George Russell eyes head-to-head title fight with Max Verstappen in 2026

George Russell played down expectations surrounding Mercedes with the W17, but declared Red Bull to be “very much in the fight”, hoping to battle Max Verstappen at the front.

Mercedes is widely reported to have clocked up 500 laps of the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya in last week’s shakedown, with Russell and Kimi Antonelli having featured high up the leaderboard throughout the week.

George Russell wants Max Verstappen battle with Red Bull ‘very much in the fight’

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Mercedes enters Formula 1’s new era as the speculative pre-season favourites, with the team having been the dominant force in the sport’s last power unit regulation change from 2014.

Russell, though, was keen not to get too ahead of himself regarding a potential title challenge – highlighting the work Red Bull Ford Powertrains had done to produce two working and seemingly competitive power units in shakedown running last week.

While he is the early bookmakers’ favourite for title success, the Briton declared it too soon to say if the W17 is a title challenger, but highlighted the role Verstappen will likely have on proceedings in 2026.

The two have not always seen eye-to-eye on track, but should he and Verstappen end up in a battle at the front, Russell is relishing the prospect.

Post-Barcelona F1 shakedown analysis

Shakedown conclusions: Mercedes back in the light, Red Bull finds peace, key Newey question

Winners and losers from the Barcelona testing shakedown (Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya)

Presented with the odds for the season ahead, with Verstappen second-favourite at this early stage, Russell replied to PlanetF1.com and other media: “I mean, I’d love for it to turn out that way, and I do want to go head to head with Max.

“Obviously, Lando [Norris] had a great season last year, but no, it didn’t add any more pressure. I think probably the fans and people were expecting to potentially [see] Mercedes versus McLaren, because there was a lot of anticipation that Mercedes would clearly have the best power unit.

“But it seems like the other power unit manufacturers have done a good job, and we know that Red Bull have always had an amazing car, even through the years of dominance of Mercedes, it was their engine that was letting them down, not their car – and we obviously know how good Max is.

“I think he’s very much going to be in the fight this year, and that is great.

“You obviously wish that you’d have a slightly easier time of it, but it should never be easy. If you’re going to win, you want to have fought for it and won it fair and square on track.”

Drivers speak of knowing within the first few minutes of driving a new car if it is ‘born well’, meaning if the base of what they have to work with will be a good or bad car for the season ahead.

After a lengthy amount of track time in Barcelona, Russell quoted team principal and CEO Toto Wolff in believing the W17 looks a solid base to work with.

As for its title credentials, however, the Briton declared it “way too early” to jump to any conclusions.

“Well, obviously we’ve only driven the car for three days, and it’s still very early days, but quoting Toto, ‘it doesn’t look like it’s a turd’, which is a bonus,” Russell explained.

“To be honest, 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 see, and we’ve been quite surprised by what we’ve seen from some of our rivals, especially on the Red Bull power unit side.

“That looks very impressive, considering they’re a completely new outfit and [they are] reliable as well, so kudos to them.

“We’ve had a very reliable test, but we’ll have to wait and see if the car lives up to the expectation.”

The Formula 1 field will return next week for the first official pre-season test in Bahrain, running from three days between 11-13 February, before another three-day test in Sakhir from 18-20 February.

Additional reporting by Mat Coch

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