“We saw it in China, second race of the season, on pole in the Sprint, wins the race comfortably. I know what he’s capable of, and it’s not easy going into a new team and the competition is tough, but he’s an amazing driver and I’m sure, when things start to click, as they did in China, we’ll see more of that magic.”
In terms of his own season so far, Russell is pleased with his current level of performance, having stood on the podium at three out of the opening four races while Mercedes are second in the Teams’ Championship to McLaren, albeit with a deficit of 58 points.
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However, the Briton believes that some of those opportunities may have come from McLaren making occasional errors, with the papaya squad still being seen as the team to beat.
“My aspirations are to fight for the World Championship and, being realistic, we don’t have a car to fight McLaren,” Russell explained. “They could probably have finished first and second in every race this year, but they’ve given the rest of us a few opportunities.
“Myself and Max [Verstappen] have jumped on the podium probably one too many times because of a few little errors and we’ll take it, but I don’t imagine those errors continuing for 24 races.”
/16x9%20single%20image%20-%202026-02-11T105611.479.webp?ssl=1 "Max Verstappen leads opening morning of first pre-season test in Bahrain")
