George Russell has pinpointed Max Verstappen and Charles Leclerc as Mercedes’ main title threats ahead of the 2026 Formula 1 season and the Australian Grand Prix.
Russell is among the bookmakers’ favourites and was backed by Sky Sports F1 pundits after Mercedes’ strong pre-season testing and their historical dominance following the last major power unit regulation change in 2014. While Ferrari set the quickest single-lap times in Bahrain testing, Mercedes looked very strong on long runs and did not appear to show their full hand over one lap.
Asked which drivers he saw as Mercedes’ biggest challengers for the Drivers’ Championship, Russell said: “I would say Max and Leclerc.” Team-mate Kimi Antonelli added: “We think Red Bull is very strong, so for sure Max is going to be in the mix. Ferrari look very strong in Bahrain, both in long runs and on a single lap, so especially Leclerc, but I wouldn’t write off Lewis as well, because he can be very much in the mix. Maybe also the McLaren, but they seem a little bit more on the back foot compared to Ferrari and Red Bull, but for sure, Max and Charles could be the main ones.”
Russell later tempered his remarks on media day to Sky Sports F1, acknowledging Red Bull’s impressive engine performance and Ferrari’s pace. “Red Bull have exceeded everybody’s expectations with their engine, so naturally Max will be in the fight. Ferrari also look very strong,” he said. “Charles looks very strong but you can never discount Lewis [Hamilton]. As it stands, those are the other drivers that are on the radar, who I think will be in the mix. McLaren have been so successful in years gone by. They look a bit on the back foot currently, but that can all change. We saw that a couple of years ago when they went from the back to the front, so we can’t discount anyone.”
Having spent four seasons at Mercedes without mounting a championship challenge — largely because the team could not provide a consistently winning car — the 28-year-old described 2026 as a “huge opportunity.” He said he was in a “good place” and “ready to fight” and that he was focusing on extracting “the absolute maximum from the package.” Russell stressed the importance of continued development under the new regulations: “Even if we do start the season very well, it doesn’t really count for a lot. So, we need to keep on pushing and just taking it race by race.”
Russell also expressed wariness about Red Bull’s fluctuating pace in pre-season testing. After the first Bahrain test he said Red Bull had “over half a second” of an advantage on energy deployment; after the second test he said that gap had been “closed drastically.” He described Red Bull as “suspiciously slow” in the second test, noting that their own data showed Red Bull went seven tenths slower compared to themselves week to week, while Mercedes and Ferrari improved with upgrades. Energy deployment is expected to be critical this year under new power unit rules that split output roughly 50/50 between the internal combustion engine and electrical power.
Red Bull — which built its own powertrains in collaboration with Ford — had been expected to lag behind at the start of the project, but the Milton Keynes-based outfit appeared largely reliable and competitive in testing. Verstappen declined direct comparisons with rivals, saying he was “very happy with what we did in pre-season” and proud of how the engine and car project came together. “The rule changes have been really complex but in terms of the feeling in the car and the driving experience it was good,” he added. “Looking at the performance side of things, we want to be a little bit faster. But from the things I think we learned, we were not the quickest, but I have no idea [about how Red Bull stack up].”
As the season opener in Melbourne approaches, teams and drivers head to Australia weighing testing data against the unknowns of race weekends, with Mercedes, Ferrari and Red Bull all viewed as realistic contenders for the title.