(Motorsport-Total.com) – Although George Russell won the 2026 Formula 1 season opener in Melbourne and is currently second in the drivers’ championship, the Brit could rather be counted among the losers of the first three races of the season. Because Russell had actually started the new year as the top favorite.
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The bookmakers already saw the 28-year-old ahead in the winter, and numerous Formula 1 experts also tipped Russell as the 2026 world champion before the first Grand Prix. After the first three races, however, he is behind his Mercedes teammate Kimi Antonelli in the championship.
Ralf Schumacher can therefore imagine that Russell is slowly becoming “nervous” because he “simply can’t get it together,” according to the expert in the podcast Backstage Boxengasse from Sky. Antonelli recently celebrated two wins in a row, while Russell even missed the podium in Suzuka.
Although there were reasons for this that Russell partially could not control himself, Schumacher still believes that the Brit went into the forced Formula 1 break in April feeling annoyed. “Of course he’s annoyed by it,” says Schumacher with regard to the current championship standings.
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“He thought now: ‘Okay, this year is my year. The Mercedes is great,'” the expert suspects. But instead, Antonelli is now ahead for the time being. “That shows that he is probably not as good as he should be at first,” Schumacher criticizes.
Because Russell is already driving his eighth Formula 1 season in 2026 and his fifth for Mercedes. Antonelli, on the other hand, is only in his second year in the premier class and therefore, according to Schumacher, has “a lot of potential” to improve even further.
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Schumacher: Russell puts on an act in interviews
“The biggest problem for George is that he is not fast enough at the moment. He knows that himself,” Schumacher suspects. Publicly, the Brit appeared deliberately calm after the race in Suzuka and the associated loss of the championship lead.
But Schumacher doesn’t buy it. “I believe that George is not authentic in terms of personality,” explains the six-time Grand Prix winner, adding that in reality Russell is “much more dogged,” but doesn’t want to show it publicly.
“I think he’s playing a certain game there,” says Schumacher, who explains that Russell shows his true face on the radio, for example. “In the car he has it less under control than outside,” says the expert, who explains: “He’s trying to play something that doesn’t fit.”
In his opinion, that is not the right approach. Schumacher reveals that the long-time Mercedes motorsport boss Norbert Haug gave him an important piece of advice in his own career. He said to him: “Ralf, you can do anything in life.”
“You can also be an asshole sometimes, but be it in a way that people can understand,” Haug advised him and explained: “If you are not authentic, if you are always playing a role, no one will believe you in the long run.”
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Schumacher currently sees exactly this problem with Russell.