Russell's Wish: Newey at Mercedes

George Russell hopes for Adrian Newey’s potential move to Mercedes F1, showcasing his optimism in the team despite uncertainties surrounding a return to the top sans restructuring.

George Russell would like Adrian Newey to join Mercedes F1 in the coming months, as the designer will leave Red Bull at the beginning of 2025. However, the Brackley team’s driver does not want to underestimate the team already in place at the eight-time constructors’ champions.

“Of course. You want to have the best engineers, the best drivers, the best mechanics, you want to have the best individuals on your team,” said the British driver.

“But I think the team we have here, over the past 12 years, the group of engineers sitting in the next room are still the most high-performing engineers Formula 1 has seen over the last 12 or 13 years.”

Russell is not worried that Newey might refuse to come to Mercedes and is confident in his team’s future: “Currently, we are going through a period where we are not achieving the success that the team experienced a few years ago.”

“But I trust everyone, the people who have won championships, the new engineers, and those who are part of this journey, to bring Mercedes back to the top.”

The driver does not know if Formula 1 will soon see a significant tightening at the top of the hierarchy: “I think the changes we are seeing in the regulations, with cost capping and development handicaps, will bring the competitors closer.”

“But do they need to be more aggressive? I don’t know, because at the moment, no one can catch up to Red Bull with all this, but we need to focus on ourselves and continue to do the best job possible.”

“We need to try to climb higher in the hierarchy, while being realistic about the fact that Red Bull is far ahead of everyone and it may take until 2026 for them to be truly in a position to compete for the title.”

However, Russell also acknowledges that seeing a cycle of team domination is not surprising: “When you join a team like Mercedes, we are all here to win, and it’s the same for Ferrari and McLaren.”

“It was the same for Red Bull during Mercedes’ era of domination, and unfortunately, that’s Formula 1. If you look back 30 years, Williams was dominating, McLaren was dominating, then it was Ferrari, followed by Red Bull, then Mercedes.”