Lewis Hamilton was very surprised by Mercedes’ dominance during qualifying for the Australian Grand Prix. The Ferrari driver even mentions a possible controversial technical explanation.
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The first qualifying sessions of the 2026 Formula 1 season were marked by a show of force from Mercedes. At the Albert Park circuit in Melbourne, George Russell took pole position ahead of his teammate Kimi Antonelli, giving the German team a front-row lockout.
Behind them, Isack Hadjar took third place but with an impressive gap: nearly eight-tenths of a second behind Russell’s time.
This level of performance surprised several rivals, notably Lewis Hamilton, who could do no better than seventh place at the wheel of his Ferrari.
Hamilton intrigued by a power gain
After the session, the seven-time world champion admitted he did not understand where Mercedes’ advantage came from. According to him, the German team had not shown such potential during winter testing, making this gap even more surprising.
“I don’t exactly understand,” Hamilton admitted. “They hadn’t shown they could turn up the power during testing, and now they seem to have found extra power somewhere.”
The Briton believes it is now crucial for Ferrari to identify the source of this advantage: “We need to understand what it is.”
The sensitive issue of the compression ratio
Since the start of the off-season, some teams in the paddock have been questioning a possible technical advantage of the Mercedes engine. Rumors notably mention a higher compression ratio that would offer a significant performance gain.
The Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile (FIA) has also planned to introduce measures starting from the Monaco Grand Prix to more strictly regulate this technical point.
Hamilton hopes, however, that the dominance observed in Melbourne is not linked to this controversial element.
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“I hope it’s not this compression ratio thing,” he said. “I hope it’s just pure power and that we need to do a better job.”
But otherwise, the Ferrari driver would not hide his disappointment: “If it’s really linked to this compression story, I would be disappointed that the FIA allowed this to happen and that it’s not fully compliant with the regulations.”
If Mercedes’ advantage is indeed linked to this technical characteristic, it might only last for a few races before the expected regulatory adjustments. But even a short period of dominance could have a significant impact on the championship battle.
“In that case, the season would already be compromised,” Hamilton explained. “Well, not totally over, but over seven races, in a few months, you can lose a huge number of points if you’re a second behind in qualifying.”
A complicated session for Hamilton
Beyond these questions, Hamilton’s own qualifying session was also disrupted. The Briton believes everything was going well until Q2.
“The weekend was going very well until Q2. I felt good in the car and everything was working with my engineer.”
But a power problem disrupted the rest of the session: “In Q3, we lost power. With the medium tires, we were solid though. When we went back out, we were behind other cars, which caused the tire temperature to drop.”
“We found ourselves completely out of sync and we couldn’t manage to put in any more good laps.”
A frustrating observation for Hamilton, who knows that Ferrari will have to progress quickly to compete with Mercedes at the start of this 2026 F1 season.
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