Rounding out the top 5 in Pit Debrief’s Driver Rankings for the 2025 F1 season, is Mercedes’ George Russell. The Brit had the strongest F1 season of his career to date, landing him 4th in the WDC with 7 podiums and 2 victories. His strong start with Mercedes brought him 4th in the Drivers’ Championship in 2022 and he hadn’t reached those heights since.
Russell had been gaining points over his teammate Lewis Hamilton. He even finished sixth ahead of the seven-time world champion in the 2024 WDC. The F1 2025 season was Russell’s first year as senior driver following Hamilton’s move to Ferrari. His joint career-best finish of 4th was ahead of both Mercedes’ rookie Kimi Antonelli and ex-teammate Hamilton.
In the final year of the ground effect era, the team that continued to develop could win the championship but pay the price in 2026. Mercedes was able to tighten up in the second half of the 2024 season which built anticipation for their W16 car in the F1 2025 season. They focused on dialing out the reluctance of the car to turn on slow corners and imbalance in tyre temperatures seen with the W15 car.
Strong start for Mercedes’ experienced driver
During pre-season testing, Russell claimed the fastest time on Day 3 in Bahrain. He beat out reigning champion Max Verstappen, proving that Mercedes had a car worth fighting with this F1 2025 season.
The first two races of the F1 2025 season were also a strong showing of W16 pace as the British driver came third to Verstappen and Norris in Australia. Team principal Toto Wolff was astute in noticing that Mercedes was not necessarily due to the drivers or team skills. He highlighted an element of luck as Piastri had a late spin that allowed Russell to swoop into third.
In Australia, many credited Russell with a smart strategy of changing to inters immediately after the rain started. This comes after experience with the wrong strategy in both Brazil and Canada last year. Again, in China 2025, Russell qualified P2 when he chose to take a risk in a different direction by going fast and slow in his final out lap. He was able to wedge himself between the two dominant McLarens ahead of the Chinese GP. He was then the first driver to suggest a one-stop strategy and rightfully so when he finished P3 for a second time this F1 2025 season.
In the 2025 season, Russell has built on the 5 years of experience in F1 to make it to the top of his field. Despite tyre struggles at points, Russell had a strong start with 4 podiums in the first 6 races. The Mercedes drivers were unfortunately at a disadvantage in the longer race format due to overheating issues with the tyres. They lost pace during both the Saudi Arabia and Miami Grands Prix to cool their tyres causing an inconsistency between qualifying and race pace.
Disappointing triple header
Mercedes promised updates ahead of the European triple header. However, those updates brought mixed results. Russell felt that they had maximized every race weekend until struggling with the European leg of the F1 2025 season. In Imola, Russell qualified P3 but finished P7 with the return of overheating tyres.
Monaco brought on a nightmare weekend for not one but two Mercedes drivers. Both drivers qualified P14 and P15. Russell had major electrical problems during Q2 causing a full shutdown of his car in the Monaco GP tunnel. This setback caused Russell to take on a rather brash racing strategy of cutting a chicane to pass Williams’ Alex Albon. He then had to serve a drive-through penalty instead of a position swap-back but still finished P11. This out-of-character drive was his only no-points finish of the F1 2025 season.
Though he qualified P4, Russell didn’t have much better pace at the Barcelona circuit for most of that Sunday. However, a Safety Car brought him back into play. An on-track brawl escalated as Verstappen collided with Russell and received a 10-second time penalty after gentle wheel touching at turn 1 saw the Dutchman end up in the run-off. The Brit kept a level head, maintaining he won’t ‘lose sleep over it’ and trudged forward in the F1 2025 season.
A brilliant Canadian victory
The overheating issue disappeared on the weekend up in North America. Although the temperatures were still high in Montreal, track resurfacing played into the hands of Mercedes. A victory in Canada for George Russell was also his second consecutive podium at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve.
His superb performance in Qualifying broke into the 1m10s barrier with a quarter of a second to his competitors. Russell held the third largest pole margin of the F1 2025 season.
His race performance showed a perfect start, excellent pace and exquisite control of the race. Russell kept his cool and managed to comfortably see off Verstappen to rewrite their history from Spain. His consistency throughout the F1 2025 season can also be attributed to his focus on one and only weekend at a time.
Driver-Team friction
As the rest of the F1 2025 European races flew by, Russell’s struggles this season only came from the car. Both Mercedes drivers got to the point of wanting to revert back to baseline, when they struggled to keep up the pace at the Belgium GP. The rear suspension being the latest reason the mechanical upgrade failed to bring performance. Their instability took away the confidence of the Mercedes’ rookie first but ultimately both drivers suffered.
The King’s Lynn driver has come a long way in advancing his driving style and championship mentality over the years. His struggles and setbacks during the F1 2025 season were mostly caused by the issues of the car rather than his own mistakes.
Once the upgrades were reversed, Russell admitted a touch of overconfidence knocked him down in the Hungarian GP qualifying session. It was contact with Leclerc at the Dutch GP that did the most damage, costing him one second per lap while he clung onto P4.
The overarching struggle throughout the mid-season was tyre strategy and a miscommunication between Russell and the team. Mercedes often went against their senior driver’s preference for tyres in both qualifying and race pit stops.
Russell’s best season yet
However, in the 18 races discussed so far, the British driver stepped on the podium 8 times. In terms of performance, Russell has been showcasing his best F1 season. Needless to say, he beat his rookie teammate Antonelli in every head-to-head category.
His new role as senior driver has shown a different side of him as he took more of a constructive role to improve the Mercedes car. He seems to have recognized that if his team manages to elevate his efforts in taking the best out of W16, he could’ve had a strong chance at the top three in the Drivers’ Championship.
1-2 finish: Azerbaijan to Singapore
As Russell battles Verstappen for 3rd in the Drivers’ Championship, he tightens up his stellar performance for another podium, and then a second victory this F1 2025 season. On a track where the field is so compact and overtaking is pretty difficult, Russell secured P2 with a fine drive. He focused on staying out of trouble and capitalizing on cooler weather in Azerbaijan.
His strong performance brought another wave of quick pace that surprised everyone on a characteristically hot circuit. The downfall of the W16 and Russell’s consistent season was always overheating tyres. Shockingly, the F1 2025 season brought a record-breaking pole for Russell in Singapore.
Toto Wolff sang his praises for his picture-perfect performance even going as far as he saw no mistakes this year. Russell got away with a perfect launch securing his victory in Singapore. Adding to the many races this F1 2025 season where he was in control, taking advantage and defending from encroaching rivals. His 2026 contract renewal was incontestable.
Battle for P3 in the F1 Drivers’ Championship
George Russell had his F1 entrance in 2019 where he rounded out the WDC in 20th. He has made unmistakable progress and had a 36-point deficit for P3 after his win in Singapore. With Red Bull Racing’s performance issues and Mercedes’ unexpected consistency and reliability, the battle for third in the Championship was tight. It seemed every time Verstappen was struggling, Russell was there to capitalize on it.
However, from Austin onwards Max Verstappen was consistently faster in his Red Bull. Only in the Sprints of Brazil and Qatar did Russell beat him in a race over the remainder of the season.
A winning season of his own
Though Russell’s P3 aspirations ended after Las Vegas, he seemed satisfied with 4th in the WDC. He only finished out of the top 10 once this F1 2025 season and only missed the top 5 during six of the 24 GPs. He also celebrated his 150th F1 start at the Las Vegas GP where Mercedes celebrated a P2-P3 double podium. With many ups and downs in machinery and conditions this season, he mastered a calm mind and a clean slate before every race and weekend.
The 27-year-old had an amazing season filled with strong maneuvers and confident driving that pushed his W16 to its limits. This strong year by George Russell earned him 5th in Pit Debrief’s F1 Driver Rankings for 2025.
