George Russell has declared he is ready to fight for the Formula One title and is not carrying the burden of being installed as world championship favourite.

Mercedes won eight consecutive constructors’ championships, and took Lewis Hamilton to six of his record-equalling seven titles prior to Russell’s arrival.

But Mercedes failed to get a true grip of F1’s last set of regulations, spanning Russell’s four terms with the team so far.

However, following a major upheaval of the sport’s technical rulebook – with the chassis, engines, tyres and fuel all new for 2026 – Mercedes caught the eye in last week’s behind-closed-doors test at Barcelona’s Circuit de Catalunya by boasting both impressive speed and reliability.

And Russell, a five-time race winner and one of last season’s standout performers, said: “I feel ready to fight for a world championship, and whether we have that tag as favourites above us or not, it doesn’t change my approach one single bit. It doesn’t bring any more pressure.

“We have only driven the car for three days, but quoting (Mercedes team principal) what Toto (Wolff) said: ‘It doesn’t look like it is a turd’, which is a bonus. And to be honest, in the early days you know when it could be a really bad car and we don’t believe it is.

“Everyone here has worked flat-out to maximise this set of regulations and I am so excited by the challenge because it is a huge challenge adapting to these new cars.

“There are a lot of things we need to learn very quickly, but I feel I can take advantage of that and I feel confident in myself and in the team. But is it a car that can produce a world championship? It is still way too early to say.”

Behind Russell, four-time world champion Max Verstappen will spearhead Red Bull’s challenge – with the Milton Keynes team running their own engines for the first time – while McLaren’s Lando Norris has already said it is his goal to retain his crown. Lewis Hamilton will hope to bounce back from a poor debut season at Ferrari.

Russell and Verstappen have clashed both on and off track, and a direct title battle between the two men would certainly carry some additional spice.

And Russell, 27, continued: “I would love that. He (Verstappen) is very much going to be in the fight this year.

“You obviously wish you had a slightly easier time of it, but it should never be easy, and if you are going to win, you want to have fought for it and won it fair and square on track.

“The best-case scenario is if you have a number of teams battling it out, and at the moment it does look like Red Bull, McLaren, Ferrari and ourselves are the four teams that are quite close.”

Wolff said: “It is always nice if your driver is the favourite with the bookmakers, and he (Russell) deserves it because he is one of the best.

“But it is always the best driver and the best car that wins, and we have not proven yet that we have a package that is good enough.

“We are happy people, but with the scepticism of not having reliable data from the other usual suspects.”

There will be two three-day tests in Bahrain later this month ahead of the season-opening race in Australia on March 8.