{"id":14639,"date":"2025-07-22T04:45:09","date_gmt":"2025-07-22T04:45:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/14639\/"},"modified":"2025-07-22T04:45:09","modified_gmt":"2025-07-22T04:45:09","slug":"george-russell-makes-mclaren-admission-amid-mercedes-f1-upgrade-push","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/14639\/","title":{"rendered":"George Russell makes McLaren admission amid Mercedes F1 upgrade push"},"content":{"rendered":"

George Russell has conceded that Mercedes <\/a>won\u2019t be back on top in Formula 1<\/a> in 2025, despite the team\u2019s plan to introduce updates across the upcoming two races.<\/p>\n

Mercedes goes into the Belgian Grand Prix this weekend embroiled in a close battle over second in the Constructors\u2019 Championship as it lies 12 points behind Ferrari.<\/p>\n

The two long-time rivals have been unable to trouble McLaren, though, as the reigning champions uphold a handsome 238-point advantage with 12 rounds remaining.<\/p>\n

Russell ensured Mercedes won\u2019t endure a winless campaign when he triumphed in Canada, but McLaren has responded with emphatic victories in Austria and Britain<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The race in Silverstone saw Russell squander his podium chances on home soil when he headed the group who made an ill-timed swap to slicks on the formation lap.<\/p>\n

However, the Briton has insisted he harbours no regrets over the gamble amid the acknowledgement that Mercedes don\u2019t possess the pace to beat McLaren on merit.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s one of those,\u201d he told Sky Sports F1. \u201cIf you\u2019ve got the car pace, you can afford to play it safe and doesn\u2019t matter what you do, you\u2019re going to come out on top. If you don\u2019t, it\u2019s so tight between everybody else. <\/p>\n

\u201cNow, if you want a good result, you do need to be a little bit brave. And it\u2019s as brave staying out on the track and not pitting as it is to pit.\u201d<\/p>\n

Asked when Mercedes will be back in contention, Russell answered: \u201cHopefully soon, but unfortunately this year, we know we\u2019re not in the fight with McLaren. <\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re the dominant team. You know, we\u2019re doing everything we can to get the team back on top, but it\u2019s not going to be this year.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"McLarenMcLaren has headed Mercedes since 2024<\/p>\n

Mercedes continuing 2025 development push<\/p>\n

But despite new technical rules providing a reset in 2026, Mercedes still has new parts waiting to be unleashed on the W16 in the two races before the summer break.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been a pretty\u00a0bruising double header to be honest with Austria and then Silverstone as well,\u201d Mercedes Chief Communications Officer Bradley Lord conceded.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve just got one\u00a0fifth place finish to show for our efforts and one 10th place finish, so well below our expectations.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cFirst and foremost, it is to put ourselves on a much better footing and demonstrate the full\u00a0performance potential of the car and after that we\u2019ve got updates coming. <\/p>\n

\u201cSo we need make some decisions on\u00a0what the spec of the car will be for Spa and then also we\u2019ve got some performance updates coming\u00a0in both Spa and Hungary. So opportunities to make step forwards there.<\/p>\n

\u201cLikewise, we\u2019ve got a Sprint weekend in Spa, so just one practice session and then we\u2019ve got to be right on it and straight\u00a0into qualifying. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s going to be a challenge, but we\u2019re hopeful of being able to give a much\u00a0better showing than we did either in Silverstone or in Austria last week.\u201d<\/p>\n

READ MORE \u2013 How Mercedes will avoid Kimi Antonelli \u2018suffering\u2019 amid \u2018subpar\u2019 F1 run<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"George Russell has conceded that Mercedes won\u2019t be back on top in Formula 1 in 2025, despite the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":14640,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[1687,372,6537,9307,1469,6964,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-14639","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-f1","tag-f1","tag-formula-1","tag-formula1","tag-george-russell","tag-mclaren","tag-mercedes","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14639","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14639"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14639\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14640"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14639"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14639"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14639"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}