RUSSELL LOOKING TO GO HEAD-TO-HEAD WITH VERSTAPPEN

George Russell, a Mercedes driver, says he hopes to challenge Max Verstappen of Red Bull for the championship in the 2026 Formula 1 season. Russell stated that he would "love for it to turn out that way" on Monday when he and Mercedes formally unveiled their new vehicle. The 27-year-old Briton added that he did not feel any extra pressure as a result of his standing as the pre-season favourite. "I do want to go head-to-head with Max, and obviously Lando [Norris, McLaren's world champion] had a great season last year, no, it didn't add any more pressure," he said.

Since joining Mercedes in 2022, Russell has won five Formula One races, but he hasn't yet had a vehicle quick enough to contend for a driver's championship. With new cars, engines, tyres, and fuel for 2026, Formula One underwent the largest regulatory change in its history during the winter.

Russell stated that while Mercedes' initial test in Barcelona had gone well, he was impressed by other teams, particularly Red Bull, who are building its first internal engine this season in collaboration with Ford. 

"Probably the fans and people were expecting potentially Mercedes versus McLaren because there was a lot of anticipation that Mercedes would clearly have the best power unit," Russell stated. But it appears like the other power-unit manufacturers have done a terrific job, and we know that Red Bull have always had an amazing car. Even during Mercedes' years of dominance, their engine—rather than their vehicle—was failing them, and we are all aware of how excellent Max is. So I think he's very much going to be in the fight this year, and that is terrific."

Russell and team manager Toto Wolff were playing down expectations for Mercedes, claiming that it was impossible to determine which team was the most competitive at this point. Russell stated, "It's still very early, but it doesn't look like a turd, which is a bonus," citing Toto. "You can sort of draw attention to the automobile's shortcomings early on because you can see when it might be a very awful car. Is it a car capable of winning a world championship? We don't think it is. It's still way too early to say."

"We don't really have a performance picture yet because we haven't seen Max driving the car fast and we haven't seen McLaren and Ferrari doing what they can do," Wolff continued. I would therefore carefully avoid stating it was fantastic for us. We just don't know."

Russell was generally optimistic about the new generation of cars, saying he felt prepared to challenge for a title. They are smaller and lighter than last year's, while energy management is a considerably bigger influence in performance now that there is a 50-50 split between the power delivered from the internal combustion engine and the hybrid system.

"The motorist who moves more quickly will still prevail. Russell stated, "I don't think it will be an engineering race from the cockpit." Dane Frederik Vesti has been named Mercedes' official third driver, and Russell is partnered with Italian Kimi Antonelli for a second season. It is unquestionably still Formula 1; you are pushing the boundaries and it still feels a lot like a race vehicle, but you are operating it in a different way."

Wolff added: "They look great. They look like Formula 1 cars now again. They're not too small, they're not too big, they're not like the whales of the past. The aesthetics are excellent. And it's really interesting to see where, when, and how a driver would implement and maximise it. There will be a lot more overtaking. It will appear in unexpected places.

Wolff refuted concerns from other teams that Mercedes' engine might fall foul of the rules. Audi, Ferrari, and Honda have complained to the FIA, the regulatory body, because they think Mercedes has discovered a way around the compression ratio regulation.

This must be a maximum of 16:1 and is tested in the garage at ambient temperature. Mercedes' competitors are afraid that Red Bull and the German automaker have figured out how to use thermal expansion and materials technology to boost this while the car is on course.