(Motorsport-Total.com) – Dear readers,
the core idea of this format is basically to make one, in the broadest sense, “loser of the weekend” sleep badly. However, I try to select the topics a bit more originally than just based on who had a particularly bad Grand Prix. After all, I don’t want to bore our readers by constantly talking only about Lance Stroll & Co.
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Secondary criteria for topic selection include: Is the person shown popular enough to actually interest our readers? Can I only write what the fans have already seen on TV, or is there a more exciting story to tell? And: Has this person already been featured this season or not yet?
In this respect, I actually did not want to write about George Russell. Because after Suzuka and Barcelona, colleagues of mine have already made him sleep badly twice. And yet, this time there is no way around him for me. Even though I briefly considered dealing with Flavio Briatore because of his bizarre appearance at the team principal press conference on Friday.
If Flavio really believes that one of the appeal judges was biased, fair enough. But to throw such a serious accusation in a public FIA press conference forum, causing maximum reputational damage to the FIA and McLaren (with the motto: “Something will stick…”), that is a style that no longer fits the ethical standards of 2026 even in the shark tank of Formula 1.
I am sure a gentleman like Andrea Stella would have expressed such conspiracy theories in a more private setting first, before seeking maximum publicity with them.
Let it go. Flavio is Flavio, his life’s work is undisputed, and meaningless keyboard warriors like me should be glad that in an increasingly streamlined Formula 1 we still have guys like him. For better or worse. And I emphasize: I mean that completely without irony. Really.
So George Russell. Again.
“If only there wasn’t this Antonelli”
If you imagine a parallel universe without Kimi Antonelli, then the world would be fine for the 28-year-old. He was the best of an outstandingly excellent Formula 2 class, which also included a certain Lando Norris, who is after all the current Formula 1 world champion. Mercedes has developed, as predicted, the currently best overall package of the new regulations, and Russell would be solidly leading the championship and on the verge of finally becoming champion.
If only there wasn’t this Antonelli. Because the incredible comeback of the now 20-year-old Italian in Monza was a turning point for Russell, and I believe he is just beginning to realize that.
There was a moment in the FIA press conference after the race that hinted at this. While Antonelli was not even there yet and was giving his triumphant winner interviews to one TV station after another, Russell and Max Verstappen were already sitting in the air-conditioned room at the back of the Monza paddock, which usually serves as the setting for the official FIA talk shows.
Moderator Tom Clarkson mentioned the 66-point deficit Russell now has and wanted to know how the Mercedes driver now assesses his chances of somehow still becoming Formula 1 world champion in 2026. Russell became thoughtful and said things like: “Kimi has it under control,” “I’m not even thinking about a comeback,” or that it would be “exceptionally challenging” to still turn the thing around.
And above all: “I somehow accept that it is what it is. From now on, I will try to enjoy it and win as many races as possible.”
Boom.
When the other is simply better …
It is deeply rooted in the DNA of almost every racing driver to consider themselves the greatest and best. Even if the outside world may judge differently, racing drivers tend to be able to explain defeats somehow for their own reality. “Yes, the other one won. But if this and that and the other had gone just a little differently for me, then everything would have been completely different.”
Russell’s problem is: He delivered an almost optimal job from start to finish in Monza. He made no significant mistakes, was not sabotaged by the team, was not a victim of any external circumstances. Even the call not to come into the pits under the VSC, which gave the race a fresh impulse when Russell was at least briefly able to keep up in the yo-yo fight with Antonelli, was objectively a logical one.
In the end, nothing and no one could have stopped Kimi Antonelli on this historic Sunday in the Parco di Monza. It was one of those special days when the wheat is separated from the chaff and something very big grows. Like Monte Carlo 1984 (Ayrton Senna), Spa 1992 (Michael Schumacher) or Interlagos 2016 (Max Verstappen).
Read more Home victory before a record crowd: Antonelli excites Italian fans in Monza
Antonelli’s performance was so special that even Russell’s racing driver DNA in self-defense mode found no plausible reason why the guy in the other car would have been beatable under different circumstances. It is the point where Russell may have to realize that it will be very, very difficult to fulfill the lifelong dream of the world championship trophy in the top class of motorsport as long as he drives in the same team as the carefree Italian, whose natural talent is now compared not only by Nico Rosberg to that of Ayrton Senna.
Russell could take Rosberg as a role model
Exactly the story of Nico Rosberg, however, is one that is like the last silver lining on the horizon for Russell. Because at the end of 2015, there was hardly anyone who still believed the German could break Lewis Hamilton’s dominance with the same material. I myself had predicted in one of those columns at the time that Rosberg probably would never become world champion again.
I was wrong. There are hardly any experts who would call Rosberg the greater talent than Hamilton in a historical context. Seven world titles speak a clear language. But Rosberg went inward at the end of 2015, managed to push the limits of his abilities once again – and became Formula 1 world champion in 2016 with a memorable feat of strength (and a bit of the lucky diligent on his side).
Maybe Russell should invite Rosberg for a glass of Lambrusco and ask him how he managed that back then. Because extraordinary successes require extraordinary performances, and Rosberg at least managed that once in his career. Against all odds.
The greatest talents without a world title
There is no doubt that Russell belongs to the best of his generation. In the next one or two years, it will become clear whether that is enough. In the history of Formula 1, there have been many super talents who never became world champions. Stirling Moss, for example, Ronnie Peterson, Stefan Bellof – or, more recently, Jean Alesi and Juan Pablo Montoya.
Giancarlo Fisichella, a compatriot of Antonelli, was also considered an outstanding talent for a long time. In the winter of 2004/05, when his Renault team finally built him a real winning car, I wrote a cover story for a print magazine – a season preview with the biggest title favorites.
After the magazine was published, Fisichella’s then manager Enrico Zanarini called me. He was furious because it was precisely Fisichella’s teammate Fernando Alonso, then still an unknown, who made the cover. And even in the smaller pictures with the other world championship candidates, it was not Fisichella printed, but candidates like Michael Schumacher and Kimi Räikkönen. In the end, Alonso really became world champion, and Fisichella went down in Grand Prix history not as a world champion, but as an eternal, unfulfilled talent.
The greatest comebacks in Formula 1 history
Russell is now in a similar position: Will we look back in 20 years on a career like Fisichella’s – outstanding talent, but ultimately without a title – or will he turn the corner and become the next Rosberg? If not, one of my colleagues in the editorial office might be right, who casually said yesterday: “Soon Russell will be doing interviews instead of David Coulthard. Same career path.”
Under the boos of the fans: Russell keeps his composure
One thing you cannot deny Russell: Sportingly, he may be one of the losers of the 2026 Italian Grand Prix. Humanly, he was one of the great winners of yesterday’s race day.
No one would have blamed him if he had held back during the obligatory applause for Antonelli at the podium ceremony. After all, he had just experienced one of the most painful humiliations of his motorsport career. But Russell endured the boos and whistles, which the Italian audience could have spared, like a gentleman, and proved what a great sportsman he is.
Antonelli deserves to have this world championship under control, he said. “He is performing exceptionally well.” And even when he briefly thought about how the race might have ended if the VSC had not come, he immediately added: “But that does not diminish Kimi’s performance at all.”
Maybe not a champion with a trophy in hand this Sunday. But definitely a sportsman who can handle painful defeats as it should be. Flavio Briatore could take a leaf out of his book.
Yours
Christian Nimmervoll
Note: It is in the nature of things that this column reflects my subjective perception. Anyone who disagrees is welcome to discuss it with me, on my Facebook page “Formula 1 inside with Christian Nimmervoll”. There you will not primarily find “breaking news” from the Grand Prix circus, but above all strictly subjective and sometimes quite biting assessments of the most important developments behind the scenes of Formula 1.
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