George Russell believes McLaren has a title win in its sights after a strong showing of pace in qualifying at the F1 Australian GP.
The Woking-based outfit will be starting the season with a front-row lockout – something that comes as no surprise to Russell, who said the gap from McLaren to other teams was “expected”.
Speaking in the print media area after qualifying, Russell dismissed the idea of Mercedes being competitive against McLaren:
“It’s kind of as we expected in McLaren up front. We have a comfortable gap, and then I feel like this season can be anyone’s game between ourselves, Red Bull and Ferrari.
“We’ve seen how strong [McLaren] are. They’re in such an advantage because they can stop development now and go fully on ‘26 and it’s difficult to overcome that gap.”
McLaren’s pace “special” compared to Red Bull’s 2024 performance
In 2024, Red Bull came off to a similarly strong start, but other teams were able to catch up and McLaren ended up clinching the Constructors’ Championship.
When asked if a similar development could unfold this year, Russell wrote off any other team outpacing the reigning champions:
“I think Red Bull, they started the season off so far ahead of everyone but I don’t think people overtook them in terms of development. I think they brought some things to the car and went backwards or had some things clarified and went backwards.
“If you’ve got a sixth tenths advantage at the start of a year, nobody finds six tenths throughout the course of a year. McLaren are in a prime position for now and the future.”
Russell gave his opinion on what he thinks McLaren have got right this year after the F1 Australian GP qualifying:
“You’ve only got to look at their strength in Singapore, their weakness in Vegas, how good they were in the race pace in Bahrain. It’s all tyres.
“They’re doing something pretty special, that’s for sure.”
Anything could happen if it’s wet, however
Despite McLaren’s obvious advantage, Russell remained positive that the variable weather could make for some interesting racing:
“Tomorrow is anybody’s game as it always is in the rain.
“But if it was dry, I’d expect that gap from McLaren to probably increase in the race pace.”
