"The significant point is that they beat Aston Martin": Why Mercedes will be happier with the podium in Australia

F1 pundit Peter Windsor mentioned that it was pretty significant that the Mercedes F1 team managed to get the better of Aston Martin F1 in the F1 Australian GP at the Albert Park Circuit.

In the first two races of the season, the British team had an advantage over their engine suppliers in terms of pure performance and downforce. However, looking at the layout of the Albert Park Circuit, the German team caused a sizable dent in Aston Martin's performance as the track suited the Silverstone-based team more than the former world champions.

While analyzing the race on his YouTube channel, Windsor said:

"Lewis Hamilton a very good second. He raced hard and well and as much as you could say that it was great Mercedes finished second, I think the significant point is that they beat Aston Martin around Albert Park."

"Who would have thought that? After the first two races, Mercedes would do that because Albert Park should have been an even better race for Aston Martin as they are not particularly good at top speed. They're not that quick through the air."

“They could have won it but we’re sandbagging? Okay" - Red Bull team boss on Mercedes

Red Bull Team Principal Christian Horner had a sarcastic response to Mercedes' claims that the Austrian team is hiding their real speed.

Speaking to GrandPrix247, he said:

“They could have won it but we’re sandbagging? Okay. That’s very generous of George [Russell]. I mean, his team would know all too well about those kinds of advantages. There’s always an element of management that goes on in any race, you could see because it was a one-stop race and a very early one-stop race, there was an element of tire management that was going on, which is what they were doing."

"Checo wasn’t hanging about, he wasn’t cruising around holding back seven-tenths a lap because he didn’t want to show it. The grid was certainly a little bit closer at this venue."

He continued:

“I think that when things settle down, I think Lewis made a mistake on that lap, but we’ve obviously weighted the car towards the race rather than qualifying. You can see perhaps the cars that warmed up their tires more aggressively perhaps suffered a bit more in the race today."

Despite their P2 finish in Melbourne, Mercedes are still way behind the performance of Red Bull and will look to close the gap even further in upcoming races.