Wolff denies Mercedes mistake: "It was absolutely the right call"

Toto Wolff leaves Melbourne with mixed feelings. On the one hand, he is disappointed with George Russell's DNF, but on the other, he saw promising pace from both Russell and Lewis Hamilton.

"We had strong pace today and it was really close with the Aston Martins and the Ferraris. That is good news for us, and I think we have made a step forward this weekend, both on one-lap and race pace," Wolff said in a Mercedes press release.

He continued: "We maximised what we have, and we need to now comb through the data and continue to learn about the car. This will help bring the upgrade packages and that will be the key in challenging the leaders more often."

George Russell failed to reach the finish line as his Mercedes broke down but was initially leading when he overtook Max Verstappen at the start. "It was unfortunate with George; he had a great stop from the lead and changed onto the hard tyre," the Mercedes team boss continued.

Russell was immediately called in as soon as the safety car first came out, but he fell back to seventh when it was converted to a red flag. Wolff insists it was not a wrong decision to call Russell in immediately. "It was absolutely the right call, and he would have been very much at the front. With the red flag, his race was not so good anymore. He still could have made it to the front though, so he was unfortunate to have a Power Unit failure."