George Russell says it’s up to teammate Kimi Antonelli to lose the world championship. The Brit sees himself 43 points behind after his retirement in Canada and the dominant streak of the 19-year-old Italian, while Antonelli is firmly in the lead at Mercedes with four consecutive victories. Russell, however, thinks he can benefit from being the pursuer now; it’s Antonelli’s task not to succumb to the pressure.
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Russell had to relinquish the lead in Montreal after his engine failed, a blow in a season where he has only managed to win one Grand Prix so far. With the Monaco GP approaching – only the sixth of twenty-two Grands Prix in 2026 – the Brit emphasizes that much can still happen. “If I look at it from my competitor’s (Antonelli, ed.) perspective, you now have such a big lead that you can only maintain or lose it,” said Russell. “It’s up to him to lose the title now.”
“My mindset is to enjoy every race and try to win every race, just as I have done all season,” Russell continued defiantly. “I’m going to fight the same way, I’m not going to change my mentality, and I’m not going to let this put extra pressure on me.” The six-time race winner attributes the current deficit to a series of setbacks earlier this season, including qualifying problems in China, the safety car in Japan, and his retirement in Canada. Yet he refuses to speak of an insurmountable deficit.
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Resilience
“I don’t feel like I have to achieve the best result everywhere now, because the season is long enough for the power dynamics to still shift,” he said. “I just have to make sure I stay ahead of him in the end, even though he’s the one racking up the results right now.” His retirement in Montreal certainly hurt him, but he can now put it into perspective. “That’s just how it goes in motorsport,” said a sober Russell.
Toto Wolff previously praised Russell, precisely because of his resilience. “In Formula 2, I had, I think, five retirements over the course of one year,” Russell gave as an example. “Yet I fought all year and ultimately won the title. I now draw inspiration from those moments. Every year you have a number of races where everything goes your way, but it can also turn around just like that. Mentally, I’m fortunately in a very good place. The pressure is off and there’s still a lot of time to go.”
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