insists he’ll know “inside 5 laps” of testing whether or not he can win the F1 world championship this 12 months.
The driver, who’s coming into his fourth 12 months with the staff however first with out as a teammate, completed sixth in final 12 months’s standings however did win two races, in Austria and Las Vegas.
Italian teenager joins Russell within the storage this 12 months however having joined the once-great Silver Arrows simply after their interval of domination resulted in 2021, the 27-year-old is hoping for a automobile able to difficult McLaren, Ferrari and Purple Bull on the entrance this 12 months.
Russell and Antonelli will drive the brand new W16 automobile, unveiled on Monday, in a “shakedown” on Tuesday in Bahrain earlier than the official pre-season check begins on Wednesday.
“I feel inside 5 laps you recognize whether or not you’re in for an excellent season or not,” Russell stated.
“We’ve identified inside the first 5 laps of the final couple of years that we wouldn’t be combating for the championship. It’s been far more sturdy this season.
“All of the groups are so aggressive now. Everyone is aware of the restrictions that they’ve had these final three years, if we convey the efficiency we anticipate it needs to be an excellent step ahead.
“However we’ve seen with many different groups, they’ve introduced upgrades and it doesn’t work. There are by no means ensures. As a staff, we had such a lull all through 2023 not profitable a race. We had an enormous restructure change with James Allison coming again and we’re now pushing on the helm of the brand new strategy.
“2026 is an enormous one however I’m optimistic we will have a good season.”
Russell was embroiled in a with four-time world champion Max Verstappen on the finish of final 12 months in Qatar and Abu Dhabi, however the British racer seemed to decrease the temperature heading into the brand new marketing campaign.
In Qatar, Russell stated Verstappen vowed to place him “on his f****** head within the wall” – calling the driver a “bully” and including that his feedback had been “unacceptable”.
On the matter, Russell stated: “No considerations about his driving or something.
“That occurred final 12 months… I wish to give attention to myself. Clearly I felt issues received out of line on the finish of final 12 months, I made it fairly clear I’m not going to take it.
“However now it’s 2025 and I’m targeted on the job and the job is to win, I’m not going to alter my strategy combating him or every other drivers, the objective is to win.
“We’ll see after we get to Melbourne.”
The 2025 season begins in Australia on 16 March.
