprised by the gap, but I’m taking it.”

Wolff added: “I’m so happy that those messy ground effect cars are gone and finally, we can do what we are best at.”

Wolff praises Russell and Antonelli

On Russell’s dominant performance, Wolff said: “George as a person has made another step in seniority and confidence in driving the car, and I think it’s just how he likes it.

“The cars have lost downforce but when you look at the aerodynamic and mechanical sides, the car looks on rails, especially today. When the driver has confidence in the car, this is what you can do.

“It’s just driver-car combination today, and everything works together to put it on pole.”

Wolff also backed Antonelli after the Italian teenager impressively recovered from a huge crash in final practice to put his W17 where it belonged on the front row.

“I think in pure speed terms, he is absolutely there,” Wolff said. “He was quick all weekend until he went off in the morning.

"I think it’s a miracle that not only was the car put together, but also the lap that he did. There was no setup on the car. We were not able to really measure it.

“From the raw speed, from the talent, from his ability – absolutely. But he is in his second year of Formula 1. George is nine or ten [years in]. You need experience all around, so I think it would be early days for Kimi to compare himself to George.”