George Russell reveals which team “looks the strongest” after F1 testing

George Russell has revealed who he feels is the “strongest” team following pre-season testing in Bahrain last week. 

With just over a week to go until the first Formula 1 race of the 2025 season in Australia, the British driver feels that McLaren looks “by far the strongest.” During an interview with BBC Sport, Russell explained:

“I don’t think either of us right now have a car that potentially is capable of beating the McLaren.

“McLaren, without doubt, look by far the strongest. Especially their race pace looks pretty impressive.”

The Papaya team celebrated the Constructors’ Championship in 2024 after an intense battle with Red Bull and Ferrari, marking the first time the Woking outfit has won the title since 1998. Both Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri secured their maiden F1 wins at the Miami and Hungarian Grands Prix, respectively. After the success of last year, McLaren is set to be a strong contender in 2025.

Despite its strong performance in 2024, McLaren is taking the MCL39 in a slightly different direction this year, something that CEO Zak Brown has described as a “brave risk.” He explained to Autosport at the end of the 2024 season:

“We’re going into next year at full strength.

“I think we’re in a different mindset now in terms of the confidence of the team and the amount of bravery that the team is prepared to take in the development in next year’s car.

“The team is not: ‘let’s just tweak a little here and there. The car is pretty good.’ We’ve got some stuff on next year’s car that is like ‘brave risk’.

“I think you only get to the front if you try and beat everyone, as opposed to the mindset when we started this year which was like ‘let’s just be as good as them.’ The mind shift is now: ‘let’s beat everyone’.”

Mercedes, on the other hand, finished fourth behind Red Bull in 2024. The Brackley-based squad is heading into 2025 with a driver lineup change after Lewis Hamilton decided to part ways with the team and move to the Scuderia. After taking some time to explore its options, Mercedes opted to sign rookie driver Andrea Kimi Antonelli. Speaking about his new teammate, Russell commented to BBC Sport:

“He’s a great kid. He’s very young, but he’s a really nice guy. Super-fast, of course.

“Being thrown in at the deep end, which is going to be a big challenge. But in terms of raw speed, I don’t think you can question it. And there’s going to be an interesting new dynamic.”