George Russell reveals real source of 2026 pressure amid Kimi Antonelli crushing

George Russell has insisted he never put himself under pressure to fight for the championship this season, but rather to lift his own performances.

The Mercedes driver sits second in the drivers' standings with 211 points, some 81 adrift of team-mate Kimi Antonelli, who has dominated the year with eight wins from 14 rounds. 

Russell has taken just two victories himself, and conceded after the Spanish Grand Prix in Madrid that the title is now effectively out of reach.

His campaign has been disrupted by reliability trouble as much as raw pace. Russell suffered straight-line speed issues at both Silverstone and Spa caused by software calibration problems in Mercedes' hybrid energy deployment, and a power unit electronic failure ended his race from the lead in Canada. 

Mercedes boss Toto Wolff has already acknowledged that Russell's championship hopes have largely slipped away, though he stressed the team is still working closely with the Briton to find performance gains under the current regulations.

Speaking on media day ahead of the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, Russell was asked whether his approach had shifted since accepting he is no longer a title contender.

"I'm going to keep fighting every single race until it's mathematically impossible, but it doesn't change how I go about my job," said Russell.

"I want to try and win every single race and put it on pole every single race. That's my goal. That's what I'm working towards every single weekend, and what happens thereafter will be. 

"And there's obviously a huge deficit, but it's not even really a consideration right now. It's just the performance is the biggest priority."

George Russell explains reasoning behind 'performance' pressure

While Russell entered the current campaign as the favourite for the championship, he has not shown the consistency to take the fight to Antonelli. 

Russell's 20-year-old team-mate has out-classed him in almost every area, a large reason for the significant points gap between the pair.

Asked whether he was now putting less pressure on himself with the championship effectively gone, Russell explained that the motivation had never really come from the title race in the first place.

Discussing if he is now putting less pressure on himself, Russell explained: "I don't think I was really putting any pressure on myself before, from a championship standpoint. 

"I was putting pressure on myself from a performance perspective. I'm in this position in the championship because the performance hasn't been strong enough. 

"So it's been the case for a while where it's the pressure has come from trying to improve the performance rather than thinking I need to fight for the championship, because you can only fight for a championship if you've got the performance."