Mercedes expect to have ‘fight on our hands’ in Austria as Russell names rival team he’s ‘really surprised’ about

Mercedes are braced for McLaren, Red Bull and Ferrari to all potentially pose a threat as the Austrian Grand Prix weekend develops, despite their pace-setting start to the event with Kimi Antonelli on Friday.

Antonelli clocked a best time of 1m 07.014s during second practice at the Red Bull Ring, putting him a few tenths up on McLaren rivals Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris, with a slightly bigger gap back to Red Bull’s Max Verstappen and Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton.

Assessing Mercedes’ opening day, Deputy Team Principal Bradley Lord expressed his view that the Silver Arrows “have a fight on our hands” to go on and claim pole position and victory.

“It’s interesting,” said Lord of the competition. “Obviously after Friday in Barcelona, it looked like there was a bit of a gap back to Ferrari, yet they were right on the pace on Saturday, and very competitive on Sunday as well in the race.

“Our suspicion is that we haven’t yet seen everything that they’ve got to offer this weekend, and maybe they’re running in a new power unit quite conservatively today, and then we’ll see a bit more what they’ve got to bring tomorrow.

“Red Bull look in good shape as well with their big aero update, and as we’ve seen in the last few races, particularly the hot ones, McLaren are right there too. We’ve all got a fight on our hands, but that’s how it should be.”

Lord then offered some insight into both Antonelli and George Russell’s respective experiences at the wheel of the W17, with the latter – who lost some track time in FP2 while mechanics worked on his car – winding up some six tenths off the pace set by his team mate in sixth place.

“I think just trying to get the balance right, basically, and tuning that,” he said of Russell’s day. “It felt a little bit oversteery in the low-speed, and a little bit too understeery in the high-speed.

“Some work to do, but the long runs look strong, and we know George historically has been strong here, so I’m sure he’ll be right there and on the pace come tomorrow.

“Kimi seemed comfortable straight away. He was up at the top of the timesheets pretty quickly as well. I’m sure there’s still more to come as they build confidence and understand just where the limit is.

“We know track limits can be a big topic here in Austria as well, so staying just the right side of the white lines is important, because it can be pretty costly if we don’t. I’m sure he’s got plenty of margin to nibble into tomorrow as it comes down to the end of Qualifying.”

Russell himself suggested that he and Mercedes were slightly “flattered” in FP1 due to issues for rival drivers and teams – while namechecking the squad that particularly caught his eye.

“I mean, FP1 was a very strong session for us both, we looked really good,” said the Briton, who sits third in the Drivers’ Championship, 50 points down on leader Antonelli.

“Then straight out of the blocks in FP2 McLaren looking flying, to be honest. Obviously a disrupted session on my side, but their race pace and their single lap pace looked pretty decent.”

On his fall from second position in FP1 to sixth in FP2, he added: “I think it was more everyone else had a pretty troubled session. Every time I saw on the TV screens, it was drivers in the garage with problems.

“Lando only got out at the end, I think Lewis had some problems, Max had some problems, so I think that probably flattered our pace a bit in FP1, but things were feeling good.

“As I said, it was a real surprise just seeing the first lap of the McLarens in FP2, right at the top, and their race pace, especially on Lando’s side, looked a bit better than us.”