George Russell believes McLaren’s current advantage over the chasing pack is the biggest seen in the current ground-effect regulations.

McLaren showed a clean pair of heels to everyone in the season opener in Australia, with even Max Verstappen struggling to keep pace in his Red Bull.

George Russell: McLaren capable of winning every race in F1 2025

Less than two years ago, it was Red Bull who were capable of winning every race as Max Verstappen wrapped up 19 of 22 wins in that unprecedented season – only Red Bull teammate Sergio Perez and Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz spoiled his unbeaten run.

But that dominance could be eclipsed this season if McLaren capitalise on the inherent pace advantage in their MCL39, believes Mercedes’ George Russell, who reckons the Woking-based squad have a bigger advantage over their rivals than Red Bull ever did.

“I think Red Bull’s advantage was maybe three or four-tenths. I think the advantage we’re seeing from McLaren right now is definitely bigger than that,” he told media at the Chinese Grand Prix.

But, unlike with Red Bull, Russell doubts they will be able to pull off the impossible of winning every race in a season – a record that eluded Red Bull with its sole defeat in 2023, and McLaren itself in 1988, when it won 15 of 16 races.

“I think their car is definitely capable of winning every race, and their car should win every race, but I don’t think they will win every race this year,” he said.

“I think the gap they have on everybody this year is bigger than Red Bull has ever had. But, when Max was in that car, he was pretty reliable every single lap.

“He did every single run in Q3, and it was never really, really a question. So, hopefully, we can be there to capitalise like we were at the weekend because that should have been obviously a 1-2 for those guys.”

Attempting to identify where McLaren may be usurped on track this season, Russell explained that it may come down to something as simple as track temperature.

“I think they’re going to be an advantage in the majority of tracks. They may struggle when it’s cold,” he said.

“To be honest, they seem clearly better than everybody else at cooling their tyres.

“We saw this last year at Singapore – very hot, street circuit, challenging – they were well ahead of everybody else, Zandvoort as well, another track of overheating, but then, in Vegas, they were nowhere.

“So I suspect, potentially on these outlier circuits, they potentially will struggle, but I’m sure they’ll have something up their sleeve to counter that because I think they’re going to be pretty aware of where they may struggle.”

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Less encouragingly for McLaren’s rivals, the advantage may be so large that it may not be surmountable this season – particularly with diminishing returns as this year marks the end of the current chassis and power unit regulations, meaning rivals may abandon the attempt to catch up and concentrate on F1 2026’s revolutionary rules.

“If you’re talking about trying to find that amount of lap time and downforce, that isn’t going to happen in a season, and it’s never happened in a season,” Russell said.

“They’re clearly doing something better than the rest. They’re clearly substantially quicker than everybody when the tyres are getting hot. We saw that in the Bahrain test, we saw in Sector 3 in qualifying – they were about four-tenths faster than everybody else in Sector 3 – it’s the same car as they had in Sector 1 and Sector 2.

“The only difference is the tyre overheating. So room for us to improve, and we know we have room to improve, but we don’t feel like there are masses of opportunities to improve in that region – they are quite tightly controlled.

“They’re clearly doing some pretty trick, and that gap is… I mean, it’s huge.”

But as for who McLaren’s main rivals might be, Russell believes it’s down to Red Bull and McLaren, with Ferrari able to join in the fight if it delivers on its potential – something the Scuderia couldn’t manage in Australia.

“They were one of the quickest on Friday,” he said.

“They looked strong in Q1 and 22 and it just seemed to all go wrong come Q3 and then, of course, in the race, it was very challenging.

“The laps that Lewis [Hamilton] stayed out, if a Safety Car came out on that lap, he would have ended up on the podium. It’s fine margins in this sport, I expect them to be right up there.

“I think whoever brings their A game between us, Red Bull, and Ferrari will be that team who is the best of the rest.”

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