George Russell compares McLaren’s lead to that of Red Bull
The British driver gave his initial thoughts on single-seater performance in 2025. Although he concedes an advantage to McLaren, the Mercedes driver believes that this lead can be made up.
A less significant dominance for McLaren at the start of this season. At least that’s what George Russell seems to claim. The British driver had previously stated after the first Grand Prix in Australia that McLaren no longer needed to develop their car this season due to their considerable lead. He also explained that the advantage of the Woking team was greater than that of Red Bull in 2023, when the Austrian team won 21 of the 22 races of the season (including 19 for Max Verstappen).
Nevertheless, at the start of the season, even though McLaren has already won four out of five races and currently has the best car on the grid, its lead is not as significant as the one previously held by Red Bull. Indeed, while the Milton Keynes team secured five victories in the first five events of 2023 with four one-two finishes, the British team has already been beaten this season by Max Verstappen in Japan and only achieved one one-two finish in the second round in China. Worse, in Bahrain, while Russell was struggling with issues on his Mercedes, Norris was unable to catch up and pass him. The Briton had even described this situation as surprising, given that he expected Norris to easily make his way up the field, which he failed to do.
A less dominant single-seater than expected
On the contrary, in Miami in 2023, Verstappen, starting only ninth on the grid due to the red flag following Leclerc’s accident in Q3, managed to carve his way through the field and ultimately clinched victory, finishing over five seconds ahead of his teammate Sergio Perez and more than 25 seconds ahead of the first non-Red Bull car. This season, the gaps appear to be tighter (the largest gap between the top two was 15 seconds at the Bahrain Grand Prix where Russell was forced to slow down due to issues with his car).
For the Briton, Mercedes is now closer to McLaren than McLaren was to Red Bull last season. “In terms of comparison with McLaren, we are much closer than they were to Red Bull at the start of last season,” said the three-time Grand Prix winner to RacingNews365. “But I also think Red Bull has lost a bit of ground. It’s as much Red Bull falling back as McLaren progressing during the season.”
A lost advantage for McLaren from the Spanish Grand Prix?
The native of King’s Lynn also indicated that this lead could be even smaller, or even disappear starting from the Spanish Grand Prix, when the new technical directive concerning flexible front wings will be introduced. Barcelona is going to be a very interesting race for everyone, as that’s where the directive on flexible wings will be applied, and it’s clearly an area where McLaren excels, he explained. Until then, I don’t really see the hierarchy changing, but that weekend will be crucial to see if they regress and if the gaps close.
Despite everything, Russell does not expect to see McLaren fall in the hierarchy. The British team has a car this year that is easy to drive and manages tire wear very well. They are clearly doing something very impressive with the tires. We saw it in FP3 in Bahrain, they were a second faster than everyone else, it’s unheard of. And on circuits like Bahrain, maybe Barcelona, high-degradation tracks like Budapest, Singapore, Zandvoort, you can imagine that they will be the best. Maybe in Vegas, it won’t be the case for them, and we might be able to secure a victory. But their car is clearly very strong at the moment.
Hope therefore seems allowed for Russell and the 17 other McLaren adversaries. And what if, after catching up with Red Bull in 2024, McLaren saw its competitors catching up in 2025? A perspective that adds an even more interesting dimension to this F1 season as the paddock prepares to experience a second sprint race this weekend in Miami.
