Wolff defeated after qualifying: 'an illusion to go closer to Red Bull'

For Toto Wolff, it is becoming a repetitive story. The Mercedes team boss keeps saying there is development in Mercedes' W15, but the results do not yet show it. George Russell only made it to seventh in qualifying for the Australian Grand Prix, with Lewis Hamilton even stuck in Q2. That was a new low for the Briton this season.

Wolff claimed this result in qualifying was a setback. He saw a fine Mercedes car in FP3. "Especially underwhelming because we were within a tenth in FP3," the Austrian told Sky Sports.

"The conditions were a little bit different, but there's no excuse. We have a car that's difficult, and you can be narrowly in and out of the window. As much as I’m annoyed at myself for saying this for a long time, we just need to continue working on it and trying to get better. It’s not because of a lack of trying that we are where we are, but it's not good enough."

'Catching up with Red Bull soon an illusion'

Mercedes know there is still a long way to go before battling for wins, Wolff reiterated. "It's an illusion to go closer to Red Bull in the short term, but I still have to believe that there is more in this car. You see those performances like this morning, and it's not a bad car. It is able to achieve that, but it's so tricky to be in and out of the performance window, and we're just going to continue to work on it.