Having finished the 2025 F1 championship in fourth place, George Russell expressed his optimism and excitement for the upcoming season after wrapping up the 2026 shakedown at Barcelona, Spain.
Russell on challenging the main protagonists of recent F1 seasons
During the 2025 season, many teams’ focus had already shifted to the new regulations coming. Rumours were circulating about Mercedes adapting to the 2026 regulations already and developing a car that is highly competitive. Praising the predictability and handling of their 2026 car, Russell supports the claims about Mercedes F1 and seems confident ahead of the new season.
Being the senior driver of the team, Russell has a key role in the team and challenging the sport’s current protagonists, Max Verstappen and Lando Norris.
However, the British driver emphasised that he feels no pressure about his responsibility. The British driver looks forward to fighting for the wins and the title against the might of McLaren and Red Bull in 2026.
“I’d love for it to turn out that way, and I do want to go head-to-head with Max. Obviously, Lando had a great season last year. But no, it didn’t add any more pressure.“
A fair fight
Following the pre-season shakedown in Spain, Russell noted the four main powerhouses of the sport: Red Bull, Mercedes, McLaren, and Ferrari, are all generating high expectations at the moment in terms of their competitiveness.
According to Russell, these teams are currently operating at similar levels. This might create exciting qualifying sessions in the new season, where grid spots will be decided by milliseconds.
He also avoided underestimating the threat of Max Verstappen in the Red Bull. The team is producing its own engine for the first time in its team history, accompanied by Ford.
Though Russell acknowledges the presence of multiple rivals in the upcoming 2026 season, he hopes for a fair title fight.
“I think probably the fans and people were expecting to potentially be Mercedes versus McLaren because there was a lot of anticipation that Mercedes would clearly have the best power unit. But it seems like the other power unit manufacturers have done a good job.
“We know that Red Bull has always had an amazing car, even through the years of dominance of Mercedes. It was their engine that was letting them down, not their car. And we obviously know how good Max is. So, I think he’s very much going to be in the fight this year, and that is great.
“You obviously wish that you’d have a slightly easier time of it, but it should never be easy. If you’re going to win, you want to have fought for it and won it fair and square on track.”
