George Russell's reliability conceals Mercedes' underlying challenges in Formula 1 2025

Mercedes driver George Russell has given a performance that is astonishingly consistent throughout the Formula 1 2025 season, but under the surface, the German team continues to struggle with real issues, most notably in race pace and tyre management. For all that Russell has won, with top-five results in every practice session and four podiums, he has yet to lead a lap this year — an indication of the team's underlying performance deficit when it counts.
George Russell's streak of top-fives can't mask Mercedes' tyre and race pace woes in 2025
George Russell's consistent performances for Mercedes in the current 2025 Formula 1 season may indicate that the team is a contender for the championship, but the truth is far from it. Although the Briton continues to be a regular within the top five on both qualifying and racing days, Mercedes continues to seek answers on race pace—particularly when contrasted with leaders such as McLaren and Red Bull Racing .
The 27-year-old got closest to leading a race at the Bahrain Grand Prix , where he battled McLaren's Oscar Piastri off the start but dropped back, crossing more than 15 seconds behind. That margin is indicative of a wider problem that is afflicting Mercedes—carrying pace over entire race distances.
Though Mercedes has closed up their qualifying gap—reducing the difference from pole to an average of 0.289s to a paltry 0.116s—the issue is to carry that pace over 50+ laps. The trend is concerning: they trailed the winner by 11 seconds in China, 17 seconds in Japan, 27 seconds in Jeddah, and 38 seconds in Miami — all races free of safety cars.
Wolff was honest in his judgement, highlighting the way McLaren has jumped ahead of them in the handling of tyre temperatures and retaining performance. The Woking-based squad is said to have come up with a pioneering technique to keep rear tyres within the ideal thermal window, notably through managing heat transfer from brakes. Contrary to speculation, Wolff defended McLaren's integrity. “We are solid in what we’re doing, but they are definitely doing an excellent job by being able to go fast around the corners without overheating them,” he said. “I have no doubt that these guys stay within the rules. It’s just really good development. They’ve understood how to manage the tyre much better than everybody else. And in my opinion, it’s totally legit. Also, from a team management point of view, when somebody’s doing a better job than you, we should not look at that and say they’re cheating, because that’s not the right attitude anyway. So we just need to become better and eventually not get 30 or 35 seconds [behind] over 55 laps."
Also read: “He wanted to go”- Former Williams’s Dy team principal Claire Williams recalls how she lost George Russell to Mercedes
Russell's stellar numbers might be indicative of a driver pushing his package to the limit, but for Mercedes, the path to bridging the gap to Max Verstappen's Red Bull Racing and Lando Norris' McLaren is far more complex.