Russell 'ready to fight for a World Championship' as he targets going head-to-head with Verstappen

George Russell says he's ready to fight for the Formula 1 world title with Mercedes but admits that, while the Barcelona Shakedown was encouraging, it's "too early to say" if this year's Silver Arrows will be the leading contender.

Mercedes had a very productive three days of running at a cold Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya as drivers and teams focused on understanding their new machines that have been built to sweeping new chassis and power unit regulations for 2026 – rather than looking at performance.

Russell is entering his eighth season in Formula 1 and has five Grand Prix wins under his belt, with many feeling his performances last year were his best yet.

"I feel ready to fight for a World Championship, and whether we have that comment above us or not, that does not change my approach one single bit," said Russell, when speaking to media as Mercedes officially launched their 2026 F1 campaign.

"I'm working so hard with the team, everybody here has been working flat out to really maximise this new set of regulations. I'm honestly just so excited by the challenge, because it is a huge challenge adapting to these new cars, how the energy management works, the re-harvesting of the batteries, getting your head around the boost system, the overtake modes, the active aero.

"There's a lot of things we need to learn very quickly, but I feel I can take advantage from that, and I feel confident with myself and my team."

When asked how he feels about potentially going up against four-time world champion Max Verstappen in a title fight, Russell said: "I'd love for it to turn out that way. I do want to go head-to-head with Max and obviously Lando [Norris] had a great season last year.

"But no, it doesn't add any more pressure. I think probably the fans and people were expecting, you know, to potentially be Mercedes versus McLaren because there was a lot of anticipation that Mercedes would clearly have the best power unit.

"But it seems like the other power unit manufacturers have done a good job and we know that Red Bull have always had an amazing car, even through the years of dominance of Mercedes. It was their engine that was letting them down, not their car.

"And we obviously know how good Max is. So, yeah, I think he's very much going to be in the fight this year. And, you know, that is great. You obviously wish that you'd have a slightly easier time of it but it should never be easy and if you're going to win, you want to have fought for it and won it fair and square on track."

Speaking about Russell's title credentials, boss Toto Wolff said: "It is always nice if your driver is the favourite with the bookmakers, and I think he [Russell] deserves it because he is one of the best. He has shown us where the performance of the car is and has overall been more than great to us.

“But it is always the best driver and the best car that wins, and we have not proven yet that we have a package that is good enough. I hope the bookmakers are right but I'll believe it when we have seen performances that would confirm that."

There was no chase for performance in Barcelona, as the focus really was on learning about the cars and the new systems that are in place for this year – and that's why Russell is keen not to get ahead of himself. But he did concede that Mercedes – who have failed to contend for the title since 2021 – are in a better place, probably their best since 2021, at this point in the year.

"Well, obviously we've only driven the car for three days, and it's still very early days, but quoting Toto, it doesn't look like it's a ****, which is a bonus," he said. "And to be honest, in the early days like this, when it could be a really bad car, and you can sort of highlight those negatives early on, we don't believe it is.

"But is it a car that can produce a World Championship? It's still way too early to see."

He added: "We left Barcelona with a positive feeling, because the car reacted as we anticipated. The numbers we're seeing from the aero on the car match what we see back on the simulator. How the car is handling is matching how it feels on the simulator.

"This is something we've not really experienced since 2021 as a team so we're sort of ticking the boxes of everything that we want to tick, but we can't discount our rivals, because as I said, there was a lot of talk around the Red Bull power unit not being up to standard in year one, but from what we've seen so far, they've definitely delivered.

"The Ferrari power unit looks reliable. They did lots of laps not far behind us over the course of the test. So the truth is that there could be a good fight on our hands, but we're satisfied with what we've experienced so far."

F1 Correspondent and Presenter Lawrence Barretto says...

Mercedes, like all of their rivals, are playing down their expectations for this year – and that's no surprise given they are running very different cars with all-new power units built to regulations that have seen the biggest overhaul in more than a decade.

But it is clear that as a starting point, Mercedes are in a better place – as Russell said – than they have been in recent years. The Silver Arrows failed to get on top of the ground effect-era cars - and therefore were not contenders for the last four World Championships.

Ahead of each of those campaigns, Mercedes knew very early on that they were not the favourites – and that they would struggle to get in the mix. This time around, though, they don't have that same feeling. Critically, the car is performing as their simulation tools said they would. There is hope.

This is the first time that Russell will have felt that feeling since he joined Mercedes in 2022 – so it's perhaps not surprising that he is buoyed by how the car feels after three days of running. He even said in his media briefing that he felt confident to push from the very first lap in Barcelona.

Based on vibes, these are the best Mercedes have given off since 2021. Of course, Russell and the team don't know what the other teams are doing so it would be unwise to get too excited. But given Mercedes have history of delivering a class-leading power unit at a regulation change and that they feel encouraged by the response by the chassis in early runs (which is the opposite of what they have felt for the last four years) you can understand why there is a bit of a spring in their step.

We should get more of an idea of where they stack up next week in Bahrain when work on the set-up of the cars begins – and an even clearer look in the second test when they start chasing performance but it might not be until Australia – or even the first four or five races – until we know for sure if Mercedes are back in the game as world title contenders.