George Russell says Max Verstappen has a faster car than Mercedes, as he insists the Silver Arrows have only been faster than Red Bull at the F1 2025 Chinese GP, back on April 23.
The 27-year-old lags just six points behind the defending world champion in the standings following the weekend at the Miami International Autodrome and has displayed superb consistency to take four podiums in six races.
Whilst he and his team haven’t been able to land a glove on McLaren at the top of the standings, Red Bull have managed to do so when they secured victory at the Japanese GP.
On that weekend, they secured pole position and effectively led every lap of the race; before following it up with pole position in Saudi Arabia two weeks later, although they didn’t manage to win at the Jeddah Corniche Circuit.
With this kind of performance peak, Russell says he ultimately believes Verstappen has a faster car than he does, but hints Mercedes may have an edge when it comes to consistency.
“We’ll keep bringing upgrades but I don’t think anything that gets us to McLaren’s level,” Russell said to media, including Total-Motorsport.com. “We’re not the second-best car. We’ve had the second-best results.
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“But in no race have we been clearly the second fastest. Only in China were we able to be closer to Verstappen.
“But we’ve always been the third or fourth team. I’m proud of the results we’re achieving but we need to find more performance.
“I think our best weekend was that one in China and the McLarens still beat us by over 10 seconds, and when they have their best weekend, they beat us by 40 seconds.”
Russell compares McLaren dominance to Verstappen and Red Bull’s 2023
Formula 1 enjoyed a thrilling season in 2024 that saw seven different drivers claim victory, with six different pole sitters, as four different teams managed to take Grand Prix wins.
It breathed life back into the sport after one of the most suffocating seasons in the history of F1 in 2023 when Verstappen won 19 out of 21 races, with the only non-Red Bull triumph coming at the Singapore GP.
As things stand, 2025 is heading towards a similar season of dominance from McLaren‘s perspective as they seize five wins from the opening six races, including a dominant margin of 41 seconds in at the Miami GP.
Russell believes their mind-boggling level of tyre management is behind why they will cruise to the titles this season, although he says Mercedes won’t give up chasing them down.
“Obviously, McLaren is the standout car,” Russell continued. “They had the kind of advantage that we saw a couple of years ago. They’re obviously doing a very good job in managing temperatures.
“And, particularly, I think if you look at the end of the medium tyre stint, that was probably where they were the most competitive. So that’s what we need to focus on.”
