Mercedes driver George Russell expects a multi-team battle for top positions at the 2026 British GP despite his latest F1 win.
Fresh off a breakthrough win in Austria, Russell heads into his home Grand Prix in Silverstone buoyed by Mercedes’ consistency, but expects Red Bull, Ferrari and McLaren to remain in contention at the front.
Speaking to the media on Thursday ahead of the 2026 British GP, Russell suggested Ferrari’s difficult weekend in Austria had masked their true pace.
“I think Ferrari had a tough race, they had some issues with the PU sort of overheating in Austria, so I don’t think they showed their true potential,” Russell said.
“Red Bull have notoriously been fast in high-speed corners, and that was the case again in Austria.”
He added that the pecking order is still in flux, with several drivers capable of fighting for top positions on any given weekend.
“I think it’s, three, four, five drivers are all in the fight, week in, week out now,” Russell commented.
“Of course, we’re still at the forefront of that group, but we’ve seen Lando [Norris] could have potentially won the race in Miami, Lewis [Hamilton] obviously won the race in Barcelona, Max [Verstappen] was right behind me last week in Austria, so, yeah, there’s a fight on our hands.”
Russell highlights Mercedes’ consistency ahead of the 2026 British GP
While different teams had emerged as the quickest package at various points throughout the season, Russell acknowledged Mercedes’ biggest strength so far this season has been its ability to remain consistently competitive across every race weekend. Aside from an outlier performance in Monaco—and a reliability-related DNF in Canada—Russell has yet to finish lower than fourth. Kimi Antonelli’s streak is even more impressive, as he has consistently recorded podium finishes until his late-race retirement in Barcelona.
Russell reflected on the team’s form heading into the 2026 British GP, saying, “Yeah, for sure, the car has been extremely consistent every single race so far.”
The 28-year-old also admitted Mercedes had not expected some of its rivals to bring such extensive upgrade packages during the first half of the season.
“We have been surprised at how many upgrades some teams are bringing, but maybe they’ll pay the price towards the end of the season,” Russell stated.
He insisted Mercedes remains committed to its own development plan and is in no rush to introduce any major upgrades just yet.
“We know when we’re planning our upgrades, it’s not this side of the break,” he said.
“Then we can just review during the summer break if we pulled the trigger slightly earlier on those upgrades or not. So it’s just a balance of that.
“As Toto [Wolff] said, I’ve been a bit surprised with how many upgrades some other teams have brought.”
