George Russell has contended that McLaren’s current advantage has surpassed the one that Red Bull possessed at the height of the team’s dominance in Formula 1.
The widespread consensus that McLaren would be the side to beat was realised last weekend as Lando Norris prevailed in the season-opening Australian Grand Prix.
But while his winning margin over Max Verstappen’s Red Bull was less than a second, intermittent weather and Safety Car interventions shrouded McLaren’s true gap.
Indeed, having survived Verstappen’s initial charge in the opening stages, Norris and team-mate Oscar Piastri created a 14-second lead over the Dutchman in 10 laps.
Even prior to the race, Russell had claimed that McLaren’s front-row lockout demonstrated it could switch attention to the new 2026 rules now and still win both titles.
The Briton has doubled down on that view amid McLaren’s victorious start, as he argued the team’s advantage has eclipsed what Red Bull boasted at its peak in 2023.
However, Russell has predicted that the McLaren drivers won’t capitalise on its supremacy as well as Verstappen did when he drove the RB19 to 19 wins in 22 rounds.
“I think their car is definitely capable of winning every race,” Russell said.
“Their car should win every race, but I don’t think they will win every race this year. Let’s see.
“The gap they have this year on everybody is bigger than Red Bull has ever had.
“But when Max was in that [2023] car he was pretty reliable every single lap he did every single run in Q3, throughout qualifying, never really a question.
“Hopefully we can be there to capitalise like we were at the [previous] weekend, as that should have been a 1-2 for those guys.”
FIA clampdown won’t hinder McLaren much
The discussion during the build-up to this weekend’s Chinese Grand Prix has surrounded whether an FIA clampdown on flexible rear wings could destabilise McLaren.
But with Norris adamant the team hasn’t had to make changes to its car, Russell has conceded the ruling wouldn’t have altered the outcome at the Albert Park Circuit.
“If the TD (Technical Directive) was there in Melbourne they definitely would have won the race because they’re just so far ahead,” the Mercedes driver highlighted.
Where does McLaren’s advantage lie?
Instead, Russell has reiterated that McLaren’s cutting edge over the competition resides in how the team’s MCL39 car preserves the Pirelli tyre better over a race stint.
“If you’re talking about trying to find that amount of lap time in downforce that isn’t going to happen in a season and it’s never happened in a season,” he elaborated.
“They’re clearly doing something better than the rest, clearly substantially quicker than everybody when the tyres are getting hot.
“We saw that in the Bahrain test. We saw it in sector three in [Australia] qualifying, they were four-tenths faster than everyone else in sector three.
“Same car they had in sector one and two, only difference is tyre overheating.
“There’s room for us to improve but…and we know we have room to improve but we don’t feel like there are masses of opportunities to improve in that region, it’s quite tightly controlled.
“So they’re clearly doing something pretty trick and that gap is huge.”
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