George Russell has questioned the frequency of the "atrocious luck" he believes he has suffered during the 2026 Formula 1 season. The Mercedes driver's team-mate Kimi Antonelli was crowned world champion at Sunday's Mexico City Grand Prix, with Russell falling to fourth in the standings behind Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton. Russell had qualified second on the grid but suffered the latest in a series of unfortunate moments that have plagued his campaign as a software glitch ruined his start, resulting in the loss of several places on the opening lap.
While Russell has accepted on multiple occasions that he has been outperformed by Antonelli, who he trails by 130 points, the Brit also appears to want answers from his team as to why he has been struck by so many technical issues. Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player "My focus had just been trying to win races, trying to improve performances, and Mexico it felt like a moment I could regain a bit of confidence and momentum," Russell said ahead of this weekend's Sao Paulo Grand Prix. "I qualified on the front row, basically on pole as I was so close with Lewis.
Then just to have basically the whole race taken away from me because of a software glitch was incredibly tough to deal with when we've just had so many of these little issues in the whole season. "This season hasn't meant to be. The performance hasn't been good enough.
It's been atrocious luck. We need to question, is it luck because it's happened too often? "We need to question, is there something we're overlooking because we can have bad luck once, twice, three times, four times?
But it's been too many times. "We're all having this internal conversation, and collectively as a team, we know we need to do better if we want to fight for next season." Russell was excused by Mercedes from fulfilling his media obligations following the race in Mexico, with team principal Toto Wolff explaining that he had found Russell "distraught" shortly after the chequered flag. The 28-year-old, who started the year as clear title favourite before being unexpectedly outpaced by Antonelli, posted on social media congratulating the Italian and explaining his feelings following the race in Mexico.
Speaking to the media for the first time since, he offered a further explanation of why he had left the track swiftly on Sunday, which resulted in Mercedes being fined €5,000. "I don't think I've ever had this many setbacks in my career," Russell said. "I went through after the race with my engineer, the season, race by race, and we realised we had six races this season with no issues, and 14 races where we've had an issue of some sort.
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