George Russell believes "an extremely challenging set" of regulations meant Mercedes "led themselves down the wrong path" in the championship standings.

After Lewis Hamilton just missed out on the World Championship to Max Verstappen at the 2021 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, Mercedes have struggled to return to the front of the grid.

Their 'sidepod-less' experiment in 2022 saw the German team start development all over again, and although continuous improvements up to the 2025 season occurred, they were behind the sticks for the majoirty of the regulations.

In 2025, Russell impressed hugely behind the wheel of the W16 with two race wins, but Mercedes were no match for McLaren throughout the campaign, while Red Bull manufactured a stunning turnaround of the summer break.

George Russell finished P4 in the drivers' standings with 319 points after a fantastic campaign - Photo: Race Pictures

"I think it's been an extremely challenging set of regs, to be honest," Russell started by saying to GPblog and others during Thursday's press conference in Abu Dhabi.

"Obviously, in the second half of the year, Red Bull have been on a very high level. But if I were to answer that question during the summer break, I would have argued that we were at a similar level to Red Bull.

"If you compare that to 2023 – Aston Martin were ahead of ourselves, and Ferrari and dropped off, McLaren were nowhere and obviously just found something pretty spectacular. So, I can't really answer that question – what it is we've missed."

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Can Mercedes start on the front foot?

With the 2025 season officially concluded after the FIA Prize Giving Ceremony, laser-eyed focus will now be on 2026 and the brand-new regulations, with new images of the machines that will take to the tarmac next season were released by Formula 1.

There have been conflicting thoughts about how the new set of cars will fare amid the radical overhaul of regulations, with Lewis Hamilton cautious about the change.

Russell will be hoping Mercedes will start on the front foot with these new regulations and not see a repeat of the stalled progress from 2022.

George Russell celebrates his Singapore GP victory on the podium - Photo: Race Pictures

"I think it's probably more where we started. I think we probably started in the wrong place and led ourselves down the wrong path, and then had to revert," the Brit continued.

"Clearly, Red Bull, out of the blocks, had the least amount of porpoising in ’22 and almost had a six- or eight-month head start on everybody while we were trying to work that out.

"I don't think this regulation is really going to have any impact on the next set of regs, because the issues are going to be totally different."

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