George Russell says 2026 has had 'more bad days than good' after Antonelli's title

George Russell has said his 2026 season has had "more bad days than good", days after his team mate Kimi Antonelli was crowned Formula 1 Drivers' Champion. Antonelli finished third at the Mexico City Grand Prix, a result that makes his title mathematically certain, with 380 points and no rival able to overtake him in the remaining rounds.

Russell qualified on pole position's shoulder, just 0.009 seconds behind Ferrari's Lewis Hamilton. A deployment issue then hurt his start, and he dropped down the order. He made contact with Isack Hadjar, received a 10-second time penalty and finished sixth.

A difficult race and a hard week

Russell said he was "extremely disappointed" after the race. "More from the fact of missing out on a great result from something again outside of my control," he said. He described the year as a cycle of setbacks. "Tough moment, pick yourself back up, tough moment, pick yourself back up," he said.

He said the frustration had built to the point where he wanted to leave. "I need to just get out of here, because it's just been relentless what's happened this year," he said. Russell spoke about the matter in Sao Paulo, four days after the Mexico City race.

Russell said that every person has difficult years. "We all have problems we deal with. We have good days, bad days, good years, bad years," he said. He added that it was important not to let a bad season define a person.

What comes next

Four races remain in the season. Russell said he was ready to go again and wanted to reset before the final rounds. Neither the team nor Russell has said what changes, if any, will be made to address the start problem that affected Mexico City.