George Russell reflects on difficult season after Antonelli seals F1 title

George Russell has spoken about the difficulty of his 2026 Formula 1 season after Mercedes team-mate Kimi Antonelli secured the drivers’ championship. According to BBC Sport, Russell used an Instagram post to congratulate Antonelli and acknowledge that a campaign which began with victory had become the first of his career in which bad days outnumbered good ones.

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Russell entered the season as the title favourite and won the opening race, but Antonelli went on to build a decisive advantage. The Italian has won nine races to Russell’s three. Russell said both misfortune and below-par performances had contributed to his difficulties, and described the repeated effort of recovering from disappointing weekends. He nevertheless praised Antonelli’s season and said his team-mate deserved the championship.

Sunday’s Mexico City Grand Prix brought another setback for Russell, who finished sixth after starting second behind Lewis Hamilton. Max Verstappen won the race, with Hamilton second and Antonelli third. Those results moved Verstappen into second place in the drivers’ standings ahead of Hamilton, while Russell dropped to fourth on the weekend his Mercedes team-mate clinched the title.

BBC Sport reported that an energy-deployment problem left Russell short of power at the start, allowing rivals to pass him. His race was then further compromised by contact with Red Bull driver Isack Hadjar at Turn Six. Russell’s misjudgment sent Hadjar into a spin and resulted in a 10-second penalty, adding another complication to a race that had already gone wrong off the line.

Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff said he saw Russell distressed at the FIA scales after the race and gave him permission to miss his post-race media duties. Wolff praised Russell for going to congratulate Antonelli despite his own disappointment. He also noted Russell’s role in bringing the younger driver into the team, explaining his sympathy for the situation Russell was experiencing.

Russell thanked Mercedes for its work in returning to the front and pledged to keep trying to recover his strongest form through the remainder of this season and into the next. Antonelli, meanwhile, said Russell had experienced bad luck and backed him to recover. The new champion praised his team-mate’s speed while stressing that his own development must continue against both Russell and rival teams.