Mercedes impressed by Friday pace but remains wary of Ferrari’s true speed in Austria. Mercedes believes Ferrari is hiding performance despite Austrian GP deficit.

The championship leaders set the pace in Spielberg

Mercedes concluded their opening day of track action at the Red Bull Ring in a highly favorable position, with Andrea Kimi Antonelli wrapping up Friday in first place and George Russell settling into sixth. Andrea Kimi Antonelli secured the absolute fastest time of the day during the second free practice session, stopping the clocks at 1:07.014 to edge out the impressive McLaren duo of Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris by a few tenths of a second. Further down the order, Max Verstappen placed his Red Bull ahead of Lewis Hamilton’s Ferrari.

Mercedes anticipates an intense multi-team battle ahead

Despite their flying start to the weekend, the team is bracing itself for a fierce technical battle. Motorsport Communications Director and de facto vice team principal Bradley Lord declared that the squad “has a real fight on its hands” to secure pole position and the Grand Prix victory, pointing to McLaren, Red Bull, and Ferrari as highly dangerous contenders.

“It’s interesting,” Bradley Lord explained, evaluating the competitive gap. “Obviously, after Friday in Barcelona, it looked like there was a certain gap to Ferrari, but by Saturday they were already on the pace and very competitive in Sunday’s race too. Our suspicion is that we haven’t seen everything they have to offer this weekend yet, and perhaps they are running a new power unit in a rather conservative mode, only to show more tomorrow.”

He further added: “Red Bull looks in good shape with their major aerodynamic upgrade, and as we’ve seen in recent races, especially the hot ones, McLaren is always right there. We all have a fight on our hands, but that’s how it should be.”

Contrasting Friday data across the Mercedes garage

Bradley Lord offered a detailed assessment of both drivers’ workloads. Regarding George Russell, who lost valuable setup time in the garage during FP2 and finished over half a second adrift of his teammate, he noted: “I think they were just trying to find the right balance, fundamentally, and fine-tune it. He was feeling a bit of oversteer in the low-speed corners and a bit too much understeer in the fast ones. There’s some work to do, but the long runs look strong and we know that historically Russell is strong here, so I’m sure he’ll be right up there.”

Shifting his focus to Andrea Kimi Antonelli, Bradley Lord was full of praise for the young Italian’s rapid adaptation: “Antonelli looked comfortable right from the get-go. He climbed quickly to the top of the timesheets. I’m sure there’s still more margin as he gains confidence and understands better where the limit is. We know that track limits can be a major talking point here in Austria, so staying just on the right side of the white lines is critical because it can cost you dearly. I’m sure he still has plenty of margin to unleash tomorrow as we approach the sharp end of qualifying.”

George Russell wary of McLaren’s warning shot

The British driver admitted that the initial timesheets from the morning hour had somewhat misled Mercedes due to technical setbacks hitting their direct rivals, whereas McLaren’s immediate afternoon pace caught his attention. George Russell stated: “FP1 was a very strong session for both of us, we looked really good. Then, as soon as we went out in FP2, McLaren was flying, to be honest. Obviously, my session was disrupted, but their race pace and single-lap pace looked pretty good.”

He elaborated further on the competitive picture: “I think more than anything, everyone else had a problematic session. Every time I looked at the monitors, there were drivers in the garage with issues. Lando only went out at the end, I think Lewis had issues, Max had issues, so that probably overstated our pace a bit in FP1, but the feeling was good. As I said, it was a real surprise to see McLaren’s first lap in FP2, straight to the top, and their race pace, especially Lando’s, looked a bit better than ours.”

While Friday practice at the Austrian Grand Prix placed Mercedes in a favorable position, internal feedback warns of an incoming challenge from McLaren and hidden potential within Ferrari’s conservative power unit deployment. Maximizing the balance of the W17 and mastering Spielberg’s notorious track limits will remain the absolute priority for the Brackley engineers if they hope to convert their initial practice advantage into a front-row lockout on Saturday.