George Russell clears Mercedes of blame after F1 title dream disaster

George Russell has emphatically rejected the idea that Mercedes has 'let him down' following his 2026 F1 title defeat to Kimi Antonelli. 

Russell entered the first season of F1's new technical regulations as the overwhelming favourite to be crowned world champion, and underlined this status in the opening round of the season by winning the Australian Grand Prix from pole position. 

He then started the Chinese GP weekend strongly by winning the Sprint, and topping Q1 and Q2 of qualifying before a battery issue stopped him on track in Q3, limiting him to one run in Q3 as Antonelli swept to pole.

The Italian then converted into a first grand prix victory, as he then unleashed five straight victories, including in Canada, where Russell, who had won the Sprint, retired from the lead with an engine failure.

In Britain and Belgium, there was a deployment issue on his car, which then struck again on race-day at Spa on the opening lap, leaving him vulnerable to attack from behind, as he collided with Lewis Hamilton at Les Combes and retired as Antonelli won.

Then, when fighting for a podium in Bahrain and Malaysia, he suffered yet another power unit failure, before another deployment issue struck on the long run from the start to Turn 1 in Mexico City on the opening lap, dropping him from second on the grid to sixth at Turn 1, as he then collided with Isack Hadjar and earned a 10-second time penalty.

Antonelli sealed the title after that race, with Russell leaving the circuit before even speaking to media, something Mercedes was fined €5,000 for.

Reflecting, the Briton believes that the team has not let him down and his poor season is simply part and parcel of grand prix racing. 

"I don't think the team have let me down, honestly, because these things do happen," Russell told media, including RacingNews365.

"Nobody intends for it to happen. We're all trying our best to deliver the best, and last year we had an extremely reliable car, and you know we only finished fourth in the championship. 

"This year, we have a car that's extremely fast, but has been unreliable. So, which one do you prefer? 

"We weren't satisfied last year, and then of course, even though the team will win both championships, they're still not satisfied with this season. 

"And then, as for my own championship, it's difficult to put a number on how much it's impacted the championship because it's often about momentum. 

"When we started the season, we had the issue in China with the failure in qualifying. We had the issues in Japan. We had the engine failure in Canada and the drive-through penalty that wasn't a drive-through penalty in Monaco. These things compound."

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Was Russell overdriving?

Russell then added that another factor in his struggles could possibly lay in the fact that after his setbacks, he was trying to "overachieve" with his driving to ensure Antonelli did not get too far ahead in the points table.

"If you're in the championship fight or you're within touching distance, you feel like you're having to catch up [after the setbacks]", he added 

"And maybe that contributed towards overdriving and trying to overachieve. Maybe not. 

"You can't answer it, and I'm not looking to answer it. Just, altogether, it just hasn't been the year I wanted."