Russell's biggest battle at Mercedes is with himself

George Russell has spent much of his Formula 1 career positioning himself as a future world champion. His performances at Williams and then Mercedes suggested a driver with the speed, discipline and consistency to eventually lead a title-winning team.

But his first season with a championship-contending car alongside Kimi Antonelli has presented a challenge he may not have anticipated: not just being beaten by a younger team-mate, but struggling to understand why he has been unable to respond.

Russell was unusually candid about that predicament in Mexico, acknowledging that Antonelli has been operating at a higher level while insisting that his priority is to understand his own shortcomings rather than become preoccupied with the driver in the other garage.

Asked whether his personal relationship with Antonelli had remained healthy despite their contrasting fortunes, Russell replied: “On a personal level, Kimi is obviously a great guy with lots of energy. We’ve had no reason this year not to continue a good relationship.

“I think a lot of these rivalries start because of on-track incidents or actions. The truth is he’s been at a higher level than me this year, so we’ve not really been in that situation too often.”

At this point, it wasn’t a surprising admission, particularly given the growing significance of Antonelli’s performances in the championship, but Russell’s subsequent answers suggested that the gap between himself and his team-mate has also forced him to confront some deeper questions about his own approach.

Asked whether he already had a plan to beat Antonelli next season, Russell explained that he wasn’t approaching the challenge as a direct contest between two drivers.

“We’re not boxers where you’re in a ring fighting directly against somebody else. We’re kind of fighting against ourselves, almost like a golfer,” he said.

“A qualifying lap, you’re there by yourself, and it’s the work and preparation that you’ve done yourself that makes the difference between a good performance and a bad one.

“So, I’m not directly looking at my number one competitor, saying, ‘How am I going to beat this guy?’ I’m more looking at myself in the mirror, thinking, ‘What do I need to do to not have these poor performances? What were the feelings I had from myself and the car during the great performances, so I can replicate that more often?’”

That last point gets to the heart of Russell’s predicament, as he feels his problem isn’t that he has suddenly lost the ability to produce a competitive performance but that he’s been unable to do it consistently.

He described the season as unlike anything he has experienced previously in his career, pointing to the contrast between some of his strongest weekends and the races in which he has struggled to get close to the car’s potential.

“A couple of races ago, we were on pole by eight tenths and won the race. Then, last week, I finished in P8, and I’ve never had a season like this in my career where the performance has fluctuated so much,” he said.

“I know it’s in there because you can’t deliver performances like that in Baku if you’ve so-called lost it. It’s just that we’re struggling to have a high hit rate. We don’t know why that is.”

Russell returned to the subject several times during the press conference, describing a season in which Mercedes has struggled to understand why its performances have varied so dramatically.

He pointed to Monaco, where he endured a difficult weekend, before responding by being quickest in every session in Barcelona and taking pole position. He then qualified on pole again in Austria, only for his form to fluctuate in subsequent races before his commanding performance in Baku.

The comparison with previous seasons was particularly telling.

“I feel that in the years gone by, I’ve had a pretty high hit rate of reaching the potential of the car,” he explained. “Maybe at the end of the season, there were four or five races that I feel were not maximised.

“I remember 2022, we finished in the top five more than any other driver in the whole season. I think it was 19 from 22 races, and this was the third-best car on the grid. Now this season, we have the best car, and I’m not able to achieve these results.”

There may also be a more fundamental explanation for why Russell has struggled to find the consistency he expects of himself. He offered an unusually detailed account of how the characteristics of the 2026 cars have affected his natural driving style.

“I’ve always been a driver who focuses on the middle to the exit of the corners, which often means I’m on the throttle earlier than most,” he said.

“With these new power units, that means I’m spending more energy, and it’s sometimes not the most efficient way to drive for the power unit.”

He also identified the high rear tyre pressures as another complication, explaining that they have made it harder to exploit the rear tyres when pushing on corner exits.

“Again, that has hindered me a little bit by pushing the exits. The rear tyre can’t cope with it as well, and there’s been a bit of a hindrance on the power unit side. These two factors have really hampered my natural driving style. I’d say that’s probably been the biggest thing this season.”

Russell isn’t suggesting that Antonelli’s advantage is entirely down to the machinery or that he has been unable to compete because of circumstances outside his control. Instead, he is trying to understand why the characteristics of the new cars appear to have exposed difficulties in his own approach.

Mercedes, meanwhile, has also been trying to understand why its latest upgrade package has produced such inconsistent results. Russell described it as operating within a particularly narrow performance window, pointing to the contrasting experiences of the two drivers across recent races.

“We first brought it in Malaysia, and it was a pretty tough weekend for the two of us. Then Kimi had it on in Singapore. Again, not a straightforward weekend. I had it back on in Austin and struggled a lot on my side, and he obviously had a very, very strong race.”

He acknowledged that the team needed to widen that window, but added: “From my side, I need to try and focus on getting into that window.”

The challenge for Russell is therefore twofold. Mercedes needs to understand why its performance fluctuates so dramatically, while he must find a way to adapt to a car that doesn’t necessarily reward the driving characteristics that have served him so well throughout his career.

He is at least convinced that the experience won’t define him.

Asked whether watching Antonelli move towards the championship had changed how he viewed success, Russell admitted that the season had taught him more about himself than he would have liked.

“I’ve probably learned more about myself this year than I would have liked, in all honesty,” he said.

But he was also keen to put the setback into perspective, pointing to Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso as examples of drivers who have remained competitive well into their forties.