Today's post-race press conference with George Russell, Kimi Antonelli and Charles Lecelrc.

Track Interviews - Conducted by Jenson Button.

Q: Congratulations, George, you just won the Australian Grand Prix, but not only that, you've also just won the first F1 race of the new era. How are you feeling?
George Russell: Feeling incredible. It was a hell of a fight at the beginning. We knew it was going to be challenging. I got on the grid, I saw my battery level, I had nothing in the tank, made a bad start, and then obviously had some really tight battles with Charles, so I was really glad to cross the finish line. But honestly, thank you so much to the whole team because it's been a long time coming to have this car beneath us and I'm, yeah, going to start off in a better way.

Q: If you look at the results after the race, if you haven't watched the race, you'd think, "Oh, Mercedes just had it easy, George just walked away with it." It wasn't quite like that, was it? And it was so nice for us as fans to see you guys fighting out there.
GR: I'm glad you guys enjoyed it. It was... We had this suspicion that it was going to be a bit of a yo-yo effect, and as soon as one of us got in front it just felt impossible to hold it. And obviously with this Straight Mode we lose a lot of the front end on the car, so we're sort of just understeering a lot around these corners. So, I'm sure, you know, we're going to have to improve that a little bit because it was a bit sketchy. But yeah, made it in one piece and just, yeah, glad to be one-two.

Q: You started the year as you would have hoped, I'm sure, so congratulations.
GR: Thank you.

Q: Kimi, that was a very up-and-down race, but congratulations on coming home P2, one-two for the team. How are you feeling?
Kimi Antonelli: Yeah, I mean, it was the best start we could have wished for. Unfortunately, the start was really bad and I lost a lot of pace, I mean a lot of places, and I found myself, you know, that I had to recover. But overall, it was a good race. The pace was very strong, especially at the end, and yeah, just looking forward to next week.

Q: I think every time we watched the screen you were overtaking another car, so it's nice to see in this new era that there is that opportunity to overtake.
KA: Yeah, I mean, the racing was incredible. The first few laps, you know, with the overtake is so powerful that it can, you know, give a lot of action. So, it was really good fun at the beginning, and yeah, now a bit of rest and looking forward to China.

Q: Charles, first of all thank you for making that race proper exciting with George. How was the car, how was the race, how is this new era of F1?
Charles Leclerc: It was a very, very tricky race. I mean honestly, at the start, I don't think anybody of us knew what to expect with the fights, with the energy, and then it's even more tricky, for the overtakes, to defend. You don't really know when your engine, your battery is going to cut in the straight, so while defending there's massive speed differences. So, it's been quite challenging, but I was happy to get out of this battle in first. Unfortunately, that didn't help us for the rest of the race, but it was a fun first part of the race. P3 is the best we could do today.

Q: Yeah, that start was kind of what everyone expected from Ferrari, but you made the move on George in Turn 1. It looked like it was actually on the brakes rather than acceleration.
CL: Yeah, and I think the person that is switching off the lights has been quite cheeky, because for the first start of the season with these cars, to go lights off so quickly was, I think... It took everybody by surprise. And we're always very much on the limit with the power units, so I think that played a little bit in our hands. But it's part of the game.

Q: I have to ask, without the Virtual Safety Car, do you think you would have had an opportunity to fight George for the win?
CL: I don't think so, but maybe I'm wrong. Yeah, it looked like Mercedes maybe had a bit more pace than us today, but maybe not as much as what we saw yesterday, so that's a good thing. But I don't think we could have won.

Press Conference

Q: Well, George, many congratulations. A hugely impressive weekend from you and Mercedes. What was the most impressive part for you?
GR : I think definitely our race starts were the most impressive part of the weekend! No, I think qualifying was a real surprise to us. I think the pace we saw today and the fight we had with Ferrari was more like what we were expecting and what we had predicted pre-Melbourne and after testing. Qualifying was a real shock, but yeah, Ferrari definitely, yeah, they're in the mix.

Q: And we saw a great battle with the Ferraris in those opening 15 laps or so. Is it easier to race these cars than it was last year?
GR: There's definitely more opportunity and you do have to be more strategic. I think on a circuit like this where you have four straights and you've got to split... Let's say you've got 100% of battery, you've got to split that between four straights. No team is splitting that, you know, 25% per straight. Some teams are doing it more on one straight, some other teams are doing it more on the other, and if you use your Overtake Mode, your boost button, you will pass the driver in one straight and he will then pass back. So it was, yeah, it was dicey for the two of us, but I hope you enjoyed it.

Q: The final one for me, George. This is the first time you've led the World Championship. Just how sweet does it feel at the moment?
GR: It just feels like another race win, to be honest. I mean, we're race one into a very long season. Of course I want to fight for race wins week in, week out, but we're all here now to fight for a World Championship, and that's what we've been working so hard towards. And if we want to do that, we still need to raise our game because there were a lot of areas today that we underachieved, mainly around the race start, having the battery in the right place, and we were lucky not to come worse off.

Q: Kimi, let's come to you now. Many congratulations as well. It was a frenetic race for you, especially after the start. Were you always confident that you could fight your way back to the front?
KA: Well, I didn't really know, to be fair, but obviously the pace of the car was very strong and the pace was strong too. I felt very, very good in the first stint. Then on the Hards, I started to grain very early on and had a bit of a difficult time, but then, you know, at the end the pace came back. But of course, the start was a game changer. It obviously was very stressful because I didn't have power out of the last corner, so the car was not responding to any inputs and it was very stressful, and then the start was poor, very poor, and I just lost a lot of places and found myself having to chase. But the car was very strong. It was good fun at the end, and yeah, the team did an incredible job because I think the result of today was thanks as well, you know, mainly to the mechanics for the incredible job they did yesterday after FP3. So yeah, definitely it was a good end of the weekend and now we will focus on China.

Q: Charles, let's come to you now. The Mercedes guys have talked about their difficult starts. Was yours the near-perfect getaway?
CL: Not at all, not at all. I mean, it looked from outside, but I think we all had the same problem for some reason, so this is something we've got to review because also my battery was very, very low for some reason, probably a bit higher than them, which helped me to get in the front, but very sub-optimal anyway. I thought I would end up P8, P9, but then I started and I saw everybody had issues and I had the one with the least issues, which at the end is what counts. But there's a lot of margin to improve those starts. It was very sub-optimal, I think, for everybody. We kind of expected a messy start and then I think on top of that as well we are such on a fine line before getting everything right on the PUs, and the lights off were very, very, very quick, so I think it surprised on top of that everybody and made it even more critical. So it was kind of crazy.

Q: And were you very pleased with your pace relative to the Mercedes today?
CL: Very pleased is maybe a big word, but I am positively surprised for sure. After qualifying yesterday, I think yesterday for sure we were not in our optimum window, but we are still very, very far off the Mercedes in qualifying. In the race, though, we seem to be closer. Doesn't mean we are the fastest car, I don't think we were, but we are a bit more reasonably behind. So yeah, lots of work to be done, and I think this championship anyway will be won by development and upgrades, and for that we need to be on it.

Check out our Sunday gallery from Melbourne here.