McLaren "could win every race in 2025," according to Mercedes' George Russell.

Despite Max Verstappen finishing close behind all-new championship leader Lando Norris in Melbourne, some pegged McLaren's tyre degradation edge on a drier track at up to an eye-watering second per lap.

Russell reckons McLaren's current lead is "greater than Red Bull ever had".

Oscar Piastri, Norris' teammate, fired back: "I have to say, George has been saying some funny stuff lately.

"But he can write off the season if he really wants to."

Norris, now under the intense spotlight as title favourite, faced a jab from Verstappen, who laughed off his claim that the 2025 McLaren is tough to handle.

"Are you sure he wasn't joking?" the Red Bull driver chuckled.

Ferrari's Charles Leclerc, meanwhile, admitted that despite their Melbourne struggles, "we're still a long way behind McLaren".

Some speculate McLaren might falter with the FIA's new rear wing flexibility tests in Shanghai, designed to shut down 'mini-DRS' tricks.

"Nope," Norris said firmly. "We don't have to change anything.

"It's not directed at us - it seems to be directed at other teams."

Ferrari, Alpine, and Haas are also visibly in the FIA's crosshairs over wing flexibility, with the latter two reported to have had to change their wings.

McLaren leads the way again in Shanghai, with Red Bull boss Christian Horner gauging his rival's early edge at "a few tenths at least".

Still, Norris downplayed talk of being the runaway favourite for his first title in 2025. "I had one good weekend," he said. "People need to calm down a bit."

Elsewhere, Red Bull hit back at Lewis Hamilton's bid to minimise his Melbourne radio friction with new race engineer Riccardo Adami, arguing it's tame compared to the "abuse" Verstappen dishes out to Gianpiero Lambiase.

"You never write about that, but you do write about the slightest thing I've had with mine," the Ferrari driver said.

Red Bull countered with a montage of cheerful Verstappen-'GP' moments on social media, while Ralf Schumacher noted Charles Leclerc was "quite rude" to his Ferrari engineer in Australia too.

"If I were the team boss," Schumacher said, "I would bring both of them into my office and give them both a slap on the wrist." body check tags ::