Formula One: Reliability Fears Temper Mercedes Win

Nico Rosberg said Mercedes would have to work hard to improve the reliability of their new F1 car despite his emphatic win in the season-opening Australian Grand Prix.

While Rosberg was dominant in his fully functioning W05, his pole-sitting team-mate Lewis Hamilton lasted only four laps before a misfiring cylinder ended his race.

World champion Sebastian Vettel was also an early retiree after power problems in his Red Bull, underlining this year's unpredictability as teams grapple with new hybrid technology.

"Despite our success, we also know that there is still some work to do," said Rosberg, who streaked away from third on the grid for a wire-to-wire victory.

"We saw over the weekend that reliability is still a concern and it prevented us from having a strong two-car finish.

"We have two weeks to improve that. I am very much looking forward to (the next race in) Malaysia and I would love to race again tomorrow."

Red Bull's Daniel Ricciardo was disqualified from second place for violating fuel rules, in another illustration of the challenges facing teams this year.

But McLaren were rewarded for getting both their cars to the finish line, with debutant Kevin Magnussen classified second and Jenson Button third after Ricciardo's disqualification.

"We know that reliability will be crucial to this long season and we will be working hard to improve the situation for the race in Malaysia," said Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff.

Hamilton, the 2008 world champion and the pre-race favorite after a thrilling drive in qualifying, said Mercedes would learn from their "costly hiccup".

"Of course I'm disappointed with my own race and when I think about all the work that has gone on back at our factories, it's tough to have a costly hiccup," he said.

"However we have achieved an incredible amount to get here, to be at the front and to be so competitive. We will bounce back and learn from this. There is a very long way to go this season."

Rosberg claimed his fourth grand prix win but with the sport in so much flux, he is far from raising hopes of emulating his father Keke's 1982 world championship win.

However, Rosberg drew great encouragement from the performance of his "unbelievably quick" car, which finished nearly 25 seconds ahead of Ricciardo.

"I always dreamed of having such a strong Silver Arrow and now it seems we are there," he said.

Button has hailed McLaren's strong start to the season in an "emotional" Australian Grand Prix just two months after the death of his father.

The celebrated British marque finished the weekend on top of the constructors' standings, with Danish debutant Kevin Magnussen brilliantly placing second and Button third.

The results followed a season without any podium placings at all last year for McLaren, prompting an internal coup with team boss Ron Dennis returning to a more hands-on role.

For Button, it was a triumphant finish to a difficult first grand prix without his father John, who was ever-present at his races but died suddenly in January.

"It's been an emotional day for me, but it's been great to have my sister, my fiancee and lots of friends around me, so that definitely helped," Button said.

In a touching tribute, the 2009 world champion updated his Twitter picture using an old photo of himself as a young child with his father.

Button said: "As a team, I think we can be very proud of the job we did today.

"I don't think we expected to be leading the constructors' world championship at the end of this weekend, but I think the pace in the car is generally there."

Magnussen, 21, admitted it was "surreal" to become the first Danish driver to reach an F1 podium -- and in his very first race in the sport.

"It's just fantastic to be on the podium! What happened today just feels surreal. Being on the podium in the first race of my Formula 1 career -- it's amazing," he said.

McLaren's newly installed racing director Eric Boullier called Magnussen's performance "one of the finest performances by a Formula 1 rookie in living memory.

"Despite his youth and inexperience, he drove like a man who'd notched up 100 grands prix already," Boullier said.

"It was a complex and challenging race, yet he managed those complexities and challenges faultlessly."