Formula 1’s ground effect era has not provided happy hunting grounds for Mercedes, and the team’s drop in form compared to the previous ruleset is well-documented. Sadly, for George Russell, the dramatic shift came as he made the move from Williams to Mercedes.
Russell joined Mercedes in 2022 and in the ensuing years, has grown and developed in the shadow of seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton. This season, he finally stepped out into the limelight as the team leader – despite another rocky season for the Silver Arrows.
The year got off to a strong start for Russell, who picked up back-to-back podiums with third in Australia and China to kick off the season strongly. This was followed in Bahrain, where the Brit finished second, and Miami where he picked up another third place.
His run of top-five finishes came to an end at Imola, however, as Mercedes rolled out new suspension components that did more harm than good. Correlation issues hid a flaw in the new components, which Mercedes used over four race weekends including Monaco - Russell scored his only finish outside the top 10 of the year with 11th. However, the upgrade wasn't the sole culprit here, as the Brit was also handed a drive-through penalty for passing Alex Albon off track.
Russell was able to drive his way around the flaw, however, and took fourth at the following race in Spain before picking up his first win of the year in Canada – leading a double-podium for Mercedes as rookie team-mate Andrea Kimi Antonelli finished third.
The topsy-turvy nature of Russell’s season quickly returnedt, and a penalty for an unsafe release hit his Austrian GP, before poor strategy calls in Silverstone saw the Brit finish 10th – a result he says came because “everything went wrong”.
“In our position, if you play it safe, you'll come home with a safe result,” Russell lamented after the Silverstone race. “Of course, that would have probably been P4. Standing here now, do I wish I had P4? Of course. We wanted to be bold, we wanted to be brave. We went for some bold decisions and ultimately it bit us.”
The second half of the season proved to be more consistent for Russell and Mercedes, which had now ditched its updated suspension design. After the summer break, Russell picked up a further three podiums as well as a second win of the year in Singapore – where he qualified on pole and led from the line.
The dominance proved to be unexpected for Mercedes and Russell, who admitted after the race “if I were to make a list of all the races I thought we could win at this year, this would probably be right at the bottom”.
Top three finishes followed in the US, Brazil and Qatar sprints, which helped Mercedes secure second place in the constructors’ standings. The effort didn’t all fall on Russell’s shoulders, however, as team-mate Antonelli racked up 150 points in his first season – despite having his fair share of wobbles over his rookie year.
Russell, however, showed his experience over the course of 2025 to collect more than double Antonelli’s tally with 319 points by the end of the year. He also wiped the floor with Antonelli in the qualifying head-to-head, finishing 25-5 in grand prix qualifyings.
Read and post comments