Russell: Should be watching ‘pretty scary’ Red Bull, not Mercedes engine

Mercedes set the pace of the first F1 2026 pre-season test in Bahrain, but George Russell insists that all eyes should not be on the Silver Arrows.

Forget the Mercedes engine, and all this talk of compression ratio loopholes, Russell said it is “pretty scary” what the Red Bull Powertrains Ford engine is producing. Russell, in-keeping with the claim of his team boss Toto Wolff, suggested that Red Bull’s engine brings up to a second per lap advantage through its energy deployment. Bahrain telemetry data supports the noise around Red Bull.

George Russell: Red Bull advantage ‘pretty scary’

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Much of the winter was dominated by talk of a loophole in the new F1 engines, related to the wording around compression ratios. Reports pointed to Mercedes and Red Bull Ford as the manufacturers to have utilised this grey area to surpass the 16.0 ratio – to be measured at ambient temperature –  when the engine heats up.

But, Red Bull appears to have joined the Mercedes opposition, which is pushing for the introduction of testing compression ratios at hot temperatures.

Yet, Mercedes driver George Russell believes that Red Bull is “the team to beat” based on what he has seen in Barcelona and Bahrain testing so far.

“Well, I do think this test has been a bit of a reality check for all of us,” Russell told PlanetF1.com and others in Bahrain.

“Firstly, a huge amount of chat regarding Mercedes and our power unit in the winter, all of which is speculation, because nobody knows anything at that point.

“And the truth is, Red Bull in Barcelona, day one hit the ground running, and were well ahead of all of their competitors, so ourselves, Ferrari and the others.

“Day one here In Bahrain, again, they sort of knocked it out the park.

“So they are, at the moment, very much the team to beat.

“And you know, it’s quite straightforward when you have three days of testing in the same location to make those improvements. But when you get to Melbourne and you’ve got three practice sessions, you’ve got three hours of practice before qualifying, based on what we’ve seen in Barcelona and Bahrain, Red Bull are going to be ahead.

“So, yeah, we’ve got work to do.”

Russell was informed that Red Bull’s four-time World Champion, Max Verstappen, is convinced that its rivals are not yet showing their true hand.

“It’s normal, of course, that other people are hiding and trying to probably make us look really good,” Verstappen told PlanetF1.com and others.

Russell responded: “Well, I hope we’ve got a big ace up our sleeve!

“Of course, everybody during testing, no one’s running their maximum performance, and you’re still learning, but the truth is, they have hit the ground running far better than every other team.

“And when we compare ourselves, not only to Red Bull, but also Ferrari, they also look in a good place.

“I think we’ve delivered a very strong car this year. But of course, all of the chat around our competitiveness for this season was based on the power unit side. There will be big development, but right now, Red Bull are the team to beat in that area.”

Russell was asked whether Mercedes has a Plan B which it can turn to, should rival manufacturers successfully trigger an engine regulation change before the opening race.

Russell said that he does not “really know much about” the compression ratio talking point, but it was “from what I understand, leaked from other team members who have moved around.”

He added: “I don’t think anybody should really be looking at us. You should be looking at the most competitive car on the grid, which right now is the Red Bull.

“They’re not just a small step ahead. You’re talking in the order of half a second to a second in deployment over the course of a lap. It’s pretty scary to see that difference.

“And Red Bull have always delivered a very good car over the past 15 years, even when they didn’t have a great engine. So yeah, this test has been really eye-opening for a lot of us.”

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With Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff also speaking of a one-second gain down the straights for Red Bull, PlanetF1.com’s resident data expert Uros Radovanovic took a closer look.

Indeed, Uros, through telemetry data, discovered that Wolff’s claims do appear to carry some weight. He uncovered a consistent top speed advantage for Verstappen, compared to Lando Norris in the Mercedes-powered McLaren, during their respective long runs.

Uros does urge, however, that the data from testing cannot be taken as gospel.

Russell added: “When you look at the RB car, with the same power unit, they’re also delivering really strong performances in a straight.

“So it clearly suggest that it’s not on the chassis side. It’s somewhere between the hardware and the deployment.

“So yeah, as I said, it’s pretty impressive what they’ve done, considering they are a brand new outfit. We hope we can catch up.”

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