George Russell (Mercedes): A curious comparison with the Mona Lisa

George Russell won the 2026 World Championship opener in Australia, but the young Italian Kimi Antonelli then proved to be the stronger Mercedes driver. It wasn’t until Race 8 at the Red Bull Ring that the Briton managed to win another Grand Prix. During that period, Kimi won five times.

Naturally, 28-year-old Russell is wondering what the pesky teenager alongside him is doing better, and George spoke about this in the paddock at the Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps.

The 2022 and 2025 World Championship fourth-place finisher said of his struggles against Antonelli: “It’s so clear to see in the data, and it can be sorted out, whereas in the past, with other drivers or former team-mates, I’ve seen that if you’re not on the pace, you have to rack your brains to understand why.”

“I know exactly why I’m not winning or on pole. The data clearly shows what I need to do to improve. So it’s not as though I’ve suddenly forgotten how to drive a racing car or that I’ll remember again the next day.”

“It’s simply down to not getting the car into the optimal range, and last year I felt I had a very high success rate in that regard – that is, how often I got the full potential out of the race car, the set-up and the tyres – and this year that success rate is much lower.”

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“It’s as if someone were to ask you to draw the Mona Lisa, and you had the Mona Lisa right next to you. Do you think you could manage it straight away? Perhaps you could do it with practice. With this new power unit, these new tyres and modified cars, I have to drive in a way I’ve never done before in my entire career.”

“If I’ve been driving in a certain way for 20 years and it’s worked for 20 years, and suddenly it’s only working 50 per cent of the time, then you have to ask yourself: ‘OK, how do I need to adapt my approach?’”

“If I have to adapt my approach – how do I do that, and how do I do it best whilst still being quick? Because when I used to perform at my best, I was acting subconsciously and didn’t even think about the driving. Nowadays, I have to think about how to implement these new techniques subconsciously, and that’s a huge challenge.”