George Russell reflects on F1 reality with current issues "difficult to accept"

The British driver was many people's favourite to win the championship after winning the opening race of the season in Australia. However, since then he has been outperformed by teammate Kimi Antonelli, while Lewis Hamilton's victory in Barcelona suggest Ferrari have also closed the gap to Mercedes.

Russell closed the gap to the top of the standings to 50 points in Barcelona, but was fortunate after Antonelli retired from the race with a mechanical issue just moments after passing his more experienced teammate for second place.

Speaking after the Barcelona Grand Prix, Russell admitted that he is not performing to the level that he expects of himself, as he finds his issues so far this season "difficult to accept". Russell has suffered some poor fortune across the opening seven races which explains the 50 point gap to Antonelli. However, the Italian has outperformed him since the second race of the season, and also lost out on 18 points in Barcelona.

Russell said: "It’s tough. You know, it’s not an easy sport. We work every single day of our life to achieve this dream, and when things out of your control go against you, it’s difficult to accept. And if the performance isn’t where you hope for it to be, it’s also difficult to accept.

"We have to continuously dig deep every single day, dig deep, remind yourself why you’re doing this, and thinking back to, you know, Lando (Norris) said, when we were younger, looking up to the likes of Lewis and dreaming of being sat here. You know, we probably wouldn’t have been able to believe this 15 years ago, that we’d be sharing the podium together as a three."

Former Williams driver Riccardo Patrese has questioned Russell's title aspirations and claimed that the Mercedes star has been leaning on excuses behind his lack of performance.

He told a gambling website: "I always say excuses go nowhere. It is no good making excuses; it won’t change anything. If the car goes in one way, you have to drive it and adapt to the car. If he doesn’t have a good feeling, then it means that from the talent point of view, he’s not on the top. An outstanding driver is a driver that can optimise any situation."