George Russell has laid out what he believes Mercedes must do to end the 2026 Formula 1 season on a high note and on the right footing.
For much of the season, the German outfit has been the team to beat, with the British driver and Kimi Antonelli sharing 11 victories—two of them attributed to Ferrari, two to Lando Norris, and two to Max Verstappen—along with four Sprint races.
However, since the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, Red Bull and the Dutch four-time world champion have been turning the tide. Meanwhile, Mercedes introduced updates in Baku, but have struggled to extract strong performance, and Russell said it is necessary to “master the updates” for the last six rounds of the year.
“The objective now is to try to improve the car, because we were the dominant team throughout the season. But if we look at the recent races, Red Bull has clearly been the best,” he stated.
“Look at Baku: Max was at a level similar to mine; then we go to Malaysia, a completely different track; we head to Singapore, another totally different circuit, and he dominated the last two weekends. Therefore, at this moment, as a team, our aim is to try to master these updates,” he added.
