George Russell has described his 2026 Formula 1 campaign as "tough to deal with" after Mercedes team-mate Kimi Antonelli secured the drivers' championship. Russell began the year as title favourite and won the opening race, but his form deteriorated as Antonelli built an insurmountable lead, eventually winning nine races to Russell's three.
In an Instagram post following the Mexico City Grand Prix, Russell congratulated Antonelli on "an absolutely incredible season" and acknowledged the Italian "truly deserved the championship". He wrote: "This season started off exactly how I had hoped but it very quickly unravelled with tough luck and poor performances. It's been the first proper season of my career where I've had more bad days than good."
The Mexico race encapsulated Russell's difficulties. Starting second behind Lewis Hamilton, a glitch in energy deployment left him down on power at the start, and a subsequent collision with Red Bull's Isack Hadjar at Turn Six earned him a 10-second penalty. He finished sixth, dropping to fourth in the final standings as Max Verstappen moved up to second ahead of Hamilton.
Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff allowed Russell to skip post-race media duties after seeing him visibly distraught on the FIA scales. Wolff praised Russell's sportsmanship in congratulating Antonelli and said: "I know, for a sportsperson, he's going through a hard time, but he was also responsible for getting the young man into this team."
Antonelli, for his part, acknowledged Russell's bad luck and expressed confidence in his return: "He's super-quick. He has shown this season that when he's on it, he's very hard to beat." The Italian also looked ahead to 2027, expecting a tight fight among Red Bull, Ferrari, McLaren and Mercedes.
