At the beginning of the 2026 Formula 1 season George Russell was the clear favourite to win the drivers’ championship, but he has now slipped to third place in the standings after a torturous Monaco Grand Prix weekend.
Russell only finished one timed session ahead of team-mate Kimi Antonelli, qualified five places behind him, and finished outside the points after being hit with a drive-through penalty for speeding in the pitlane.
But even before that point, he was well out of contention for the victory and had even been lapped by Antonelli, who went on to take his fifth consecutive victory of the season.
“I’m beyond frustration now,” Russell told media including Motorsport.com after the race. “Just struggling to comprehend how on earth this season has panned out in the way it has done. Two weekends in a row, 40 points down the drain.
“Yesterday was a bad day for me and I accept that. But the result of the last two races, I wish I could take some responsibility for the car breaking down in Canada or the penalties today. But it’s been completely outside of my control.
“And that is an incredibly difficult pill to swallow. I don’t ever really believe in good luck or bad luck.
“But when I look at this season as a whole, you know, leading the race in Canada, break down, could have been on the podium today, zero points. Leading the race in Japan, safety car came out 10 seconds after my pitstop.
“The whole season could look totally different. Now I’m 70 points off the lead.”
George Russell, Mercedes, Lando Norris, McLaren
Photo by: Guido De Bortoli / LAT Images via Getty Images
Even with the latest generation of slightly narrower F1 cars, overtaking in Monaco is incredibly difficult so qualifying is key. Qualifying sixth made Russell’s race all the more challenging before it had even begun.
In his first stint he was bottled up behind the Red Bull of Isack Hadjar, who was struggling for grip and suffering power unit issues. That cost him well over half a minute to the leading group – then, after pitting at the end of lap 31 and successfully undercutting Hadjar, he was stymied by the struggling McLaren of Lando Norris, who was yet to pit.
Norris was also ordered to hold Russell up so team-ate Oscar Piastri could potentially pit and emerge ahead of Russell. Although Norris eventually had to retire his car, by then Russell was over a minute behind Antonelli, and was lapped by him before the safety car was deployed late on.
Thus the damage was done before Russell inadvertently failed to serve the 5s penalty he had picked up for speeding in the pitlane during his stop.
Andrea Kimi Antonelli, Mercedes
Photo by: Alastair Staley / LAT Images via Getty Images
The result means Antonelli leads the championship with 156 points, while Lewis Hamilton has moved into second place with 90 points to Russell’s 88.
Such a margin isn’t insurmountable, but Russell recognises something needs to change to make this possible.
“It’s not [too big a gap to close],” he said. “You look at Verstappen last year. “But I need to get myself out of… I don’t know how we keep ending up in the same position. Things I need to improve for sure. But I know on clean weekends what I can do.”
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– The Autosport.com Team
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