George Russell has contended that McLaren could move focus to 2026 and still win both Formula 1 titles in 2025 based on its advantage at the Australian Grand Prix.
Russell declared heading into the weekend that McLaren would be “dominant” amid the blistering pace that the team had shown during pre-season testing in Bahrain.
But while Lando Norris insisted such claims were “short-sighted”, the Briton edged out McLaren team-mate Oscar Piastri to secure pole position at the opening round.
Norris was over three-tenths faster than the next non-McLaren car, Red Bull’s Max Verstappen, while Russell in fourth was a massive six-tenths behind his compatriot.
With an impending regulation reset on the horizon in 2026, the teams will have a conundrum during this campaign about when to divert attention to next season’s car.
Russell believes that McLaren would be able to allocate complete attention to the team’s next-generation machine and still prevail in both championships this season.
“It’s what we expected to be honest. We’ve seen how strong they are,” Russell told media including Motorsport Week.
“It seems catchable. There’s been times Red Bull have started this part of the season [as strong].
“Clearly, I mean, 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.
“I think Red Bull, they started the season off [in 2024] 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 six-tenths advantage at the start of a year nobody finds six-tenths throughout the course of a year.”
Russell is convinced that McLaren’s considerable advantage is deep-rooted in how the team’s recent cars have been able to extract the potential from the Pirelli tyres.
“You’ve only got to look at their strength in Singapore, their weakness in Vegas and how good they were in the race pace in Bahrain,” he highlighted.
“It’s all tyres. If you’re strong in sector 3 add only points to tyres. They’re doing something pretty special that’s for sure.”
McLaren poised to dominate without rain
Russell has admitted that the opposition’s chance to beat McLaren in tomorrow’s race will depend on whether the forecasted rain descends on the Albert Park Circuit.
“Tomorrow is anybody’s game as it always is in the rain, but if it was dry I expect that gap from McLaren to probably increase in the race pace,” he assessed.
“They’ve got a massive advantage it seems in sector 3.”
Russell expects Ferrari resurgence
The Briton, whose team-mate Andrea Kimi Antonelli exited in Q1, out-qualified the two Ferraris at least as the Italian marque endured a torrid time in the final session.
But while Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton were consigned to locking out the fourth row, Russell is anticipating Ferrari to be involved in the battle behind McLaren.
“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.
“You’ve got surprises like Yuki [Tsunoda, fifth] and [Alex] Albon [sixth] has been really competitive this week.
“The Williams are showing great signs of quali pace, but in terms of the race I think that’s what we’re going to see.”
READ MORE – Lando Norris: McLaren MCL39 made it difficult to dominate F1 Australian GP qualifying
