George Russell says his 20-point deficit to Mercedes team-mate Kimi Antonelli in the 2026 Formula 1 drivers’ championship “means nothing” at this stage of the season.
Mercedes has dominated the new campaign so far, having handled the switch to F1’s new technical regulations better than its rivals. But while Russell won the season opener in Australia, he has been outqualified and outraced by Antonelli in all three grands prix since (sprints excluded).
As a consequence, Russell’s seven-point advantage has turned into a 20-point deficit, and momentum – as volatile as this concept might be – seems to be with the Italian sophomore.
Asked if the Canadian Grand Prix was a big weekend for him in light of the championship situation, Russell said: “It’s just another race for me. It’s just another race and it’s not even in my mind, the championship.
“I know what I’m capable of, I know the speed I’ve got. Obviously, Miami was a bad weekend. It was a tough weekend for me there last year and I went to Montreal and had a great weekend. Doesn’t mean this year is going to be the same, but I just need to focus on myself, go through my processes as I did in Melbourne, as I did in China, and control what I can control.
“So, there’s really no need to panic at all. And as we said, we’re four races down, 18 at least to go,” he added, referring to potential rescheduling of April’s cancelled Middle Eastern rounds.
“And I actually look back on my F2 season, which is obviously the last time I fought for a championship, and I was P6 after four races in F2 and about 35 points down [28 points, precisely]. So, at this point it means nothing.”
George Russell, Mercedes, Andrea Kimi Antonelli, Mercedes
Photo by: Sam Bagnall / Sutton Images via Getty Images
Antonelli has displayed marked improvement following a tricky rookie season in F1, during which he made a number of mistakes and was soundly outperformed by Russell; their qualifying head-to-head was 24-5 on merit, while the Briton scored more than twice as many points with 319 to 150.
Yet, when asked if Antonelli had stepped up this year, Russell replied: “I think Kimi was exceptionally fast all of last year.
“A big difference was we were in the mix with a number of other teams and every single session was a challenge. Even just getting through Q1 last year, there was a lot of pressure, a lot of stress getting into Q3. Similar race starts, if we made a bad start last year, we couldn’t just recover the four or five positions that we lost because we didn’t have that pace advantage.
“So, without doubt, he’s performing on a really great level, but I knew that was within him always and I saw it last year. So yeah, he’s a fantastic driver.”
In other words, there is little doubt that Antonelli will be a formidable title rival for Russell this year, but the 28-year-old won’t let himself get drawn into an intra-team rivalry as he bids for a maiden F1 crown.
“I’ve got to be honest, I’m just looking at myself as my main competitor,” he insisted. “And that’s what I’ve done over the last seven years in my whole Formula 1 career.
“I know that if I tick all of my boxes, I can beat anybody. And that was the case last year when I was team-mates with Kimi, and the year before when I was team-mates with Lewis. So, I’m not looking at my edge over anybody else. I’m looking at ‘How do I get the most out of myself, with my engineers, out of the car set-up, out of the tyres?’
“I know if I tick all of those boxes, I can win. That is my goal.”
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