George Russell issued a brutal assessment of his own driving performances after qualifying sixth for the Formula 1 Monaco Grand Prix, with Mercedes teammate Andrea Kimi Antonelli taking pole.
The Brit did not look in the same league as his teenage teammate, and in the business end with Q3, was unable to be a match for the Italian, ending up on the third row, just under four tenths of a second slower.
This gulf in performance from the two men in the W17 confirms that there is most certainly an anomaly that is plaguing Russell, despite having looked every inch the proclaimed title favourite after winning in Australia.
After qualifying, Russell appeared almost at a loss to describe the issues plaguing him, including a put-down of his own race-leading, pre-DNF performance in Canada.
“I don’t really know what’s going on to be honest,” he told media, including Motorsport Week. “It’s clearly something my driving that’s not helping the car at the moment, but that was there at the start of the year as well, and every lap I did, it was… if I look at Melbourne and at least China, until I had my issues, it was P1 every single session and every lap I did was good.
“The last three races have just been nowhere. Even Canada, I was nowhere until the last lap of Q3 in both sessions, so I don’t have an answer for that.
“But when I went out in FP3, in my first lap, I was 40 minutes ahead of everybody and everything fell back to normal and then from there on in, it’s just not been the same.
“So, as I said, I really don’t have an answer right now, [and] until I can make some adaptation or adjustments, it’s going to continue like this.”
George Russell has ‘some ideas’ to remedy current issues, but admits: ‘It’s not clicking’
Russell’s experience was a big difference in 2025, when he was able to hault the car’s precedessor, the W16, to decent results, whilst Antonelli struggled, during a difficult period for that car.
The tables have now turned, and Russell acknowledged this, but conceded that “it still doesn’t answer why I was so good at the start of the year and so poor now, so we need to look at why that is.
“It’s clear in the data the difference is how we’re driving has such an impact on the tyres, and he’s just getting the tyres in a nicer window than me – a nicer balance over the course of a lap and the pace is just coming easier for him, so yeah, I don’t know why.”
Russell continued that he believes there are potential solutions to see him improve his current form to get him out of this worrying lull, with Antonelli already 43 points ahead and looking set to potentially add to that advantage.
“I’ve got some ideas why it is, but as I said, I’ve been driving this manor my whole career and now for whatever reason it’s not working with this car,” he concluded.
“Last year’s car, Kimi was trying to drive in my my way, and it was also not working for him, so it’s no excuse – it’s just a reality and I need to either work with the team to adjust my driving to compensate these new tyres, these new cars, or I need to find a different setup that works for me.
“But it’s not clicking right now.”
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