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Toto Wolff has come out in defence of Mercedes as other teams who bought their power unit are unhappy with the gap in performance.
Mercedes got off to a flying start at the Australian Grand Prix, as they topped the race with a one-two finish.
George Russell and Kimi Antonelli both performed spectacularly, as the new Mercedes power unit proved to be a major difference maker.
Mercedes claim a one-two finish to start F1’s new era! Which driver stands out from the top 10 of the Australian Grand Prix?
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Mercedes’ power unit has already become one of the talking points coming out of the first race week of the season, but not entirely in the way they had hoped.
Customer teams like McLaren and Williams are frustrated with Mercedes over the power unit and the information surrounding it being withheld.
READ MORE: Juan Pablo Montoya thinks there’s ‘nothing’ Mercedes can do to replicate Ferrari’s F1 starts in 2026
Toto Wolff defends Mercedes as purchasing teams echo frustration
Toto Wolff spoke to Sky Sports as McLaren and Williams aired their grievances against them over the power unit and the information edge that Mercedes has over them.
Wolff noted that the new regulations are a learning curve for everyone, and they are overcoming the same issues as everyone else. Furthermore, deploying power units to everyone’s satisfaction is just not feasible.
“It’s clear when you roll out new regulations, there’s so much to learn. Whether you have a customer that’s on your gearbox or suspension, and in the same way on the power units, the development slope is very steep.”
“You can never deploy things to make everybody happy. But I think most important is we’re trying to provide a good service.”
This is far from the first time Wolff has been defensive of Mercedes’ seeming advantage over other teams.
During preseason, when the Mercedes fuel compression scandal was the talk of the sport, Wolff claimed rivals would be embarrassed to learn just how insignificant their advantage would be.
Are Mercedes’ rivals hiding behind 2026 ‘excuses’?
READ MORE: George Russell tells the FIA to improve ‘sketchy’ aspect of new rules after Australian GP victory
Mercedes seemingly benefitting from additional knowledge over power unit row
Despite Wolff’s adamant defending of Mercedes’ power unit delivery, it’s hard to look at the results from this weekend and agree with him.
It’s clear that, at least for now, Mercedes are above the rest of the pack. How much of that comes down to the power unit and the understanding they have of it compared to their customer teams is debatable.
Both McLaren and Williams have issues with their cars independent of the power unit. Granted, having access to the power unit, or at least more information about it, could have mitigated these issues.
Mercedes will be hopeful, for the sake of their integrity as suppliers, that other teams can close the knowledge gap soon enough, but not in a way that jeopardizes their success on the track.
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