George Russell: “I’m exhausted; I’m constantly being knocked down”

George Russell has had enough. He’s had some terrible run of bad luck on several occasions during this turbulent 2026 GP season; on top of that, he has a Mercedes team-mate in Kimi Antonelli who – sorry, George – has simply been the better driver and, even worse, is getting better with every Grand Prix.

Russell admits: “I’m exhausted; I’ve had to pick myself up time and again all year, only to be knocked back down again.”

“It’s part and parcel of our business that you have to take setbacks on the chin; then you pull yourself together and carry on – once, twice – but when something like this happens almost every weekend, it’s very hard to bear.”

Russell also explains why he left Mexico in a hurry and didn’t even face the media after yet another disappointing race: “I realised, of course, that my chances of winning the World Championship were already just above zero at that point, but once again things didn’t go my way. I was really angry at having thrown away another good result, and I just wanted to get away.”

“I usually behave in a highly professional manner and rarely lose my temper. I know that skipping the media sessions is certainly not ideal, but at that moment I just couldn’t take it any more.”

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“I don’t think I’ve ever experienced a year in my racing career with so many setbacks, time and time again. I sat down with my race engineer, and we worked it out – we’d had 14 races with one problem or another, and only six that went smoothly.”

“In previous years, the average number of races in which there were unexpected problems was between two and four.”

“Every time I had to pick myself up again, and in Mexico I simply couldn’t take it any more. I thought: ‘I just have to get away from here; I want a nice, quiet dinner and not to think about this rubbish season any more.’”

“Perhaps that’s also why I was so disappointed in Mexico: after all those difficulties, I wanted to focus on putting in better performances and winning in the final part of the season. And in Mexico, I was on the verge of regaining my confidence and momentum. I came very, very close to taking pole position behind Lewis, and then there was that glitch in the software after the start, which cost me everything.”

“For me, this season can be summed up as: it just wasn’t meant to be. I wasn’t good enough myself, but above all, I had the worst possible run of bad luck. And I do have to ask myself – how often can you actually be unlucky? Too much has simply happened.”

“But I’m not naive either. I can’t put it all down to bad luck; you have to be honest about that. I need to take a self-critical look in the mirror and work out what I can do better. I have to ask myself whether I overlooked anything in my preparation. I can’t really believe that, but I’ll be looking at every aspect.”