George Russell told McLaren they have the luxury of focusing on 2026 such is their advantage over the rest of the field.

McLaren began 2025 with a front-row lockout and P4 Russell believes it is a pattern that will continue.

George Russell predicts title win for ‘special’ McLaren

Heading into the first qualifying session of the year, Mercedes, Red Bull, Ferrari and McLaren were expected to be the front runners but even from the early stages, the Woking side emerged as the leader.

Aside from some minor mistakes early in Q3 which saw Lando Norris have a lap deleted due to track limts, McLaren dominated the session, finishing 0.301 seconds ahead of the rest of the field.

For Russell, he thinks he has seen enough to predict McLaren to be runaway champions.

“It’s what we expected to be honest, we’ve seen how strong they are,” Russel said.

“They’re at such an advantage because they can stop development now and go fully [focus] on ‘26 and it’s difficult to overcome that gap.”

Russell went on to explain why McLaren’s start to this year was different from Red Bull of 2024 where the Milton Keynes side started strongly but fell away, allowing McLaren to take the Constructors’ trophy by the end of the year.

“I think Red Bull, they started the season off so far ahead of everyone, but I don’t think people overtook them in terms of development. I think they brought some things to the car and went backwards or had some things they clarified and went backwards.

“Because if you’ve got a six-tenths advantage at the start of a year, nobody finds six tenths throughout the course of a year.

“McLaren are in prime position for now and the future.”

As to why they are so good, Russell believes McLaren are doing something “special” with their tyres.

“You’ve only got to look at their strength in Singapore, their weakness in Vegas, how good they were in the race pace in Bahrain, it’s all tyres,” he said.

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“If you’re strong in sector three that only points to tyres so they’re doing something pretty special.”

Looking past McLaren, Russell believes Red Bull, Ferrari and Mercedes are on equal standings but said the grid is able to spring a surprise.

“I think it’s kind of as we expected. McLaren out front with the comfortable gap and then I feel like this season, for me, is anyone’s game between ourselves, Red Bull and Ferrari.

“But you’ve got surprises like [P5] Yuki Tsunoda and [Isak] Hadjar, who have been really competitive this week.

“Then Williams are showing great signs of quality pace.”

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