Toto Wolff forgot Lewis Hamilton left Mercedes at Australian GP

Toto Wolff has admitted there were times during the F1 season-opening Australian Grand Prix that he forgot Lewis Hamilton was no longer a Mercedes driver.

Seven-time world champion Hamilton completed a blockbuster switch to Ferrari over the winter after 12 years with Mercedes, bringing to an end the most successful driver-team partnership in F1 history.

Hamilton has been replaced at Mercedes by Italian teenager Kimi Antonelli, who is contesting his rookie F1 campaign alongside George Russell. 

Sunday’s Australian Grand Prix marked the first time since 2012 that Hamilton had not been driving for Mercedes, and team principal Wolff conceded he found himself regularly checking the timing screens to see how the 40-year-old Briton was doing throughout the race.

Asked how the first weekend without Hamilton had felt, Wolff said: "When I was looking at the screens at times, the way I looked at it is like we had three drivers, because I was looking at RUS, I was looking at ANT, and I was looking at HAM...and you realise HAM is actually with Ferrari and is not with us anymore.

"So it still feels... it was such a long time, it's logic, you cannot just say he's gone and you don't care anymore. We very much care how he's doing, but obviously on track he's the competition and we need to beat the competition.”

Lewis Hamilton’s worse than expected Ferrari debut

Hamilton endured a difficult start to life at Ferrari, qualifying eighth and finishing a disappointing 10th in Melbourne, two places behind teammate Charles Leclerc. He was also beaten by both Mercedes drivers.

The former Mercedes driver was left rueing a missed opportunity having briefly led Sunday’s season-opener, only to drop out of podium contention when Ferrari pushed a strategy gamble too far.

Ferrari left it too late to switch from slick tyres to intermediates when a sudden heavy shower hit during the closing stages of the race - a decision which led both Leclerc and Hamilton to plummet down the order.

"It was very tricky and went a lot worse than I thought it would go," Hamilton told Sky Sports. "The car was really, really hard to drive today.

"For me, I'm just grateful I kept it out of the wall because that's where it wanted to go most of the time.

"A lot to take from it and just getting acclimatised with the new power unit in the wet conditions.

"The settings it requires are different, and a different way of driving and a different set-up on the steering wheel."