McLaren to stay “head and shoulders” above the rest until Spanish GP

McLaren won three out of the first four races in the 2025 Formula 1 season, and while things are close between Mercedes, Red Bull and Ferrari, George Russell isn’t expecting his rivals to take the fight to McLaren until a technical directive clamps down on flexible rear wings from the Spanish Grand Prix.

The Mercedes driver has been outspoken about McLaren’s performance advantage and, despite finishing ahead of Lando Norris last time out in Bahrain, he still believes the papaya team is “head and shoulders” above the competition.

“We all knew that McLaren was going to take a huge step forward and they clearly showed how competitive they were,” Russel told reporters in Jeddah. “Oscar [Piastri] just drove away into the distance. So, for me and for us to be ahead of a McLaren was a huge result.

“But I still think it’s very close between ourselves, Ferrari and Red Bull. You saw Ferrari’s middle stint was exceptionally fast and probably if they avoided the hard tyre it would’ve been close with myself and Charles. Red Bull obviously had an off weekend, but I think they’ll be back to normal this weekend.”

Despite Russell’s Mercedes team being closely matched with Ferrari and Red Bull, the British driver isn’t expecting the three rivals to take the fight to McLaren anytime soon.

In fact, Russel believes other teams may not be in with much of a chance for a race win before this year’s Spanish GP in six weeks’ time.

This is because a new technical directive will come into force for Spain, which will clamp down on the controversial flexible rear wings being deployed by some teams.

“That’s obviously where McLaren have excelled, so until that race I don’t really see the pecking order shifting,” Russell adds.

“That will be a decisive weekend to see whether they take a step backwards and the pack closes up.”

This doesn’t mean Russell is writing off his chances of another podium between now and then. After all, the Mercedes driver finished second last time out in Bahrain and thanks to strong performances from Russell and team-mate Andrea Kimi Antonelli, Mercedes now sits in second position in the constructors’ standings.

To keep his fight alive, the Mercedes driver says it will be about capitalising on every little mistake made by the McLaren pair of Noris and Oscar Piastri.

“We are finding ourselves in a position that we’re 40 points behind McLaren in the championship through probably mistakes of theirs, as opposed to pure car performance,” Russell added.

“And you could argue that that car was capable of finishing 1-2 in every race so far this year. And so far, Max [Verstappen] has won a race, we’ve had a P2 and we’re sort of in that fight.

“But I can’t imagine these little mistakes are going to continue for 24 races.”