Mercedes driver George Russell believes McLaren is so dominant it can already turn off development of its current Formula 1 car and move on to 2026.
McLaren's Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri locked out the front row for Sunday's Australian Grand Prix, with Norris putting nearly four tenths on the team's nearest chaser Max Verstappen in the Red Bull.
As teams aim to find a balance between developing their current car further and focusing on the all-encompassing rule changes for 2026, fourth-fastest Russell believes McLaren has a gap that cannot be overcome, so it can already safely switch all its efforts to next year's project and leave its current MCL39 as it is.
"They're in such an advantage, because they can stop development now and go fully on '26 and it's difficult to overcome that gap," said Russell.
"Red Bull started the [2024] season so far ahead of everyone, but I don't think people overtook them in terms of development. I think they brought some things to the car and went backwards.
"If you've got a six-tenth advantage at the start of the year, nobody finds six tenths throughout the year. So, McLaren is in prime position for now and the future."
Russell is convinced McLaren has unlocked ways to keep tyre wear under control, which would have stood it in good stead in tomorrow's race if it hadn't been for the fact that all forecasts point to a wet-weather contest.
"Tomorrow is anybody's game, as it always is in the rain, but if it was dry, I expect that gap from McLaren to probably increase in race pace," added Russell.
"It's all tyres. If you're strong in sector three, that only points to tyres, so they're doing something pretty special, that's for sure. We always hoped that it could be closer, but that was the reality and fair play to them."
Behind McLaren, Russell feels the race for second can be "anyone's game" this year, with the Mercedes driver and Verstappen closely matched on the second row while Ferrari's Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton went backwards to qualify on row four.
"It's kind of as we expected it: McLaren out front with the comfortable gap, and then I feel like this season can be anyone's game between ourselves, Red Bull and Ferrari," said Russell.
"But you've got surprises like Yuki [Tsunoda] and [Isack] Hadjar, who has been really competitive this week. The Williams has shown great signs of qualifying pace, but in terms of the race, that's what we're going see."
McLaren boss Andrea Stella refused to get carried away by his squad's strong qualifying performance because he felt Ferrari hadn't been able to use its full potential.
"I am certainly surprised of the gap between McLaren and Ferrari, but I don't take that gap at face value," said Stella.
"I'm sure the potential of the red car is higher than for some reasons it was possible to exploit today. We have seen that until possibly qualifying in every single session, even in Bahrain, so we are very realistic that Ferrari is definitely one of the main contenders.
"Lando and Oscar put together two strong laps in Q3, and I think this may create a slightly over-optimistic picture of the competitiveness of the team."
