What's so concerning about Russell's Antonelli admission

George Russell was at a loss to explain why he qualified a concerning sixth for the Monaco Grand Prix while Mercedes Formula 1 team-mate Kimi Antonelli took pole position - and his worries go beyond this weekend. 

Russell has already fallen 43 points behind Antonelli in the championship prior to Monaco and will be relying on a disastrous Sunday for Antonelli to avoid dropping further behind. 

He ended up almost four tenths of a second slower than Antonelli in Q3 and has both Red Bulls and both Ferraris between his team-mate and him. 

When Russell arrived at the assembled media, including The Race, he was at a loss to explain exactly what went wrong - and pointed to a wider, worrying trend. 

"I don't really know what's going on, to be honest," Russell said. "It's clearly something in my driving that's not helping the car at the moment.

"But that was there at the start of the year as well, and if I look at Melbourne and at least China until I had my issues, it was P1 every single session, and every lap I did was good. 

"The last three races have just been nowhere. Even in Canada, I was nowhere until the last lap of Q3 in both sessions. So I don't have an answer for that."

What perplexed Russell even more is that he "went out in FP3 and on my first lap, I was four tenths ahead of everybody, and everything felt back to normal. Then from thereon in it's just not been the same.

"So as I said, I really don't have an answer right now, and until I can make some adaptation or adjustments, it's going to continue like this."

That's so concerning for Russell because of how thick and fast the 2026 races are going to come with Monaco the first of six races in eight weeks. 

The driving style theory 

One explanation Russell did float is that the 2026 Mercedes is no longer meshing with his driving style and is instead better suited to Antonelli. 

That was the reverse of the 2025 trend when the Mercedes developed away from a driving style Antonelli was comfortable with and led to a sizeable mid-season dip. 

"There's clearly a difference in driving style between the two of us, which has been there last year as well, but played into my hands very well last year and it clearly is playing into his hands perfectly well this year," Russell said.

"But it still doesn't answer why I was so good at the start of the year and so poor now. So we need to look at why that is. 

"It's clear in the data; the difference is how we're driving has such an impact on the tyres, and he's just getting the tyres in a nicer window than me, [and] a nicer balance over the course of a lap, and the pace is just coming easier for him. So yeah, I don't know why that is." 

Russell ruled out the influence of Mercedes' first big 2026 upgrade in Montreal because "we brought the upgrade to Canada and I was on pole".

He continued: "I've got some ideas why it is, but as I said, I've been driving this manner my whole career, and now for whatever reason it's not working with this car. 

"Last year's car, Kimi was trying to drive it my way, and it was also not working for him. So it's no excuse, it's just a reality, and I need to either work with the team to adjust my driving to compensate [for] these new tyres, these new cars, or I need to find a different set-up that works for me. 

"But it's not clicking right now."