George Russell secured an impressive second-place finish at his home race at Silverstone, but the Mercedes driver left the 2026 British Grand Prix far from satisfied. Despite standing on the podium, Russell admitted that both he and the team still have significant improvements to make if they are to fight for the Formula 1 world championship.
After another difficult weekend that began with several setbacks, Russell recovered to finish between the two Ferraris of race winner Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton. Early in the race, the Briton had been battling Max Verstappen and Hamilton for third place before a slow puncture dropped him to seventh. Later, Andrea Kimi Antonelli’s retirement, Max Verstappen’s accident and the resulting Safety Car helped Russell climb back to second after Hamilton pitted in anticipation of a restart that never came.
“If I want to fight for the championship, we need to be better”
Speaking in the FIA post-race press conference, Russell admitted that, despite the positive result, he was actually less satisfied than he had been after the Canadian Grand Prix, where he retired while leading the race.
“Even though I’m extremely grateful to stand on the podium, I’ll probably leave this weekend feeling less satisfied than I did after Canada, where I retired while leading. If I want to fight for the championship, our performances have to improve. I need to improve. I need to work better with my team. We need to maximize everything.”
“We’re now in a very close fight with Ferrari, so it’s not just Kimi and me anymore. Lewis Hamilton is still very close as well. We simply need to improve.”
Asked whether Ferrari had become a genuine threat after back-to-back victories in Barcelona with Hamilton and Silverstone with Charles Leclerc, Russell preferred to focus on Mercedes’ own shortcomings.
“Honestly, I’m not even thinking about Ferrari because I have my own problems to deal with. Three races ago in Monaco I was 68 points behind, and now the gap is down to 25. Of course I’d take that, but it won’t continue forever unless our results and performances improve.”
“It was a very difficult weekend”
Russell explained that almost nothing had gone smoothly throughout the weekend.
“Honestly, I don’t really know how to sum it up because it was a very difficult weekend. Things that were under my control didn’t go well, things that were outside my control didn’t go well either, and all of that resulted in poor pace.”
“During the race I was having a great battle with Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton, and I felt I could overtake Max. With our straight-line speed advantage over the Ferraris, I also believed I could keep Lewis behind me. Third place would probably have been the fair result, behind Charles Leclerc and Kimi Antonelli.”
Everything changed after Russell suffered a slow puncture that dropped him down the order.
“After the puncture, I couldn’t believe my bad luck. I’ve moved past the anger and frustration now. If you’d told me I was going to finish second, I wouldn’t even have understood how that was possible. So I’m very grateful to be on the podium.”
Russell on the Safety Car finish
Asked about the race ending behind the Safety Car, Russell said:
“It’s a shame whenever a race finishes under the Safety Car. But if you think back to Abu Dhabi 2021, that’s just how racing works. Nobody can predict when someone is going to crash, and I don’t think Formula 1 and the FIA should manage the end of a race differently from the beginning.”
“Obviously there was a lot of discussion after Abu Dhabi 2021, but if you look at how many races have actually finished behind the Safety Car over the last 20 years, there really haven’t been that many. So yes, it’s unfortunate, but what else can you do? I don’t think it should be handled differently.”
“I’m still struggling to understand this car”
Russell also admitted that Mercedes continues to puzzle him. Throughout Friday and Saturday he struggled with unexplained straight-line speed issues, leaving him consistently slower than teammate Andrea Kimi Antonelli.
“The car actually felt good, but the lap times were slow. Some factors were outside my control, while others were within my control. I’m still struggling to understand this car.”
His post-race radio message summed up his frustration.
“Well done for sticking with it, but we really need to understand this straight-line speed because otherwise this would have been an incredibly frustrating weekend. We got lucky.”
Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff immediately replied:
“Yes, George, but I think our top speed was actually good during the race.”
“Kimi deserves to be ahead of me”
Russell also reflected on his championship battle with teammate Andrea Kimi Antonelli. Earlier in the season he often spoke about bad luck costing him points, while Antonelli built a healthy lead in the standings. More recently, however, the momentum has shifted after Antonelli retired in Barcelona and suffered another reliability issue at Silverstone.
“I don’t know whether luck has balanced itself out or not. But based on both of our performances over these nine races, I think a 25-point gap in Kimi’s favour is probably fair. He’s simply done a better job than I have so far this season, and he deserves to be ahead of me.”
“Whether the gap should be 25 points, 10 or 35 is open to debate. I also lost 15 points in Monaco because of the drive-through penalty. Overall, I think a gap somewhere between 10 and 30 points is probably about right.”
Thanks to his second-place finish and Antonelli’s retirement, Russell now trails his teammate by just 25 points in the Drivers’ Championship. Even so, he believes that results like Silverstone are not enough to sustain a genuine title challenge.
“It’s important to keep fighting, but the truth is there were many things this weekend that we still don’t understand. I had straight-line speed problems on Friday and Saturday, and although things were better today, the overall performance simply wasn’t good enough. If things continue like this, I won’t be fighting for the championship.”
“I’m not going home satisfied with this weekend. I’ll accept the result, but I would actually have been happier leaving Canada after retiring while leading than finishing second today. That’s probably because I deserved to win in Canada, whereas today I don’t think I deserved to finish where I did.”
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