George Russell claims it’ll be a shame to lose the ‘fighter jet feeling’ from 2026 onwards

The 2026 FIA regulations have not sat well with everyone in the F1 paddock.

George Russell claims it’ll be a shame to lose the ‘fighter jet feeling’ from 2026 onwards

George Russell (Via: Imago)

Mercedes F1 driver, George Russell has said that it will be a different feeling altogether upon the arrival of new regulations. The FIA’s new regulations will kick into gear from the start of the 2026 season onwards.

Mercedes is currently the fourth-fastest car on the grid but has been on a subtle improvement spell since the last three races. However, the new regulations are set to contribute a 50/50 share between electric and internal combustion of the engines, which will witness a significant increase in the top speed of the cars but will generate less downforce around corners.

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George Russell hence asserted that the cars will not be the same as of now since lower downforce generation will account for lesser speed around the corners. Russell further said that in order to achieve one goal, others have to be forgone in the world of motorsport.

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But from a driving standpoint, you want the fastest cars, you want to feel like you're in a fighter jet and in 2020, 2021 that's how it felt. Now these cars are getting very quick again in this current era, and I'm sure next year maybe it's even gonna be battling 2020 lap times. It will be a shame to lose some of that performance of the car but on the flip side, it will improve the race if there's less downforce and there's less dirty air. 
George Russell said to the media including RacingNews365

Russell pointed out that the cars are currently at the peak of their performance and will be even better in the coming season with the mastery of the current regulations. However, upon the onset of the new regulations in 2026, every ounce of knowledge and development within the teams will have to start from square one to excel.

Mercedes looking to bully W15 into achieving desired performance

Mercedes Technical Director, James Allison elaborated on the current approach of the team to achieve a more fruitful performance out of the W15. As per Allison, Mercedes is on the right track and the team has figured out an understanding of the 2024 challenger.

Mercedes W15
Mercedes W15 (via IMAGO)
Our challenge is just to keep those upgrades arriving at a pace that the others cannot keep up with and in doing that, just bullying our car to the front by virtue of the effort made by everybody here over the coming weeks and months to get the car so that it can have its Montreal weekend or better at any track that we face in the future.
James Allison via Motorsport.com

James Allison commented that Mercedes is taking a faster approach to bringing upgrades to the car to edge out the pace of their competitors. He also said that the team is essentially bullying the car to get to the front over the coming weeks and months.

Mercedes is currently fourth in the constructors championship but scored the most points as a team in the Canadian GP. They will now look to continue their encouraging run over the next events in Barcelona and Austria to score more podiums and points.

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