George Russell continued his run of being one of the most consistent Formula 1 drivers this season with another top-five finish at the Spanish Grand Prix.
His Mercedes car hasn’t been up to the task of fighting for a victory yet, but they are well and truly in the fight for second in the constructors’ championship after nine rounds of the season.
Russell is just 26 points behind reigning champion Max Verstappen, and 75 points from the championship lead, but any title charge is off the cards due to McLaren’s sizeable advantage.
Team boss Toto Wolff was visibly frustrated after a damaging Monaco Grand Prix, where neither of his cars scored points. Once again, a car failed to score points at the Spanish Grand Prix as Kimi Antonelli retired, but Russell managed to rescue something from the weekend for his team.
F1 fans praised Verstappen after a fight with Russell, which saw him handed a 10-second time penalty for hitting the Brit’s car, dropping him from fourth to 10th place after the race. Although he didn’t want to at first, he went on to apologise on social media for his actions.
Russell’s ‘disrespectful’ claim about Verstappen looked justified after he was caught in the crossfire of his frustrations. The Mercedes driver hadn’t really done anything wrong, but it didn’t seem to bother him too much after the race.
READ MORE: Max Verstappen told by Mercedes legend he was ‘missing’ two key words from his post-race Spanish Grand Prix statement
George Russell will be delighted by Toto Wolff’s ‘old form’ comments after the Spanish Grand Prix
Russell hit out at ‘nonsense’ Mercedes 2026 engine claims and doesn’t expect the team to burst out of the blocks next season with a dominant power unit compared to their rivals.
While they will have been investing resources in the future, there’s still prize money to fight for in the present. Although they didn’t have blistering pace at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, one aspect of their weekend stood out to team boss Wolff.
“The qualifying lap was good,” he said, according to Auto Motor und Sport. “We found our old form there. But we can’t be satisfied with the race result. Fourth place was also handed to us by Verstappen’s penalty.”
Mercedes are in a ‘mess’ after making ‘mistakes’ and feared that they might overheat their tyres in Spain, which didn’t appear to be too much of an issue. They gathered plenty of long run data on Friday, which served them well during the race.
After Monaco, Russell might have been worried by Wolff’s upgrade admission, but although races in warmer climates don’t usually play to their strengths, they weren’t too poor last weekend.
READ MORE: Mercedes now dealing with a ‘serious reliability issue’ that could force them into copying Ferrari’s detrimental car change
Who is the favourite for second in the Formula 1 constructors’ standings in 2025?
Red Bull are effectively a one-car operation, Mercedes are quick in qualifying and Ferrari are faster in the race. The battle for second in the constructors’ standings is about as confusing as it could be.
It’s why the three aforementioned teams are separated by just 21 points. Ferrari are planning two crucial updates which could put them in the mix with McLaren.
That would leave Mercedes in the dust, given that Red Bull will do whatever it takes to keep Verstappen and may continue to develop their car as well.
The German manufacturer are aware that there is more to gain in investing in the 2026 F1 regulations early, much like they did in 2014. That paid off in spectacular fashion.
