George Russell has warned Mercedes to “raise its game” after feeling the team “underachieved” in certain areas, despite the team completing a 1-2 finish in the Formula 1 season-opener.
The Brit overcame an early challenge from Charles Leclerc and Ferrari to take a highly-predicted victory at Albert Park, ahead of teammate Andrea Kimi Antonelli in second.
Mercedes have been largely lablled as the favourites before the season started, and proved why, with a front row lock-out being converted into a race result.
However, battery power shortages for both Russell and Antonelli saw both get bad getaways off the grid, with Leclerc sailing through from fourth on the grid to lead into the first corner.
Ferrari may have also proved to have been a bigger threat, had it chosen to pit one of its cars during an early Virtual Safety Car, in which Russell and Antonelli double-stacked.
But alas, the Silver Arrows eventually completed an unassailable advantage, to kick off 2026 in the best possible style.
Russell, however, has exercised caution to his team, saying they were “lucky” to come away with the result, especially after its start line gremlins.
“At the moment, it just feels like another race win, to be honest,” he told media including Motorsport Week when asked how it feels to lead the championship for the first time in his career.
“I mean, we’re race one into a very long season. Of course, I want to fight for race wins week in, week out, but we’re all here now to fight for a World Championship and that’s what we’ve been working so hard towards.
“If we want to do that, we still need to raise our game because there were a lot of areas today that we underachieved, mainly around the race start, having the battery in the right place, and we were lucky not to come worse off.”
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