01/05/2025 08:20
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."
