If the start of the 2025 season had a color, it would undoubtedly be orange. An orange papaya. Of the first five grand prices in the championship, McLaren flew over competition with four victories and his two pilots at the top of the championship. Only Max Verstappen, through two pole positions and a success in Suzuka, was able to withstand the compressor roller “Made in Woking”, the MCL39. Effective on a launched lap, on the racing pace, on the wear of tires, the British single -seater crushes (almost) everything in its path and seems (almost) unbeatable in the hands of Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris.
Nevertheless, will this ultra-domination end in the coming weeks? In any case, this is what George Russell hopes. The Briton, 4th in the pilot championship, remains optimistic and thinks again the McLaren by the end of the season. His hope: increased controls and restrictions put in place on the rear fins from the Grand Prix of Spain (May 30 – June 1), ninth round of the 2025 season.
“Barcelona will be a really interesting race for everyone, because this is where we will have the restrictions on flexible fins, and it is obviously on this area that McLaren has excelled, underlines the Mercedes pilot. Until this race, I do not really see the hierarchy change, but it will be somehow decisive weekend to see if, yes or no, they take a step back and if the pelot is tightening. »»
-Russell impressed by McLaren’s tire management
“Nevertheless, it is clear that they do something quite spectacular with the tires, relativizes George Russell, who believes that with or without a flexible spoiler, the MCL39 will remain a formidable car. [À Bahreïn]during the EL3, they were a faster second than all the others, it is unheard of, and I expect that on circuits like circuits with high degradation like Bahrain, Barcelona, Budapest, Singapore or Zandvoort, that they will be the best. Maybe when we go to Las Vegas, this will not be the case for them and we can win a victory. But right now, their car is really solid. »»
Since the start of the season, George Russell constantly has been a harassment that McLaren has already had the lead in the British team so much. The Briton had even assured that the Woking team could already put all its resources on 2026 and still win the two titles. Nevertheless, the triple winner of Grand Prix thinks that Mercedes is able to return – or even exceed – McLaren by the end of the season. “In terms of position compared to McLaren, we are much closer than McLaren was not from Red Bull [au début de 2024]. But I believe that Red Bull probably had assets … There was as much decline on the part of Red Bull as progression for McLaren throughout the season. »»
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