Ted Kravitz says Mercedes may have had ‘their engine turned down’ in dominant Australian GP

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Mercedes might have held back some performance at the Australian Grand Prix despite their one-two finish, Ted Kravitz says. Ferrari got surprisingly close in Sunday’s race.

George Russell led Kimi Antonelli for Mercedes’ first one-two since Las Vegas 2024 and their first in a season opener since 2019. In qualifying, Russell outpaced ‘best of the rest’ Isack Hadjar by eight-tenths of a second.

But utilising Ferrari’s much-talked-about smaller turbo, Charles Leclerc took the lead from fourth on the grid and repeatedly exchanged positions with Russell. In the end, Mercedes outwitted the Scuderia strategically to see off the threat, but it seems the season may not be a procession.

Max Verstappen called it

Did Mercedes' rivals show too much in testing?

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Ted Kravitz says Mercedes haven’t shown ‘their full performance’

Mercedes have been cast as the overriding favourites for years, just as they were the last time the engines were overhauled in 2014. While confidence in the Silver Arrows occasionally wavered during testing, there were strong suspicions of sandbagging.

Indeed, Max Verstappen always predicted that Mercedes would make an imperious leap in Melbourne, having spent most of the winter praising rivals.

While the gap between Russell and third-place finisher Leclerc at the chequered flag was over 15 seconds, Mercedes gained much of that time by pitting under the first virtual safety car. There is still reason to be optimistic of a competitive season, unless the race winners turned their engine down.

“The thing that we all thought was going to happen happened, which is that it was a Mercedes one-two,” Kravitz said on the F1 Show. “They didn’t run away with it.

“Maybe they had their engine turned down, not quite sure. We haven’t seen their full performance quite yet. Handed an easier run by Ferrari, I think it’s fair to say.”

According to MARCA, Mercedes are strategically trying to prevent rivals from using the ‘Additional Development and Upgrade Opportunities’ (known as ADUO) afforded by the new rules.

• READ MORE: Mercedes now trying to ‘prevent’ Ferrari and Red Bull from improving their 2026 cars with FIA rule

Mercedes know that Honda are bound to have access to this catch-up mechanism (which is triggered if the gap exceeds two percent), but they don’t want Ferrari, Red Bull and Audi to benefit.

What Bernie Collins noticed in Mercedes’ Australian GP data vs Ferrari

Clearly, Mercedes won’t put race wins at risk to slow down their rivals’ upgrades – they wouldn’t be that complacent – but there is an incentive to hold back.

Kravitz’s colleague, Bernie Collins, says their advantage in qualifying exceeded expectations, but saw in the data that Ferrari’s pace was comparable throughout the race.

“We all suspected, going into the season, that Mercedes would be a step ahead,” she said. “In qualifying, the step was maybe more than we thought it would be.

“But in the race, even when they’re in free air, both sets of cars, their lap times were pretty consistent across both sets. Maybe Mercedes were managing, we don’t know.

“But very consistent lap times that seemed to suggest they were quite closely matched in the race.”

Jolyon Palmer thinks Ferrari could win the Sprint in China this weekend, largely due to their rapid starts. A more technical layout than the fast, flowing Albert Park, it will ask different questions of the W17 and SF-26.