George Russell says Kimi Antonelli’s points advantage accurately reflects their season. George Russell: "Kimi Antonelli has done a better job than me".

George Russell believes Kimi Antonelli’s advantage in the 2026 Formula 1 Drivers’ Championship is a fair reflection of their performances so far this season. Despite seeing his deficit reduced in recent races, the Mercedes driver admitted that his young teammate has simply done a better job over the opening phase of the campaign.

Russell: the bad luck is over

George Russell entered the 2026 Formula 1 season as one of the championship favourites and lived up to those expectations by winning the opening race in Melbourne. Even during the Australian Grand Prix weekend, however, there were already signs that Kimi Antonelli had the stronger race pace of the two Mercedes drivers.

The young Italian went on to win the next five Grands Prix, comprehensively outperforming Russell both in terms of results and confidence. Admittedly, George Russell’s campaign was also heavily affected by misfortune, particularly during qualifying in China and at the Canadian Grand Prix, to the point where the Briton admitted he had stopped thinking about fighting for the championship.

Russell’s increasingly pessimistic attitude has reportedly not gone down well with Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff, who has recently been highly critical of him over the team radio. Recent events, however, have helped balance the scales. Between Barcelona and Silverstone, fortune finally swung back in Russell’s favour, and the Briton now accepts that the 25-point gap separating him from Antonelli accurately reflects their respective seasons.

Russell’s assessment

“Three races ago I left Monaco 68 points behind. Now I’m leaving Silverstone with a 25-point gap. I’m happy with that, but it can’t continue like this forever unless our results and performances improve,” Russell said after the British Grand Prix.

“I can’t say for certain whether luck has evened itself out or not, but based on our performances over these nine races, I think a 25-point gap in his favour is fair.”

“So far Kimi has done a better job than I have, so he deserves to be ahead of me. Whether it should be 10, 25 or 35 points is open to debate, but I think a gap somewhere between 10 and 30 points is about right,” he added.