In the aftermath of George Russell securing pole position for the sprint race in China by 0.289s from Mercedes team-mate Kimi Antonelli, and a substantial 0.621s from third-placed Lewis Hamilton’s Ferrari, Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff has moved to quell talk of a schism with its customer teams.
After qualifying for last weekend’s Australian Grand Prix, when Mercedes finally showed its hand and dominated qualifying by a similar margin, it became clear that the works team enjoyed an advantage over its clients in terms of how it exploited its power unit to maximise lap time. Naturally the grumbling began, though McLaren and to a lesser extent Williams were the only customers to voice their frustrations in public.
