George Russell insists he will know “within five laps” of testing whether he can win the F1 world championship this year.
The Mercedes driver, who is entering his fourth year with the team but first without Lewis Hamilton as a teammate, finished sixth in last year’s standings but did win two races, in Austria and Las Vegas.
Italian teenager Kimi Antonelli joins Russell in the garage this year but having joined the once-great Silver Arrows just after their period of domination ended in 2021, the 27-year-old is hoping for a car capable of challenging McLaren, Ferrari and Red Bull at the front this year.
.jpg)
Russell and Antonelli will drive the new W16 car, unveiled on Monday, in a “shakedown” on Tuesday in Bahrain before the official pre-season test starts on Wednesday.
“I think within five laps you know whether you’re in for a good season or not,” Russell said.
“We’ve known within the first five laps of the last couple of years that we wouldn’t be fighting for the championship. It’s been much more robust this season.
“All the teams are so competitive now. Everybody knows the limitations that they’ve had these last three years, if we bring the performance we expect it should be a good step forward.
“But we’ve seen with many other teams, they’ve brought upgrades and it doesn’t work. There are never guarantees. As a team, we had such a lull throughout 2023 not winning a race. We had a big restructure change with James Allison coming back and we’re now pushing at the helm of the new approach.
“2026 is a big one but I’m optimistic we can have a decent season.”
Russell was embroiled in a heated row with four-time world champion Max Verstappen at the end of last year in Qatar and Abu Dhabi, but the British racer looked to lower the temperature heading into the new campaign.
In Qatar, Russell said Verstappen vowed to put him “on his f****** head in the wall” – calling the Dutch driver a “bully” and adding that his comments were “unacceptable”.
On the matter, Russell said: “No concerns about his driving or anything.
“That happened last year… I want to focus on myself. Obviously I felt things got out of line at the end of last year, I made it pretty clear I’m not going to take it.
“But now it’s 2025 and I’m focused on the job and the job is to win, I’m not going to change my approach fighting him or any other drivers, the goal is to win.
“We’ll see when we get to Melbourne.”
The 2025 season begins in Australia on 16 March.
