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Mercedes driver George Russell will believe that after years of waiting, the 2026 Formula 1 season might finally be his chance to challenge for the drivers’ championship.
Toto Wolff has already suggested it was a mistake to place George Russell at Williams for three years before eventually promoting him to the Mercedes team.
He arrived at a time when Lewis Hamilton had just lost the drivers’ championship to Max Verstappen, but Mercedes’ competitiveness quickly dropped off.
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In more than 150 race starts, George Russell has only five victories to his name, but that could be about to change heading into 2026.
Many people believe Mercedes are the favourites this season, and in a head-to-head battle between the two Silver Arrows drivers, Russell will back himself over teenage teammate Andrea Kimi Antonelli.
After listening to the 28-year-old speak during pre-season, journalist Edd Straw believes that Russell has dismissed every driver except for Verstappen as a title threat this year.
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George Russell ‘needs to test himself’ against Max Verstappen to win the 2026 championship
Straw was reflecting on a conversation he had with Russell on The Race F1 Podcast, and he explained: “I asked him [Russell] about that, you feel obviously you’ve earned the right to fight for a world championship, do you want to test yourself.
“I can’t remember the exact phrasing, but he did the usual, yeah, I want to do this, and then he’s zeroed in on Max Verstappen.
“It was Max who came up. I didn’t ask about Max specifically. So, in George Russell’s head, implicitly, you can take from that that he’s just dismissed Lando, Piastri, [and] even Leclerc.
“I think he thinks I can deal with him. Max, I think he looks at, and he will think he can deal with him, but he won’t know, and I think there’s a real feeling in his mind, firstly, that he needs to test himself against Verstappen.
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“And secondly, that Verstappen’s the one he needs to; every battle he has with him is about more than just that one argument or that one thing, and we’ve seen the disagreements in the past.
“I mean, the ideal is Russell Verstappen, they’re all in there, because that would be fantastic.
But Russell versus Verstappen is probably one of all of those, with the exception of Hamilton, because of the Verstappen-Hamilton history.
“That Russell [vs.] Verstappen is the one who has the potential to really explode because I think Verstappen will know he needs to kind of put Russell in his place, he’ll feel he needs to. And Russell will think, well I need to be a massive pain now.”
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Martin Brundle predicts George Russell and Max Verstappen to miss out on Australian Grand Prix win
One of the most interesting aspects of this season will be watching how quickly each team can develop their car as the season goes on.
McLaren don’t intend on bringing any major updates to the Australian Grand Prix from testing, while Aston Martin are in desperate need of upgrades after a shambolic start to 2026.
If Russell and Verstappen are going to be the two drivers fighting for the title, then the pressure will be on Mercedes and Red Bull to back up their star drivers.
However, Martin Brundle thinks Charles Leclerc will win in Melbourne, delivering an important first win since the 2024 Mexico City Grand Prix for the Scuderia.
That would maybe force Russell to reconsider who he’s up against this season, although the British driver was nearly faultless last year, missing out on the points just once in 24 races, and if he’s in that mood again, then Leclerc and Verstappen will both struggle to stop him.
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