Toto Wolff admits he forgot Lewis Hamilton was not a Mercedes driver during Australian Grand Prix

Toto Wolff has admitted that he forgot at certain times during the Australian Grand Prix that Lewis Hamilton was no longer driving for Mercedes, with the weekend marking the first without Hamilton at the team since 2013.

In an eventful rain-affected afternoon at the Albert Park Grand Prix Circuit – that witnessed several crashes, retirements and Safety Car appearances – the Silver Arrows pair of George Russell and Kimi Antonelli kept themselves in the running, as did Hamilton during his debut for Ferrari.

And when asked after the race what it had been like to not have Hamilton in the garage in Melbourne – following the end of the Briton’s 12-year partnership with the team – Wolff revealed: “You know I was looking at the screens at times and the way I looked at it was like we had three drivers, because I looked at RUS, at ANT and at HAM.

“And you realise HAM is with Ferrari and not us anymore. It was such a long time, it is logic – you cannot just say he is gone and you don’t care anymore. We very much care how he is doing, but obviously on track he is the competition and we need to beat the competition.”

MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA - MARCH 16: George Russell of Great Britain driving the (63) Mercedes AMG — Mercedes finished ahead of Ferrari in a dramatic Australian Grand Prix

In the end Mercedes did indeed beat the Scuderia, with Russell claiming the final spot on the podium in third while Antonelli took fourth in his first-ever F1 race.

The Italian was initially demoted to fifth following a five-second time penalty for an alleged unsafe release, but this was later overturned after a successful ‘Right of Review’ was submitted by Mercedes. Ferrari, meanwhile, were eighth and 10th with Charles Leclerc and Hamilton respectively.

While Wolff acknowledged that the squad had good pace in Melbourne, he suggested that further work is needed for them to match the likes of McLaren, with Lando Norris taking victory on a strong weekend for the reigning Teams’ Champions.

Speaking before Antonelli’s penalty was removed, Wolff said: “I think P3, P5, so that’s the result; if you look at the real pace today, pace result would be P4, P5. I think it is a solid first weekend but, looking at it from a glass half empty side, you have to say that the pace of the McLaren is just very strong.

“It’s something we need to understand, the way they are able to manage the tyres and to extract the performance from these is… Yeah, we need to get better if we want to fight on merit for race victories and a championship, there is definitely something we need to find.”

Wolff cited tyre management as an area where McLaren and Red Bull – the latter taking second place with Max Verstappen – are currently ahead of Mercedes.

MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA - MARCH 16: Second placed Max Verstappen of the Netherlands and Oracle Red — While Russell claimed a podium in Melbourne, Wolff believes that Mercedes still have work to do in order to catch McLaren and Red Bull

“I think the way they [Red Bull] managed to turn around a non-performing car from the Friday to the Saturday, it’s something you always need to bear in mind,” the team boss explained. “They seemed to hit the sweet spot there.

“If you look at the pecking order in terms of tyre management, it is McLaren then Red Bull then us this weekend.”

On the plus side, Wolff acknowledged that the W16 has displayed positive signs of development in comparison to its 2024 predecessor.

“It is not doing enough at the moment, but you can say at least it has become more predictable and we understand the car better,” he added. “The car is balanced now, which the previous one didn’t have.

“And from here on, it is pretty clear what we have to do. In extracting more performance over a single lap, we look solid, the gap is much closer. On long runs, our race performance, we just need to understand.”