Rattled George Russell is being schooled by rivals and his F1 title dream is already fracturing

George Russell entered the 2026 F1 season as favourite for the world championship, following a pre-season where Mercedes looked the clear pick of the field.

At the season opening Australian Grand Prix, he backed up that expectation, taking an easy win in front of team-mate Kimi Antonelli.

The British star even took that form into the Chinese Grand Prix sprint, winning ahead of Ferrari's Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton.

But since then Russell has gone off the boil. He struggled at the Chinese Grand Prix, eventually finishing behind Antonelli in another Mercedes one-two.

A one-off? Perhaps and he does deserve the benefit of the doubt. But he has had another poor weekend at the Japanese Grand Prix, after finishing only fourth.

READ MORE: F1 star's crash leaves George Russell fuming: 'Unbelievable'

Bad luck for Russell in Japan

Granted, he was robbed by an awfully timed safety car - pitting one lap before he came in while at the time he was battling for the lead with McLaren's Oscar Piastri.

But running third on the restart he was immediately passed by Ferrari's Lewis Hamilton and then later on again by Charles Leclerc, albeit via a technical glitch, putting him down to fifth.

Meanwhile, his 19-year-old team-mate in the exact same car, who did get a slice of luck to be leading at the restart, blitzed his getaway and never looked back.

What we have learned after the third grand prix of the season is Mercedes is the dominant car, but while Antonelli is making the most of his chances and opportunities, Russell is fumbling the ball. Even counting some of his bad luck, he looks rattled.

Russell has to avoid Norris slump

There is a curious resemblance to Lando Norris's championship winning season with McLaren last season. In 2025, Norris also entered the campaign as the favourite at the wheel of what was the best car in the McLaren.

But after winning the Australian Grand Prix, his form suffered after. He was consistently slower than team-mate Oscar Piastri and didn't win again until the eighth race at Monaco.

Now we know how this story ends. Piastri suffered a catastrophic collapse in form once the title was within his grasp, allowing Norris to snatch the title by just two points, albeit from Max Verstappen.

Russell though, might not have that same room for error this year. As talented as Oscar Piastri is (he finished second at Suzuka this weekend three places ahead of Norris) Antonelli is arguably a little better, or at the very least has a higher ceiling of potential.

Kimi Antonelli is a serious threat

Either way, while Antonelli makes the most of his dominant Mercedes, and don't forget he suffered at the start in Suzuka too, dropping down to sixth. Russell is getting involved in scraps with Hamilton, Leclerc and Piastri he has no business with given his car.

Put simply, Antonelli was able to recover by dispatching his opposition, while Russell wasn't up to task.

Now, I know it is incredibly early in the 24... 22 race season. We still have 19 races left and in very recent memory that was an entire F1 campaign.

But while Antonelli is carving his way past both Ferraris on his way to back-to-back wins, Russell is being mugged by Leclerc for a final podium place.

So now Antonelli leads the world championship ahead of Russel by nine points. Russell has to reverse this slump because if he slips into a Norris 2025 funk, his rapid team-mate may not be so generous in offering a way back into the title race.

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Written by

Dan Ripley - Global Editor

I've been a massive F1 fan since the mid 1990s and continue to study the history of the sport long before that. As an experienced motor sport reporter covering F1, MotoGP and the LeMans 24 Hour race, being part of GPFans has allowed me to work with a diverse team with all sorts of different backgrounds in watching the sport and given me a greater appreciation of F1.

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