Remarkable George Russell statistic highlights extreme misfortune and underperformance

George Russell has endured a bruising F1 season. Coming into the campaign, he was widely expected to clinch his first drivers' championship.

Russell was the bookmakers' favourite; it was anticipated that his Mercedes would be the best car, and he handily beat Kimi Antonelli over the Italian's rookie year in Formula 1.

The Toto Wolff-led team did indeed produce the strongest package, but the title went to his team-mate with four — maybe three — rounds to spare. Not only was it not close, but Russell has slumped to fourth in the standings, in a season that started so well, with an emphatic victory in Melbourne.

Through 19 rounds, Antonelli has amassed a now-insurmountable 380 points, 119 clear of Max Verstappen in second and 130 ahead of Russell.

Not only is the Briton at risk of being surpassed by Charles Leclerc, who is a further five points back, but staggeringly, he has scored fewer points than at this stage of the season last year.

At that point, Russell — who was one of the campaign's standout performers, to the extent Mercedes had to depart from its desire to only hand out one-year contract extensions — sat on 252 points, two more than he has now.

Given how much stronger the W17 is, in terms of pace, than its predecessor, it underlines the bad luck and inconsistency that has characterised the eight-time grand prix winner's year.

Though dominant through the season's opening phase, the Mercedes proved unreliable, and Russell was often on the receiving end of it.

There were smaller issues that cost positions and points, like in China and Japan. And larger power unit failures, like the one seen in Montreal — something that also struck more recently, as was the case at the Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia.

There was also further bad luck in Monaco, when the incorrect pit lane speeding penalty snowballed into a pointless round that had looked set to be another podium finish, and his first lap retirement at Spa-Francorchamps, when he collided with former team-mate Lewis Hamilton

But there have also been weekends in which Antonelli has simply outclassed him or Russell has made mistakes, like in the Singapore sprint.

The most pronounced of which might be the Italian Grand Prix. At Monza, Russell started second to Pierre Gasly. His team-mate, in front of his home crowd, came through from P19, albeit with a new power unit, to win.

Either way, 2026 has not been the season Russell would have wanted, nor would he have expected. And that is well illustrated by having two fewer points than at the same stage last year.