George Russell is building 'toolbox of experience' to re-engage after F1 title woes

George Russell has described how the "toolbox of experience" he has developed during his 2026 F1 title woes will be used in good stead in future battles. 

After 12 races of the season, the Briton is 59 points behind team-mate Kimi Antonelli in the title race, with the Italian also having the buffer of six grand prix wins to Russell's two. 

Despite winning the season-opener in Australia, Russell has struggled to get on top of the W17 at times, with an issue in his driving style affecting performances, before power unit software issues affected his British and Belgian GP weekends. 

After a tough first half of the season, Russell came back with a dominant Sprint victory in the Dutch GP weekend, and qualified second for the main grand prix, and looked set to take further points out of Antonelli, having already reduced his deficit by three with the win.

In the grand prix, Antonelli finished second to Russell's third, meaning the gap exiting the weekend was the same 59 points as it was entering it, leaving Russell with one fewer weekend to reel in his team-mate.

However, Russell believes that he has made a breakthrough in his driving style and understanding with the car, and that the tough experiences he has gone through in 2026, will be added to the "toolbox of experience" he hopes to draw upon in the remainder of this campaign, and in the future.

"I think the truth is, obviously Kimi’s been doing an amazing job this season, and clearly the two of us have quite different driving styles," Russell observed to media, including RacingNews365.

"That was apparent last year, and it is really working well for him with this car and these tyres, and I'm just trying to implement something similar into my driving style.

"I kind of describe it as, like, if you change your golf swing, you’ll probably take half a step back before making those improvements, and I think the break just allowed me to put those learnings into the back of my mind, come [to the Dutch GP] and not fixate on what I want to try and achieve with the car and the tyres, but knowing in the back of my head what I need to achieve and just drive more freely. 

"I’m really, really proud of that because it’s just sort of building that toolbox of experience for me that’s going to allow me to be even better in the years to come. 

"Who knows, maybe next year the technique is totally different again. That’s the beauty and challenge of Formula 1. Every year it’s different.

"I’m just going to take it race by race. I’m not going to come away from [the Zandvoort weekend] and say all issues are resolved. I do think I made some big changes going into the Barcelona weekend, and I had some good races in Barcelona and Austria. 

"Then Silverstone and Spa, we had the PU issue, and Budapest was just not a competitive weekend on my side. So, I think it just hasn’t been a clean run this season. 

"It has not been a clean season whatsoever with all of the issues that we’ve had. But I just feel, I think after the break, I just feel way more relaxed. I don’t feel like I’ve got anything to lose. 

"The pressure’s off. I’m just going to go out, enjoy it, and I don’t even really feel in a fight.

"It’s not mine to lose; it’s mine to gain. So that’s the mentality I’ve got, and I feel it’s going to help me. I’m just enjoying driving."