'Russell proves he is not ready yet for a title fight against Antonelli'

First of all, it must be said that Russell did indeed experience some bad luck during his 2026 campaign. There were the ill-timed Safety Cars in China and Japan, the retirement in Canada, Mercedes’ mistake in the Monaco pit lane, and the puncture at Silverstone. A long list of misfortunes, but his teammate and biggest rival can also compile a hefty list.

For instance, Kimi Antonelli had the “bad luck” of his retirement in Barcelona, the technical issue at Silverstone, and in multiple races the poor starts with the Mercedes engine. Russell’s list is clearly longer, but in Belgium Antonelli rightly pointed out that his problems may have had bigger consequences.

Antonelli’s two DNFs were on days when he was all but certain to take the win. The Italian didn’t say it in so many words, but he did wonder whether that would also have been the case for Russell in his moments of misfortune. In Canada, Antonelli was right on his heels; in China and Japan, Antonelli’s pace was already better than Russell’s before the Safety Cars; and in Monaco Antonelli was on course for victory regardless, with or without Russell’s bad luck.

If you offset the points each lost due to misfortune, it’s actually not that far apart. What matters here is how someone deals with such disappointment. And that’s where the big difference lies between Russell and Antonelli.

After the race, Toto Wolff put it in a hymn of praise for Antonelli as follows: "In Barcelona, when we had the car stoppage, or even in Silverstone, he came back in and was the one saying to the team, 'This is a mechanical sport, these things can happen.' He's 19 years old. That is very, very impressive to see."

The praise for Antonelli stands in stark contrast to the words aimed at Russell. The Brit was especially angry about his engine, particularly the battery component that let him down. According to Wolff, however, the deficit to Antonelli wasn’t entirely down to that engine. Wolff said that two tenths in qualifying did come from the engine, but the rest was due to Russell’s driving style.

Russell has stopped holding that mirror up to himself. The Brit claimed it had nothing to do with his driving style, after thinking so for a few weeks. He also attributed what went wrong in the race entirely to the engine. Russell failed to mention that all Mercedes engines had a deployment issue on lap one.

Russell also failed to mention that, despite that lack of deployment, he still decided to pass both Oscar Piastri and Lewis Hamilton around the outside. Hamilton, on cold tires in Verstappen’s dirty air, had a moment of understeer and clipped Russell. A racing incident, although the stewards thought otherwise.

With the fastest car, Russell should never have taken that risk. If you go around the outside, you’re putting yourself on the penalty spot. If anything goes wrong on the inside, you’re the one who pays the price. Especially on the first lap, that was an unnecessary risk Russell took, which ultimately knocked him out of contention entirely.

And that’s the crux for Wolff. Where Antonelli behaves extremely maturely in the face of setbacks, the man seen as Mercedes’ leader and the big title favorite going into this season does not. At every setback Russell points to what the team did wrong, without critically looking in the mirror himself.

That shows Russell isn’t as far along as he thought in 2025. Back then he thought he was ready for a world title fight. In practice, that turns out not to be the case. To do so, you have to maximize what you have every weekend. And while Kimi has extracted everything from each race, Russell hasn’t. Instead of judging himself critically for that, he points an accusing finger at everything and everyone but himself.