George Russell began 2026 as the clear favourite for the Formula 1 world title. With four races remaining he is fourth in the standings, 130 points behind the 20-year-old Mercedes team-mate who has already won it, and says he now needs “a deep, deep look in the mirror”.
Russell, 28, was speaking on Thursday ahead of the Sao Paulo Grand Prix, four days after Kimi Antonelli finished third in Mexico City to become the youngest champion in the sport’s history. Antonelli has nine wins this season to Russell’s three.
“It wasn’t meant to be this season but you also need to look at yourself in the mirror and think: ‘What could I have done better’?” Russell said. “Is all of the misfortune truly misfortune? Or is it actually things in our control that could have been better?”
Six clean weekends and a €5,000 fine
The central figure in Russell’s account came from a race-by-race review of the season with his engineer after Mexico.
“We concluded we’ve only had six races from the 20 where we’ve had a clean weekend,” he said. “So to think 14 of those weekends have had issues is unbelievable.” He said a normal season might bring two or three such weekends.
Mexico was the latest example. Russell qualified second behind Lewis Hamilton but lost power on the run to the first corner, a problem he described as a software glitch. He was swamped by the field, collided with Isack Hadjar’s Red Bull at Turn Six and received a 10-second penalty. He finished sixth and dropped from second to fourth in the championship, behind Antonelli, Max Verstappen and Hamilton.
He then left the circuit without completing his media duties, and Mercedes were fined €5,000. Team principal Toto Wolff said Russell had been “distraught”. Russell said the glitch, rather than Antonelli’s title, was the reason he went.
“I think I’m 99% of the time a true professional and I try not to spit my dummy out, but sometimes missing out on doing the press – OK, it’s not ideal but not the end of the world,” he said.
More than bad luck?
Russell’s numbers explain part of the gap to Antonelli, but he did not claim they explain all of it. “I think it’s also important not to be naive and just blame luck on not being victorious,” he said. In an Instagram post on Monday, he listed “tough luck and poor performances” together as the reasons his season unravelled after he won the opening race in Australia.
Sky Sports pundit Martin Brundle has been blunter, saying Russell “couldn’t match Antonelli” for consistent speed. Wolff offered a different diagnosis in Mexico: “The car just didn’t work for him this year.”
Russell stopped short of blaming his team. “I don’t think the team have let me down honestly because these things do happen,” he said. “And last year, we had a car that was extremely reliable and we only finished fourth of the championship. This year, we have a car that’s extremely fast but has been unreliable. So which one do you prefer?”
Mercedes have a precedent for this argument. In 2016, Hamilton publicly questioned why technical failures kept falling on his side of the garage, most notably when his engine blew while he was leading in Malaysia, before losing the title to team-mate Nico Rosberg by five points. Russell’s complaint is similar – “this always seems like it’s on my side of the garage” – but the margin is not, and 130 points is a far harder gap to attribute to misfortune alone.
What comes next
The immediate task is Interlagos, where Russell took his first F1 win in 2022 and where Mercedes could secure the constructors’ championship. They led Ferrari 630-504 after Mexico. Russell’s own hopes are modest. “Do I come in with high expectations? Honestly, no, to be honest,” he said.
The larger question is 2027. Brundle has said the title “might break George, but I think it’ll make him”. Russell must rebuild alongside a champion eight years his junior, in a team that has yet to establish whether its problems are random. “At the moment it does seem like it’s more misfortune than anything,” he said.
That inquiry should give Mercedes an answer on reliability. It cannot settle the other half of Russell’s question, which is how much of the gap to Antonelli would remain with a clean car.
Sports journalist and editor at SportsPortal.net. Covers cricket, football, Formula 1, tennis, and basketball with a focus on how global sports connect with Pakistani audiences. Follows the PSL, Pakistan national cricket team, Premier League, and major international tournaments. Has reported on sports for digital audiences since 2021.
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