George Russell makes McLaren concession with Red Bull comparison

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George Russell has acknowledged McLaren's advantage this F1 season is less pronounced than the one Red Bull enjoyed prior to its downfall. Through 2023 and early last year, the Milton Keynes squad appeared untouchable in the hands of Max Verstappen, something the Woking-based outfit is not, despite having the best package in F1 at the moment. At the start of the campaign, Russell claimed the constructors' champions could push on and win every race in 2025. That has not transpired, on account of Verstappen, and even though McLaren has won four of the opening five rounds, it has not always done so comfortably. In Bahrain, Lando Norris struggled - and ultimately failed - to find a way past the Mercedes driver during a recovery drive from sixth on the grid, having to settle for third to his compatriot's second place. Russell, who was nursing extensive late-race issues, admitted it was "surprising", given the expectation the McLaren driver would "slide through the pack", but maintained he had the pace to do so, blaming Norris' early penalty and having to give a place back to Lewis Hamilton for costing McLaren a one-two finish. Nonetheless, the three-time grand prix winner did concede Mercedes is better matched against the papaya team than recent reference points. "In terms of where we are versus McLaren, it's much closer than McLaren were to Red Bull [at the start of last season]," he told media including RacingNews365 . "But I do believe Red Bull probably had some things... it was as much Red Bull falling back to McLaren as it was McLaren developing throughout that season." Looking ahead Looking forward, Russell can see McLaren losing its advantage, zeroing in on the flexible front wing technical directive that will be enforced from the Spanish Grand Prix. "Now, Barcelona is going to be a really interesting race for everyone, because that's when we have the clampdown on the flexible wing, and that's obviously where McLaren have excelled," he added. "Until that race, I don't really see the pecking order shifting, but that will be sort of the decisive weekend to see whether or not they take a step backwards and the pack closes up." However, he was quick to point out that McLaren also has the measure on the opposition in high tyre degradation environments. "But clearly they're doing something pretty spectacular with the tyres," the 27-year-old said. "We saw an FP3 [in Bahrain], they were a second quicker than everybody else, so that's unheard of, and I expect tracks like in Bahrain, maybe Barcelona, high tyre deg[radation circuits], Budapest, Singapore, Zandvoort, these types of circuits, we could imagine they're going to be the best. "Maybe when we to go to Vegas, it won't be the case for them and we can sneak in a victory. But they are... the car is definitely solid right now."