If George Russell cut a frustrated figure after a Monaco Grand Prix that spectacularly spiralled out of control, then four days on the Mercedes driver practiced stoicism as he reviewed the first leg of a brutal 2026 season.
With Mercedes finally on the front foot, Russell's would-be title campaign got off to a perfect start on with a pole-to-flag victory in the Melbourne curtain raiser. What has transpired since then was not quite part of the plan, with a cocktail of bad luck, driving style challenges and a budding superstar team-mate now seeing Russell stare down the barrel of a huge 68-point deficit.
Lando Norris' 2025 title comeback is the most recent example that all is not lost for Russell, but Andrea Kimi Antonelli's imperious form shows Russell is going to need a lot of help to overcome his 68-point deficit.
Russell's Monaco Grand Prix perfectly summed up his recent run of form, being on the back foot in qualifying against a supremely confident Antonelli, before a timing glitch left him and other drivers on the receiving end of a questionable pitlane speeding penalty. A communication error on Mercedes' side turned that into a drive-through after Russell failed to serve the penalty, dumping him out of points contention. That followed a Canadian Grand Prix where he was leading Antonelli until he retired with a power unit failure.
As frustrating as Monaco was, as F1's convoy rolled across the border into Barcelona Russell has no choice but to move on quickly. That's why he claims he hasn't even tried to chase an explanation from F1 management and the FIA about what happened. His focus needs to be on the next time he straps into the Mercedes W17 in Montmelo.
"It's very frustrating when something seemingly totally out of your control and the team's control ultimately completely destroys your weekend," Russell said, when asked by Motorsport.com to reflect on what happened. "I've got to be honest, I haven't personally looked for an explanation because it's history and there is nothing I can do now."
George Russell, Mercedes
Photo by: Erik Junius
Things would be different if it was just misfortune that has knocked the wind out of his sails. But he also has a surprisingly strong and much more mature Antonelli to deal with, so he is not denying that even with a smooth season he would have likely been behind in the championship right now.
"When I've sat down and thought about this season as a whole, if it was just a clean, neutral season, I think I'd have had three more podiums to my name and there would have been five out of six races on the podium, maybe a couple of wins, two out of three sprint race victories," he reflected. "I still think I'd probably be slightly behind Kimi in the standings, but the picture is totally different.
"I'm now just going to do every race to try and control the controllables. I can't do anything about the engine breaking down, I can't do anything about a bad safety car timing or this pitlane infringement situation, that is out of my control. Now I feel the pressure is off, to be honest."
Whether Russell is putting on a brave face in front of the media or whether his stoicism is real is something only he knows, but it's clear that he has done a lot of work on the mental side of his game, and he's one of many drivers who have been refreshingly open about it too. "Every week I'm always talking with my performance psychologist, and I've been doing that for six years now," he explained.
"That isn't anything new, but it's just always great to talk to somebody about what you're feeling, how you're going to overcome those emotions. If I was 60 points behind in the championship based on performance, I would be in a substantially worse place than I am today, being 60 points behind when 45 of those at least were out of my control."
He added: "I recently watched the Rafa [Nadal] documentary and also the Ronaldinho documentary. Ronaldinho was a hero of mine. I didn't realise that he had so many years and matches of struggle. We always only remember the highlights of all of these greats, but everybody goes through these moments. That's where we are now. I'll come through."
Russell has rowed back some of his self-criticism in Monaco that there are issues with his driving style that have affected him more than Antonelli regarding how his inputs interact with Pirelli's different tyres this year. Instead he says he's vowing to go back to basics. The higher speed Barcelona circuit is a good place to trial that approach, as it offers a true all-round test of where car and driver are at.
George Russell suffered a crippling power unit failure in Canada while leading.
Photo by: Brett Farmer / LAT Images via Getty Images
"I'm going into this weekend with a clear head. I'm not going to get too caught up in the data and drive on my instincts," the 28-year-old explained. "To be honest, last year I just got in and I drove fast and it worked. I just need to sometimes trust in those instincts as I did when I was karting.
"There always need to be improvements. When you're driving with a new car and new tyres, you need to evolve. But what I have observed for myself is that my driving style naturally evolved to the limitation of the car and the tyres.
"Kimi is doing such an amazing job at the moment, but his driving style is exactly the same as his driving style of last year. He hasn't chased it. It's just clicking for him perfectly well. I know it can click for me again, as it did in Melbourne and China."
There are parallels between the technical solution to his slump and his overall outlook in the drivers' championship. He's lost the initiative to Antonelli, so rather than actively chase his team-mate he feels his best bet is to let the championship come towards him, one competitive session at a time. That's easier said than done when you have the best car and you've been biding your time for a title-winning opportunity for so many years, but that's the position he's in right now.
"There's so far to go, but I'm not getting caught up chasing the dream. I want it to come towards me and it will come towards me if I just take it race by race," he mused. "I wasn't chasing a championship last year because that was just not even a possibility for us, yet it was probably my strongest year, and 2022 against Lewis [Hamilton] was probably my second strongest year. The thing I had in common with those years is I just had the confidence. I was driving on instinct. I wasn't overthinking things too much and the results came.
"That doesn't mean that I'm going to be on the top step of the podium this weekend and everything is back to normal. But so much can happen. For me, the battle is with myself."
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- The Autosport.com Team
Source: Autosport