How Russell is surprising himself in title race – and the positives of F1's new rules

"The stakes are bigger today. But when I was in F4 fighting for the championship, that was the biggest thing in my life, same in F3. That felt like F1 to me at the time. And that's what allowed me to fight for those victories."

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George Russell won the 2014 BRDC Formula 4 Championship as a 16-year-old, before winning titles in GP3 in 2017 and Formula 2 in 2018

The season started well for Russell, with pole and victory in the opening race in Australia, and again in the sprint a week later in China. But since then things have gone awry.

A technical problem in grand prix qualifying in China let 19-year-old team-mate Kimi Antonelli slip in for pole position, from where the Italian took his maiden victory.

In Japan two weeks later, before the five-week break enforced on F1 by the cancellation of the Bahrain and Saudi Arabian Grands Prix, bad luck with the timing of a safety car relegated Russell and promoted Antonelli, who won again, while Russell could manage only fourth.

So Antonelli takes a nine-point lead into the next race, in Miami at the beginning of May.

Russell is sanguine about that, and points out that the fact that Mercedes are dominating somewhat skews the dynamic of the contest.

"At the moment, we're just battling against one another," Russell says. "Last year, if you qualified a couple of 10ths behind one another, there was probably four or five cars in between.

"If you made a bad start, you couldn't just make your way back up to the front like we're doing at the moment. So we were punished for our mistakes. This year, so far, we're not really getting punished for our mistakes."

Russell is too cute to make it explicit that the last remark is a reference to Antonelli's own race in Japan, where a bad start dropped him down the field before he recovered. Indeed, Antonelli has made bad starts at all three races so far.

And Russell is quick to add: "He's a fantastic driver. I saw it last year. He showed lots of signs of great speed. But it's very early days and I'm sure it's going to be very close."

Would Russell want it to stay this way, or does he hope another team can improve enough for their drivers to get involved?

"I've got to be honest," he says, "I do love the competition. It just keeps it exciting.

"I love winning when there is massive competition. And that's like every day of life. I want my competitor to be given everything because I want to be able to... I want to beat them knowing they've given it their all. And that's what drives me. So my view is the more the merrier."

One person very obviously missing from the title battle this year is Verstappen, whose Red Bull team have had a difficult start to the season. Does Russell wish he was in the fight?

"Yeah, I do," he says.

It's no secret that Russell and Verstappen have not always seen eye to eye; they've had a couple of very public disagreements, during which neither has held back in expressing their view of the other's character.

I ask how things are between them these days. "They're fine," Russell says. "We've got a bit of respect for one another. And I respect a lot what he does on track. And I respect what he's doing at the moment.

"He's off racing his GT cars, enjoying himself a lot. And in all honesty, if I was a four-time world champion, I'd probably be doing the same. Because he's achieved what I'm striving towards now.

"I wouldn't forgive myself looking back if in a championship fight I was off doing other activities. But if you've accomplished all that he's accomplished, good for him."

Verstappen has been the most outspoken of all the drivers about the new rules that have been introduced into F1 this year, which have given Mercedes the chance to leap back to the front.

"Mario Kart", "Formula E on steroids" and "anti-racing" are just three of the catchy phrases Verstappen has used to describe driving these new cars, which have engines with a 50-50 split between internal combustion and electrical power.

They require energy management around the lap, have been criticised for preventing drivers going flat-out in qualifying. And while there has been a lot more overtaking, even this has not always been seen as a positive, as some of it comes about only because of hugely varying battery charge levels inherent in the rules.

Verstappen is far from the only driver to criticise the new rules. Russell, though, feels differently.

"I definitely don't share that at all," he says. "I'm personally really enjoying the car. The power-unit and the engine is definitely different. And it just needs some fine-tuning to really optimise it. But it's given an opportunity to battle harder, and back-and-forth racing.

"We're here at a kart track now. And Lewis made a great point - in a kart race, you overtake one corner, he overtakes back. And they overtake back again. And no one's ever called that Mario Kart or yo-yo racing or whatever the terminology is. We actually call it pure racing and great racing."

Russell, as director of the Grand Prix Drivers' Association, led the drivers' representation to the rule-makers that the cars needed to be changed so qualifying became more flat-out again - hence some of the rule changes this week.

But he believes even that has been exaggerated.

"Anybody who thinks drivers are going slow in corners to be faster on the straights are wrong," he says.

"There are some small quirks, which the FIA have done their best to eradicate those quirks. These are details that are sort of so complicated, and honestly, fans don't really need to understand.

"From this race forward, with these minor changes the sport are making, it will make our life easier. We'll be flat out in the straights on a qualifying lap, and we won't have to lift off to manage any of the energy."

He also points out that what has been going on inside the cars this year should be seen in the context of F1's history.

"I remember watching F1 20 years ago and hearing the roar of the engines and it was amazing, but not seeing a single overtake," he says.

"That arguably was the purest Formula 1 we've ever seen. But the racing was dull.

"So I think we only remember the positives of certain things. And in the present, we like to focus on the negative. And there's a lot of positives about this new regulation and the new cars.

"I spoke with a Formula 1 driver from the '80s and the '90s, multiple race winner, and he said they would have a boost button that would give them 300bhp more, but then at the end of the straight, at the lift off, they'd run out of fuel.

"So this has always kind of been there to some degree. It's obviously different now, but we always like to highlight the negatives and remember the good stuff from the past."

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In this year's season-opening Australian Grand Prix, Russell and Ferrari's Charles Leclerc repeatedly swapped the lead in the opening 10 laps

Russell's relationship with Verstappen on and off-track has always had extra bite because Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff has made no secret of his admiration for the Dutchman.

Over the summers of both 2024 and 2025, it was widely known that Wolff was courting Verstappen, hoping he would move to Mercedes.

In the end, Verstappen stayed where he was for this year, and Russell signed a new contract. Is there any doubt Russell will stay with Mercedes for 2027?

"Other than me announcing it here on your camera now," he says, "there is nothing to be concerned about.

"Of course, there are options (in the contract), but they are performance-based. At the moment, the performance is very strong, so things will definitely be continuing."

Is "performance" a reference to being in a particular championship position?

"Yes," he says.

His future secure, and finally in the fastest car, Russell has only one thing on his mind.

"To win," he says. "Simple as."

The championship?

"Every race."