(Motorsport-Total.com) – Mercedes driver George Russell emphasized that he “did not really lose faith” during the difficult start to his 2026 season. Starting the season as a favorite, Russell was quite quickly overtaken by his young teammate Kimi Antonelli.
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At first, Russell attributed his defeats to bad luck, but Antonelli’s strength now seems to be lasting. However, in recent races, Antonelli has often encountered problems, such as the technical failure in Barcelona or recently in Silverstone the issue with brake ventilation.
The latter, in turn, brought Russell luck, allowing him to reach the podium despite previously suffering a slow puncture. And because Ferrari made a tactical error during the last safety car phase after Max Verstappen’s crash and called Lewis Hamilton into the pits for a tire change, Russell even inherited second place.
“I have to say, those were strange emotions,” he admits in the Nu Silver Arrows Radio Show. “Feeling-wise, a good and deserved result would potentially have been third place behind Kimi and Charles [Leclerc],” he says. “Then Kimi, of course, had great bad luck with what happened. After that, Max had his problem.”
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That Hamilton came into the pits under the safety car was, in Russell’s view, “probably the right decision.” “I think whatever you do in this situation: If you don’t come in and there is a restart, you get really frustrated why you didn’t do it. And if you come in, you lose a position. There is no right decision,” he says.
“Then fighting back to second place triggered quite unusual feelings. It felt like the whole race was against us. And suddenly I was pushed back to second place without us really having done much for it,” the Mercedes driver admits.
“And that’s often how seasons go,” he continues. “That’s why at the start of the season, when everything seemed to be going against us, I didn’t really lose faith. The tide always turns. And as I said, it was a special moment to stand up there.”
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