Russell blames throttle style, power unit energy and rear tyre pressures for patchy season
George Russell says two factors explain his up-and-down 2026: a driving style that costs the new power units energy, and the higher rear tyre pressures Pirelli has specified. He calls it the biggest issue of his year as team-mate Kimi Antonelli closes in on the title.
A season of highs and lows
George Russell opened the year with pole position and victory in Australia, and he has had weekends since then in which nobody could touch him. Yet in Mexico City, on the eve of the race in which team-mate Kimi Antonelli can clinch the title, Russell has offered an explanation for why those weekends have been so hard to string together.
Speaking on Thursday, he pointed to two linked factors. Both, he says, hurt a driver who likes to be on the throttle early.
What Russell says is going on
According to RacingNews365 and PlanetF1, Russell describes his natural approach as focusing on the middle and exit of a corner, getting back to power sooner than most drivers. With this year's power units, he says, that style burns more energy than is efficient for the car.
The second factor is rubber. Russell says Pirelli has been running higher pressures this year, particularly at the rear, with less margin for error. When he pushes on corner exit, he argues, the rear tyres cannot cope. He called the combination the biggest thing of his season.
He was candid about the mystery of it all. Pointing to Barcelona, where he was quickest in every session and took pole, and to Baku, where he started on pole by eight tenths, he contrasted those weekends with races where he qualified fifth, sixth or, in Malaysia, eighth. He described the pattern as "quite strange" and said he and his engineers are "scratching our heads a little bit", but insisted it was "definitely not through a lack of trying".
Russell also said he has worked with sports psychologists for seven years and sees this as his first real year of struggle. He is trying to avoid frustration, which he fears could lead to irrational car changes, and wants to understand what made the good weekends good and the bad ones bad.
By the numbers
Our race data shows how the gap has opened. Across the 18 grands prix so far, Russell has three wins and eight podiums, finished in the top five 11 times and failed to finish three times. Antonelli has nine wins and 15 podiums, finished in the top five 16 times and failed to finish once.
Russell compared this season with 2022, when he took a top-five finish in 19 of 22 races in what he considered only the third-best car. This year he says he has the best car but is not collecting the results.
What comes next
The Mexico City Grand Prix starts on Sunday 1 November at 20:00 UTC. RacingNews365 reports that Antonelli can take the championship there if Russell or Hamilton fails to win, and that even a Russell win would leave him needing only ninth place. At 20, Antonelli would become the youngest champion in the sport's history. Mercedes also said he is recovering from a virus and expected back in the paddock on Friday.
