Russell admits a painful truth at Mercedes: Antonelli is currently better

It was night and day. After a cheerful Antonelli addressed the media in Mercedes' hospitality in the Madrid paddock, Russell seemed much less at ease during his session. The Briton looked a little down after last weekend, when his teammate dealt him another blow in the battle for the drivers' title.

In Monza, Antonelli managed to win from P19 on the grid. In a weekend when Russell was expected to close the gap to the championship leader after starting on the front row, he instead lost further ground.

Heading into the Spanish Grand Prix at the Madring, the gap stands at 66 points in favour of Antonelli, who is increasingly establishing himself as Mercedes' lead driver.

Mercedes has denied for months that either driver is being favored, but critics might think the German team is giving Antonelli preferential treatment. Antonelli’s strategy in Monza could be seen as an example, as the Italian ultimately won his home race on fresher tyres. Russell, however, says he believes that both he and Antonelli are being supported equally by Mercedes.

“When he pitted, I initially thought I was on the right strategy, to be honest,” the Briton began when asked by GPblog if they are being treated equally.

For Russell, who entered this season thinking he could win his first world title, that must be a bitter pill to swallow. Especially as the Briton believes he delivered at a very solid level in the last two races.

Antonelli is now the overwhelming favorite for the title, though Russell is certainly not ready to give up. But he also added: “I think I would definitely need some luck and I need some good performances. It's not really something I'm thinking about because, as I said, right now, he's performing better, I think. So he deserves to be leading the championship.

“There's still a long way to go, but, you know, he's yet to have a bad weekend in terms of performance. So he's performing exceptionally well. My performances are better. But if I want to win this championship, of course, I'm going to need some luck on the way.”

Russell feels his performance has been strong since the summer break. He has outqualified Antonelli at the last three race weekends and also pointed out that he has been able to match his teammate's pace in two races, something he was unable to do before the summer break.

So what is making the difference? According to the Mercedes driver, the driving style demanded by the current generation of F1 cars doesn’t play to his strengths.

“I think we've all got pretty similar driving styles, and the drivers are performing very well this year, Kimi, Lewis, Lando have also got quite similar driving styles. So it's to me, it's pretty clear with this car, with these tyres, what I need to achieve, and the trends are there with, as I said, with those four drivers I just mentioned,” Russell concluded.