George Russell says Mercedes’ 2026 car is already “ticking the boxes” for the road team, but it is “too early” to say whether it will prove to be a title winner.
Russell admits they were “quite surprised” by the early form of some of their rivals in testing – particularly Red Bull, who produced their own engine for the first time.
Russell and Mercedes have been installed as the pre-season bookmakers’ favorites for this year’s drivers’ and constructors’ championships, with the latter long tipped to excel in F1’s new era of regulations featuring revised engine and chassis rules.
Mercedes seemed to underline their status as the likely frontrunners by completing the most laps, 500, of at least Sunday’s race in Barcelona, with their new V17 immediately showing strong reliability.
“Obviously we’ve only driven the car for three days and it’s still very early days but, to quote Toth (Wulff), it doesn’t look like crap, which is a bonus,” Russell said as Mercedes officially kicked off the 2026 season on Monday.
“To be honest, in these early days, you know when it could be a really bad car and you can highlight those negatives early on. We don’t believe it is, but is it a car that can produce a world championship?
“It’s still too early to tell and we’re quite surprised by what we’ve seen from some of our rivals, especially on the Red Bull powerhouse side, which looks very impressive considering they’re a brand new outfit and they’re reliable too, so credit to them.”
“We had a very reliable test, but we will have to wait and see if the car lives up to expectations.”
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George Russell and Kimi Antonelli assess Mercedes’ impressive performance at the Barcelona Shakedown.
Mercedes is aiming to return to the world championship in 2026 after a frustrating four seasons in which they were usurped as the leading Formula 1 team by first Red Bull and then McLaren.
But despite the external hubbub over their 2026 prospects, Russell says Mercedes are deliberately not getting carried away after suffering the disappointment of the last time F1’s technical rules changed in 2022.
“We definitely wanted to meet expectations, because as confident as we were that there wouldn’t be any crazy unknowns or unforeseen things happening with the car like we saw with the porpoise, we still didn’t know,” Russell said.
“No one expected porpoises in ’22, so you couldn’t rule it all out now. But that’s why I think we left Barcelona with a positive feeling because the car reacted as we expected.
“The numbers we see from the aerodynamics on the car match what we see in the simulator. The way the car handles matches what it feels like in the simulator. This is something we haven’t really experienced since 2021 as a team.”
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Watch the highlights from the fourth day of the shakedown as the teams run their cars at the Barcelona test.
“We’re kind of ticking the boxes for everything we want to tick, but we can’t discount our rivals. Like I said, there’s been a lot of talk about the Red Bull power unit not being up to standard year one. From what we’ve seen so far, they’ve definitely delivered.”
“The Ferrari powertrain looks reliable, they did a lot of laps not far from us during the test and on the powertrain side Haas also did a bunch of laps with the Ferrari engine.
“So it’s true that there could be a good fight on our hands, but we’re happy with what we’ve experienced so far.”
“I want to face Max” – Russell evaluates the likely contenders for the title
The 27-year-old Russell is preparing for his eighth season in Formula 1, but this year will be the first time he competes in the world championship if Mercedes provide a car to win races on a consistent basis.
A competitive debut year for Red Bull’s first power unit is also likely to keep four-time champion Verstappen – who has contested the title in all of the last five seasons – also in the hunt at the front.
“I’d like it to turn out that way,” Russell said of the battle against Verstappen.
“I want to face Max and obviously Lando (Norris) had a great season last year. But no, (being the title favourite) doesn’t add any pressure.
Max Verstappen and George Russell
“Probably the fans and people expected, you know, that it would potentially be Mercedes against McLaren, because there was a lot of expectation that Mercedes would obviously have the best powerplant.
“But the other powertrain manufacturers seem to have done a good job and we know that Red Bull have always had an amazing car, even during the years of Mercedes dominance, it was their engine that let them down, not their car. And obviously we know how good Max is.”
“So I think he’s going to be very much in contention this year and that’s great. Obviously you want to have a bit of an easy time of it. But it should never be easy and if you’re going to win, you want to fight for it and win fair and square.”
Russell believes that while there are early signs that the established top four teams will still be in the mix at the front this year, with Lando Norris and Mercedes-powered McLaren as the defending champions, he also thinks that Aston Martin and their “spectacular” first Adrian Newey design car cannot be dismissed either.
“The best case scenario for the sport and also for the drivers is that you have a number of different drivers and several different teams fighting it out,” he added.
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Toto Wolff describes the new V17 livery as ‘pretty spectacular’ and says the team is excited to see how the new powerplants and chassis regulations play out.
“And I think at the moment it looks like Red Bull, McLaren, Ferrari and us are, let’s say, four teams that are pretty close to each other.”
“But you can’t ignore what you’ve seen from Aston Martin and what Adrian has done with that car. It looks pretty spectacular.
“Honda has had a very good engine under them in the last few years with Red Bull, so we also know what they are capable of. So it would be great to see a big fight.”
When is F1 Bahrain pre-season testing?
The introduction of the new regulations means there is a tight schedule of three separate tests before the start of the 2026 season.
With the indoor Barcelona Shakedown now over, F1 will next head to Bahrain for two ‘official’ pre-season tests, when the media will be present and live track time will be available.
Two three-day tests in Bahrain take place on February 11-13 and 18-20.
When is the first F1 race?
The teams then have two weeks to prepare for the first round of the season, which is the Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne on March 6-8.
The first practice session of the season will take place on Friday 6th March, qualifying on Saturday 7th March and the opening race on Sunday 8th March.
Watch every race of the 2026 F1 season live on Sky Sports, starting with the Australian Grand Prix on March 6-8. Stream Ski Sports from NOW – no contract, cancel anytime