Lewis Hamilton believes his former team Mercedes could put this year’s Formula 1 world championship out of reach within “a few months” based on George Russell’s performance in the opening qualifying session of the season on Saturday.
Russell secured pole position ahead of teammate Kimi Antonelli for Sunday’s Australian Grand Prix, with a 0.785 second margin over his nearest non-Mercedes competitor, Isack Hadjar, and a 0.960 second gap to Hamilton’s Ferrari in seventh place.
The result seemed to confirm the worst fears of rival teams, who suspected Mercedes was holding back performance during preseason testing in order to divert attention from a regulatory row over the performance of its engine.
Since the end of last year, rival manufacturers have been lobbying the FIA to review the way the engine’s compression ratio is measured in the belief that Mercedes has discovered a way to comply with the scrutineering test in ambient temperatures but increase the ratio, and therefore power output, when the engine is running hot out on track.
Ahead of the start of the season, the FIA, F1 and all five engine manufacturers came to a compromise solution whereby the compression ratio would continue to be measured in ambient conditions throughout the season as well as being measured at 130 degrees Centigrade from the Monaco Grand Prix onwards. The FIA added that in 2027 it would scrap the cold test and only measure the ratio when hot.
Speaking about Mercedes’ performance in Australia, Hamilton said a large part of Russell’s qualifying advantage was coming from extra power on the straights.
“What’s clear is that they didn’t show the engine power through any of testing because there was the whole talk of compression ratios, and they’ve obviously done a really solid job with their engine, which we have as well,” Hamilton said.
“But I want to understand why it’s 0.2 seconds or more just through power per sector, and so if it is the compression thing, I want to understand why the FIA hasn’t done anything, and what is being done to rectify it.
“I hope it’s not this compression ratio, hopefully it’s just pure power and we’ve got to do a better job, but if it is the compression thing, then I will be disappointed that the FIA would allow that to be the case — that it’s not to the book — and I’ll be pushing my team to do the same thing so we can get more power from our engine.”
When it was put to Hamilton that the advantage might only be present for the first seven races until the Monaco Grand Prix (and maybe two fewer if rounds in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia are cancelled due to conflict in region), the Ferrari driver said it would still be enough for Mercedes to take a commanding lead in the championship.
“If they have a few months of that, then the season’s done,” he said. “I mean, not done … but seven races, a few months, you lose a lot of points when you are a second behind.”
Speaking more generally about the changes to the regulations for 2026, which have attracted criticism from multiple drivers on the grid, Hamilton said the extra emphasis on managing electrical energy was not in line with the values of F1.
“The car is really nice to drive, it’s just the power,” he said. “The [electric] power’s good when you’ve got it, it’s just it doesn’t last.
“We’re starting the lap half throttle coming through the last corner, and a quarter of the straight, and then you go to full throttle. It’s completely against what Formula 1 is about – flat out, full attack, and we’re lifting and coasting and stuff.
“That element is not very good. And I don’t think the drivers particularly like it.”
