Mercedes ‘hugely disappointing’ says Karun Chandhok as Lewis Hamilton and Geo

Mercedes suffered their first double retirement in over five years at the Australian Grand Prix as frustration grows at a team that dominated F1 for several years.

Lewis Hamilton is having his worst start to a season in F1 with just eight points to his name after three races in his final year at Mercedes before he joins Ferrari in 2025.

George Russell has outqualified and outperformed Hamilton in every meaningful session so far this year but is just seventh in the drivers’ championship following his accident at the end of Sunday’s race in Melbourne.

Russell was battling for sixth place against Fernando Alonso until he crashed while Hamilton was fighting for the lower points-paying positions when his engine failed and he came to a halt on Lap 16.

In qualifying, Hamilton was knocked out in Q2, which was his worst qualifying at the Australian Grand Prix since 2010.

McLaren followed Sainz and Charles Leclerc home in third and fourth as Lando Norris took his first podium of the season, with Oscar Piastri letting his team-mate through at one point in the race.

READ MORE:Lewis Hamilton out of Australian GP as second driver retires after

Prior to Russell’s crash, the Mercedes driver was 48 seconds behind leader Sainz in the 58-lap race, underlining their deficit to Red Bull and Ferrari.

They will be hugely disappointed with Melbourne. In Jeddah, they realised their downforce packages, neither of them were perfect. The low one was a bit too low and the high one was a to bit high,” explained Chandhok.

“They were always going to be compromised in Jeddah. Speaking to people in Jeddah, they felt Melbourne would be more clean cut for them and they should have a more competitive package. They will go away from the weekend disappointed.

“The DNFs are bad but just in terms of their pace they will be hugely disappointed. At no point did they look like being a close challenger to Ferrari or Mercedes in the race.

“For a team that finished second in the championship last year, it’s looking tricky for them to repeat that this year.”