After George Russell and Lewis Hamilton challenged Max Verstappen for the pole position for the Australian Grand Prix, Fernando Alonso and Carlos Sainz claimed Mercedes exaggerated their lack of speed. After Mercedes failed to compete with Red Bull in the first two races of the season.
Alonso was fourth for Aston Martin and fellow Spaniard Sainz was fifth for Ferrari. Alonso has finished on the podium behind Red Bull one-twos at each of the season's first two races. When asked by Rachel Brookes of Sky Sports F1 if he was shocked by Mercedes' performance, Alonso responded, "Not really. I think they were very fast in Jeddah already and they were fast in P2.
Mercedes has found the car Works a bit better in reality when run differently to the way its simulations suggest it should be well that's another blow for Mercedes virtual development tools it seems to have enabled a bit more performance at the track there's still a belief within Mercedes that the car is more on a knife edge than the Red Bull and the Aston Martin and edgy to drive.
While Mercedes is trying to get its act together, Aston Martin is a rival, which means the possibility of more locations like Australia where Hamilton and Alonso were in a straight fight for the top result. Their rivalry once burned so brightly that it's amazing we haven't seen an on-track battle between them in the last ten years, though there have been exceptions like Alonso's Stern defence of Hamilton in Hungary 2021, which was crucial to his Alpine team's success.
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