George Russell admits frustration and his true Kimi Antonelli thoughts | F1 | Sport

George Russell insists he’s “not at all” concerned for his 2026 championship dream despite being outshone by junior team-mate Kimi Antonelli over the first three rounds. He remains the Formula 1 drivers’ title favourite, as he was before the season began, though two wins from three Grands Prix has put 19-year-old Antonelli top by nine points.

But Russell remains calm and told Express Sport and select media on Friday that he believes factors outside of his control are what have made the difference so far. He said: “It’s a hell of a long season and no championship has ever been one after three races. So, for me, it’s always important to maximise the results.

“I’m not leading the championship, but I’ve got to be honest, when I look at the circumstance of the last two races, I actually feel like I’ve maximised my results. And that’s all I can do. If things had gone slightly differently in Suzuka, I think I could have won that race. If there was no safety car at all, I think I’d have finished second in that race behind [Oscar] Piastri.

“In China, I obviously had the qualifying issue and I think otherwise I potentially could have been on pole there. So, when I look at things rationally, I think I’ve maximised my results this year. And when I have a clean weekend, as I had in Melbourne, I know I’ve got the capability of being on pole and winning the race.

“Obviously, I was frustrated coming away from China and Japan, but that’s always going to happen at some point in the season. And I’m actually quite thankful that I still managed to get some decent points on the board.”

Mercedes have been the clear pace-setters in the early weeks of the season. Russell naturally hopes that will continue for as long as possible, but knows it is inevitable that the performance gap will close as the year goes on. He said: “Of course, I hope it’s just the two of us going for the championship, but I don’t want us to get ahead of ourselves.

“In 2022, after three races, I think [Charles] Leclerc had a 30-plus-point lead and [Max] Verstappen was saying the championship is over and Ferrari were the quickest. In the end, they were not.

“I think we have a very good direction. I think the correlation is very good. We’re ticking all of the boxes that tell us we have a really great foundation with the car. But, of course, these things change. We know McLaren have not brought a major update recently, and when you look at their performance in Suzuka, as I said, I think Piastri could have won that race without any safety car at all.

“I’m just taking it race by race. The championship is not even in my mind. I just go to every race, try and maximise the performance, and we’ll count the points at the end of the season.”

The Miami Grand Prix is up next, where Antonelli took pole for the Sprint race last season and enjoyed strong performance for the whole weekend. But Russell does not fear falling further behind his team-mate in Florida, and said: “Miami was his strongest track last year, but I had 20-plus other tracks that were very strong for me.

“A championship is won over the whole season and, as long as I maximise my points by the end of the season, what happens race by race, no one remembers. That’s my goal, that’s what I’m confident in achieving over a course of a championship: consistency, good results on the bad days, victories on the good days. That’s going to continue to be my goal every single weekend.

“So I’m not thinking about Kimi, I’m not thinking about championship, I’m focused on myself. I have things that I also need to improve around the race start, because that is clearly a very important factor. I have things I need to improve around the safety car restart. I’ve made some procedural errors… If I iron out these things, we’re in a very different situation.”