Despite Max Verstappen losing 2 out of 6 races, F1 race winner does not think a title challenge is possible before 2026

Mercedes driver George Russell feels that the realistic target for a title challenge against Max Verstappen and Red Bull is 2026. This comes as a surprise, as the 2024 F1 season has already seen the gap at the front decrease.

Red Bull lost only one race in 2023 but in 2024, the team has already lost twice in 6 races. What's more encouraging is that it is not just due to the opposition capitalizing on the team's mistakes, but the competition performing well enough to beat the team. The race in Melbourne saw Ferrari have the pace to win.

The same thing happened in Miami, where Max Verstappen could not keep up with Lando Norris in his McLaren after the safety car period. These are major positives for the teams, as Ferrari itself is expected to bring an upgrade package in Imola that could further close the gap to Red Bull.

Mercedes driver George Russell, however, does not think the gap is decreasing much, as he feels that maybe the wind tunnel restrictions and regulations need to be tighter to help teams catch up to the leader. Conceding that, in his view, it does not appear that a title battle against Max Verstappen is possible until 2026, Russell told media, including Motorsport.com,

“I think the changes that we’re seeing in the regulations with the cost cap, with the wind-tunnel time, it is going to bring the field closer together, but does it need to be more aggressive? I don’t know, because at the moment, nobody is catching Red Bull either with these things in place, but we just need to focus on ourselves, and keep doing the best job possible."

He added,

“We need to try and bring ourselves further up the order, but also being realistic that Red Bull is a long way ahead of everybody, and it may not be until 2026 that they have a real challenge for the title.”

Max Verstappen-Red Bull dominance part of a common phenomenon in F1

When questioned if there was any frustration with the extended period of Max Verstappen-Red Bull dominance, Russell felt that this was part of F1. We've seen single-team dominance since the 1980s. It began with Williams dominating the sport, followed by McLaren, which was then followed by Ferrari and so on. Talking about Max Verstappen dominating the sport, Russell said,

"When you join a team like Mercedes, we’re all here to win, and that is the same for Ferrari and McLaren as well. It was the same for Red Bull during the Mercedes dominance era, and unfortunately, this is Formula 1."

He added,

“You always see dominance, if you look at 30 years ago, you had Williams dominating, you had McLaren dominating, then it was Ferrari who dominated and then Red Bull, then Mercedes.”

The 2024 F1 season is at a critical juncture right now with Max Verstappen losing in a straight fight against Lando Norris. If the upgrades prove to work at Imola as well, we're looking at a season where things could get very interesting at the front.