George Russell believes Red Bull Racing still holds Formula 1’s sharpest weapon when it comes to energy deployment – but insists Mercedes is no longer staring at a “scary” deficit after the final week of pre-season testing in Bahrain.
Under the desert floodlights, as teams packed away their garages and the timing screens fell silent, one thing remained clear: the 2026 power unit era is going to be a deployment war. And right now, Russell says Red Bull’s battery release still hits hardest.
“Their deployment definitely still looks the best on the grid, which is kudos to them,” Russell said in Bahrain last week.
Last week, whispers in the paddock painted Red Bull’s straight-line punch as ominous. Russell himself had previously labelled the advantage “pretty scary,” while Mercedes boss Toto Wolff suggested the gap could equate to as much as a second per lap.
But the tone has shifted.
Closing The Gap in the Desert
After six days of relentless data gathering at the Bahrain International Circuit, Russell believes Mercedes-powered teams have clawed back significant ground.
“I think it was a bit of a surprise to everybody, so let’s see come Melbourne how things shake up,” he said.
“I think the Mercedes-powered teams have made a lot of improvements since day one of Bahrain last week, so that gap has closed drastically.
“But we’re obviously [on] day six of Bahrain testing now, whereas in Melbourne, you’ve got three hours of practice, and that’s the main point of concern.”
That last line carries weight. Testing allows experimentation. Race weekends do not. When the paddock lands at Melbourne’s Albert Park, there will be no luxury of six days to fine-tune deployment maps — just three practice hours before the lights go out.
Despite Mercedes and Ferrari emerging from Bahrain with the label of early favourites, Red Bull’s energy management remains the benchmark in Russell’s eyes.
Behind them, McLaren appears locked in a tight scrap, with the quartet already forming a clear front-running pack.
Even Red Bull team principal Laurent Mekies has conceded that Mercedes and Ferrari may hold a slight overall edge for now. But in a season shaped by hybrid complexity, raw aerodynamic balance may not tell the full story.
A New Kind of Racing
Energy deployment – when to release electrical power, when to harvest it, and how aggressively to manage it across a lap – is poised to define 2026’s competitive order.
Russell believes the dynamic will fundamentally alter how races unfold.
Asked whether the new cars are easier to follow, he replied: “You definitely can, because there’s less aero on the cars, so there’s less disturbance.”
Cleaner air may help drivers tuck in closer through corners. But Russell warns the real differentiator lies elsewhere.
“I think the big difference this year compared to the previous era is the variability in energy deployment between cars and drivers, depending on driving styles, will probably far outweigh the aero turbulence,” he said.
“So, I think we will see different racing, and I think tracks like Melbourne and Jeddah, where there are numerous long straights, I think the racing could be quite intriguing.”
Read also: Stella names rivals ‘a step ahead’ of McLaren after BahrainMelbourne, with its blast zones and heavy braking points, will be the first battleground. Jeddah’s sweeping straights will follow soon after. In both places, battery release timing could mean the difference between defending and disappearing.
Red Bull may still lead the charge in deployment precision. But if Russell is right, Mercedes has slashed the deficit from alarming to attackable.
And in Formula 1’s new energy era, the stopwatch won’t just measure speed – it will measure who presses the button best.
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