Russell on 2025: 'We saw that with Hamilton and Verstappen in 2021'
F1 News
Mercedes George Russell believes that the 2025 Formula 1 season could draw similarities to the thrilling 2021 season. 2021 was arguably one of the greatest seasons the competition has ever seen, with the titanic title battle between Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton going down in history. But the Brit now sees the 2025 season following a similar pattern.
There is an expectation that McLaren are the big favourite for the 2025 season, with results from winter testing indicating that. However, next season will be the last under the current regulations, with a major rule change coming in for the 2026 season.
That was also the case in 2021, with a huge change in the FIA rulebook for 2022 on the team's minds that season, which resulted in some teams stopping updates in 2021 to focus on the 2022 car, while others caught up in the second half of the season to close the gap by continuing to develop their 2021 car. With that being the case, the potential for another sublime season could be on the cards.
Russell on the 2025 Formula One season
"I think when you look at how dominant McLaren were at the second half of last year, without a doubt they're the favourites going into this year. And when people had their strong weekends, McLaren were still there or thereabouts. I think we only had a one-off weekend in probably the whole of 2024. But I think why it's going to be so interesting is like, whoever continues to develop will probably win the championship, but you'll pay the price in 2026," Russell said at the London event.
"Teams who come out the blocks and it's a close battle, they might continue to develop. But we also saw it in 2021, I think, with Lewis and Max, Mercedes stopped developing and somehow we just fine-tuned the car and the setup and found massive performance in the second half of the year just by unlocking the setup a little bit more. I think naturally, always in that final year of the regs, it becomes close, but I don't expect, I still expect McLaren to be right at the forefront," concluded the Mercedes driver.
This article was created in collaboration with Estéban den Toom
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