George Russell shares worrying 'quite a stretch' prediction for Mercedes after first run in the 2025 F1 challenger

George Russell feels challenging for the championship in 2025 would be quite a stretch after completing his first run in the Mercedes challenger. The team completed its shakedown recently, and the driver was questioned about what he expected from the season when he poured cold water on expectations of a title fight.

Mercedes is coming into the 2025 F1 season on the back of an interesting season in 2024. In terms of on-track success, the season was the best for the German team in the ground effect era as the squad picked up 4 wins. At the same time, it was the worst season in terms of championship standings as the team finished fourth behind McLaren, Ferrari, and Red Bull.

For the 2025 F1 season, everyone expects the field to be bunched up. At the same time, there are certainly question marks on the kind of development every team can put together. George Russell completed a shakedown with Mercedes' 2025 challenger, and while the driver didn't give much away, he did feel that fighting for the title is going to be tough. He said,

"I've definitely got some first impressions, which I'll keep to myself for now. It's important not to jump to any conclusions because we know from last year, circuit to circuit, the performance fluctuations were massive from all of the teams. From what I feel so far, I'm happy."

He added,

"You always say you want to fight for a championship but, being realistic and knowing where we finished last year, that's quite a stretch. But we know that if we go in every single weekend and we try to maximise every single result, who knows where that will take us? I'm just going into every race as though it's a race we can win and seeing where that takes us over the course of the season."

Mercedes boss shares glowing praise for both George Russell and Kimi Antonelli

Mercedes boss Toto Wolff has an interesting challenge at hand as well as the Austrian is looking to build the squad after Lewis Hamilton's exit. George Russell, who has been the understudy of the now departed 7x world champion will take over from the legend as the squad welcomes young Kimi Antonelli. Talking about the duo, Wolff said,

"Kimi is of such great value to the team, the dynamic is so positive and I see a bit of a new buzz going through the team. Both of them are great - between George's experience and Kimi's freshness, we're in a good spot."

George Russell won a couple of races in 2024 and was finally able to take over from Lewis Hamilton as the team leader. It remains to be seen how he excels in this role this year.