Russell patiently waiting for title shot: ‘I’m ready for it’

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After a quietly strong 2025 campaign, George Russell is playing the long game – waiting, watching, and increasingly convinced that when the moment comes, he will be ready to strike.

Russell emerged from this season as the clear leader at Mercedes, outperforming expectations alongside rookie Kimi Antonelli and delivering a level of consistency few on the grid could match.

While Lando Norris, Max Verstappen and Oscar Piastr traded blows for the title, Russell quietly secured his team’s runner-up spot in F1’s Constructors' championship with 18 top-five finishes in 24 races.

Reflecting on his campaign, Russell didn’t hold back on his self-assessment.

“Definitely my most solid in terms of performance – most consistent, least mistakes. So yeah, on the whole, it has been,” he noted, quoted by Motorsport.com.

Despite two race wins in 2025 – in Canada and Singapore – Russell knows that the true test of his career remains a head-to-head showdown with the reigning elite. For the 27-year-old, there is only one yardstick for greatness.

“I definitely know I can – I can mix it with those guys at the top,” he asserted.

“Max [Verstappen] is obviously the gold standard at the moment. He's the one that I'd want to go head to head with, and I think he's the only one that people would question.

“He's the only driver on the grid that you'd want to be team-mates with to see your competitiveness with.”

The Schumacher Blueprint

Entering his fifth year at Mercedes and eighth in F1, Russell is leaning on a historical precedent for comfort. He often looks back to Michael Schumacher’s legendary tenure at Ferrari – a partnership that famously took half a decade to yield a world title after the German joined in 1996.

“I always remind myself of Schumacher at Ferrari that it took five years with the team before the first championship,” Russell explained.

“People only remember the glory years but the majority of people don't remember those four years of no championship wins.”

For a driver who spent his early years dragging a backmarker Williams into the points, the frustration of being "near but not quite" is a familiar ache.

“And for me to finish second in the championship, or 20th in the championship, honestly it's kind of the same thing,” he said.

“You're not winning and that has been learning for me as well, coming from Williams when I was at the back every single weekend. That was so frustrating, but now I'm in this position, still not fighting for a championship, isn't really much different, if that makes sense.

“You're either fighting for a championship or you're not, and if you're not, no one ever wants to fight for P2.”