George Russell ‘wants to go head-to-head’ with Max Verstappen in 2026

Russell and team boss Toto Wolff were downplaying expectations of Mercedes, saying it was impossible to know at this stage which team was the most competitive.

“It’s still very early days but, quoting Toto, it doesn’t look like it’s a turd, which is a bonus,” Russell said.

“In the early days like this, you know when it could be a really bad car and you can sort of 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 way too early to say.”

Wolff added: “We don’t have really 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. So I would carefully refrain from saying that was great for us. We simply don’t know.”

Russell, who said he felt ready to fight for a title, was generally positive about the new generation of cars.

They are smaller and lighter than last year’s, while energy management is a much bigger factor in performance now that there is a 50-50 split between the power provided from the internal combustion engine and the hybrid system.

“The faster driver will be the one who still comes out on top. I don’t think it will be an engineering race from the cockpit,” said Russell, who is partnered by Italian Kimi Antonelli for a second season, while Dane Frederik Vesti has become Mercedes’ official third driver.

“Definitely still is Formula 1, it still very much feels like a race car and you’re still very much pushing the limits but you are driving it differently.”

Wolff added: “They look spectacular. 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 very good.

“And that is super-exciting, where and when and how a driver is going to deploy it and optimise that. We are going to see much more overtaking. We’re going to see it in areas that we wouldn’t expect it.”