# George Russell calls Red Bull 'the team to beat' in F1

> George Russell says Red Bull is F1's new benchmark but Mercedes needs to unlock its upgrade potential.
- Title: George Russell calls Red Bull 'the team to beat' in F1
- Summary: George Russell says Red Bull is F1's new benchmark but Mercedes needs to unlock its upgrade potential. George Russell states Red Bull is the current F1…
- Keywords: george russell, red bull, mercedes, kimi antonelli, w17, rb22, singapore gp, circuit of the americas, sports, cars, George, Russell
- Source: Motorsport — https://motorsport.com/f1/news/george-russell-calls-red-bull-the-team-to-beat-in-f1-but-kimi-antonelli-adds-a-key-caveat/10864572
- Author: Ronald Vording
- Published: 2026-10-12T08:17:13+00:00
- Read time: 1 min
- Topics: george russell, red bull, mercedes, f1, kimi antonelli, w17, rb22, singapore gp, circuit of the americas, sports, cars
## George Russell
George Russell calls Red Bull the team to beat in F1.

> Yeah, I mean, 5, 10 or 20 seconds more; it would have helped the picture, but I'm not going to lose any sleep over that
## Mercedes upgrade
Mercedes introduced W17 upgrade for Singapore GP but performance gains are limited.

> The numbers say it's performing as we expect, but obviously the lap times haven't been that great
## Kimi Antonelli
Kimi Antonelli says Mercedes hasn't fully extracted potential from W17 upgrade.

> I think it’s probably mostly us not extracting the maximum out of the new package
## Performance window
Mercedes' W17 upgrade has a narrow window for performance gains.

> It's just that the window is very small at the moment, the window in which the car operates
## Austin GP
Mercedes aims to clinch title at US GP with three free practices.

> In Austin, we have three free practices, so we can be very open-minded with the set-up
## Red Bull's lead
Red Bull has won three races in Singapore, Malaysia and Baku.

> Right now they are the team to beat
## Next steps
Mercedes needs to unlock W17 potential before US GP.

> We can use the full potential of the package and finally see the gains
## Key takeaway

George Russell states Red Bull is the current F1 benchmark after three strong races, but Mercedes' upgrade has yet to deliver full performance gains.