‘Russell heads into what could be defining year’
George Russell exudes a sense of quiet confidence as he prepares for the start of what could be a defining year for him in Formula 1.
The Mercedes driver doesn’t downplay or dwell on the pre-season championship favorite tag.
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We rather have the impression that it is something which changes nothing, which has no relation to the work in progress, which consists of giving the best of oneself.
Russell has been asked about this several times in recent weeks ahead of the Australian Grand Prix. When he is, he addresses it briefly, sometimes tangentially, and moves on.
A comment that Mercedes had “a lot of potential”, for example, was quickly followed by concerns about his car’s ability to get going, compared to Ferrari’s rocket starts, and about some reliability issues that befell his team during pre-season testing in Bahrain.
“It doesn’t change my approach at all,” Russell says. “I’m working really hard with the team, everyone here has been working really hard to really maximize this new set of regulations and honestly I’m so excited about the challenge.
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“Because it’s a huge challenge to adapt to these new cars, how energy management works, battery recovery, getting familiar with the boost system, overtaking modes, active aerodynamics.
“There are a lot of things we have to learn very quickly, but I feel like I can take advantage of it and I feel confident with myself and with my team.”
The Briton, who turned 28 last month, was among the most supportive of the new rules established for engines with a 50-50 split between internal combustion and electric power. His mindset seems both positive and fully focused on the future.
Russell enters his eighth F1 season, and his fifth with Mercedes, and has proven beyond doubt that he is among his sport’s elite.
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Three seasons with Williams from 2019 to 2021, with teammates of questionable quality, made it difficult to judge his absolute potential, but some standout qualifying performances left no real doubt.
Placing a Williams – one of the slowest cars in the field at the time – second on the grid at Spa-Francorchamps in the wet in 2021 has to be one of the best qualifying laps of all time, for example.
When Russell joined Mercedes in 2022, he hoped he would immediately become a regular winner and championship contender – the team had just become constructors’ champions for a record eighth consecutive time.
But it was Russell’s bad luck to join Mercedes just as they were making a hash of the new regulations being introduced in 2022. In four seasons they have never quite managed to surpass them to have a consistently competitive car. There were only flashes of rhythm, never fully understood.
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Russell had to be content to prove himself against his teammate. There was at least considerable satisfaction to be had, given that he spent his first three seasons at Mercedes alongside Lewis Hamilton, the most successful F1 driver of all time.
In their three seasons together, Russell came out on top in two. He has won five races in the last four years and was the only driver to win last season, apart from three title contenders, McLaren’s Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri, and Red Bull’s Max Verstappen.
With Verstappen universally recognized as the standard to which all others should aspire, Russell is part of a small, elite group of drivers who stand out above the rest. He also became a leader among the drivers’ group, through his role as one of three directors of the Grand Prix Drivers’ Association.
“It’s always good if your driver is the favorite of the bookmakers and I think he deserves it because he is one of the best,” says team principal Toto Wolff.
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“He showed us where the performance of the car is and overall it’s been more than great for us. George has been in Formula 1 for a long time. He’s a benchmark.”
For seven years now, Russell has been a driver waiting for the right car, and this year he might have it. This year’s new rules have given Mercedes a chance to reset, and so far the indication is that they have done a much better job than last time.
The feeling in the paddock at the end of testing last month was that Mercedes and Ferrari were the fittest teams, with Red Bull and McLaren perhaps a little behind in a relatively tight top four that is more than a second ahead of everyone.
Russell is confident enough in Mercedes’ potential to say he “thinks we have delivered a very strong car”, but he is wary of the performance of Red Bull’s new engine.
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Despite everything, he aims high. “I want to fight Max,” he said. “and obviously Lando had a great season last year.”
As it stands, before Melbourne provides the first taste of real competitive order, Russell’s obvious potential rivals this year are Verstappen, Norris, Piastri and both Ferrari drivers, Charles Leclerc and Hamilton, if the seven-time champion can regain the mojo he seemed to have lost last year, and to some extent in 2024.
Of Russell’s 19-year-old teammate Kimi Antonelli, who enters his second season after a rocky start to 2025, Wolff says: “I’m absolutely sure it’s going to be a good year for him, but I don’t think we should expect him to be like George all the time.”
Russell is good friends with world champion Norris and Leclerc. The three came through the junior ranks together and all believe the intense competition they faced against each other, alongside Williams’ Alex Albon, was a big factor in them all reaching F1, as it forced each to continue to raise their own standards to keep pace with others.
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But perhaps it’s a fight with Verstappen that whets the appetite the most.
George Russell and Max Verstappen fell out in Qatar in 2024 following a qualifying incident, which led to the Dutchman being handed a one-place grid penalty and losing his pole position. [Getty Images]
Russell and Verstappen get along quite well on the surface, quite happy to chat as they find themselves in press conferences together. But there is no doubt about the tension between them.
They fell out at the end of the 2024 season, when Verstappen said he had “lost all respect” for Russell after the Qatar Grand Prix and accused him of being instrumental in earning a one-place grid penalty for that race.
Russell responded by saying that Verstappen “can’t deal with adversity” and that “people have been bullied by Max for years.”
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Likewise, would Verstappen have reacted as he did if he had been another driver involved in the series of incidents that led to the red-haze moment in which the Dutchman appeared to deliberately crash into Russell’s car in Spain last year?
Verstappen admitted his reaction that day was “not good”. But there is no doubt that a title fight between these two would not be as relatively smooth as last year’s between Norris, Piastri and Verstappen.
For now, however, this is all speculation and Russell is only focused on what he can control, while also considering the potential threat from Ferrari and Red Bull.
“The car feels good,” he said on the final day of pre-season testing. “The new powertrains work quickly and we are making improvements every day.
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“Whatever trips you up is going to be the biggest obstacle,” he says. “And that’s what we’re trying to figure out right now. We’re coming across some right now.”
