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George Russell has conceded that his Mercedes is just not potent enough to last in a title fight with McLaren. The British driver has truly stepped up ever since Lewis Hamilton left the team but McLaren drivers are dominating the early stages of the F1 2025 season.
This season has seen Russell more consistent every race weekend and be one of the few who is extracting everything that the car has to offer. That has certainly helped the driver be a regular feature at the front of the grid even though Mercedes is not as close to McLaren as the team would have hoped.
In the first four races of the season, Russell has been on the podium three times except in Suzuka. Other than the Mercedes driver, only Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri appeared on the podium that many times.
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As a result, George Russell is currently fourth in the championship and the gap between him and Norris at the top is only 14 points. Heading into the Saudi Arabian GP, the Mercedes driver was questioned about his prospects of possibly challenging the McLaren duo for the title. Speaking to media ahead of the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, Russell poured cold water on such aspirations as the driver said that the car was just a step behind his rivals:
"We all knew that McLaren was going to take a huge step forward and they clearly showed how competitive they were. Oscar [Piastri] just drove away into the distance. So, for me and for us to be ahead of a McLaren was a huge result."
“But I still think it's very close between ourselves, Ferrari and Red Bull. You saw Ferrari's middle stint was exceptionally fast and probably if they avoided the hard tyre it would've been close with myself and Charles. Red Bull obviously had an off weekend, but I think they'll be back to normal this weekend.”
Norris and Piastri are currently occupying top two spots in the drivers' standing while the defending champion Max Verstappen sits in the third position with 69 points, ahead of fourth-placed George Russell.
George Russell's title hopes hinge on the Barcelona technical directive
George Russell has admitted that his title hopes hinge on the Barcelona technical directive where the flexi wings would be the ones that get clamped down. McLaren is the team that has excelled in that field the most.
Potentially that could hurt the team the most as well. Russell pointed out that the only hope for Mercedes to be in title contention would come down to how the weekend in Barcelona pans out. He told reporters,
“That's obviously where McLaren have excelled, so until that race I don't really see the pecking order shifting. That will be a decisive weekend to see whether they take a step backwards and the pack closes up.”
It's still early days to talk about how the title battle would evolve but what we've seen in 2024 is that these regulations do aid peaks and troughs for different cars and that is going to continue to be a factor this season. George Russell's consistency could prove to be a factor that is likely to help him stretch the battle until late into the season.
