George Russell Declares He Is No Longer ‘Lost’ in His Mercedes as He Puts the Title Pressure Squarely on Kimi Antonelli

• George Russell says Mercedes’ first major car upgrade, a gap dating back to May, should suit Sepang’s longer corners after his Baku Grand Slam win
• Russell cut Kimi Antonelli’s championship lead from 81 to 66 points and says he no longer feels “lost” in the Mercedes W17
• Antonelli says he deliberately drove under the limit in Baku after a disrupted weekend, and jokes that his grandmother “went back home” after his earlier admission he drove like her

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A Lost Feeling Finally Gone

George Russell says he has stopped feeling lost behind the wheel of his Mercedes, crediting a run of technical adjustments for the turnaround that carried him to his first win in seven races at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix.

The Baku victory, completed from pole position with every lap led and the fastest lap of the race, cut Kimi Antonelli’s championship lead from 81 points to 66 with eight rounds remaining. Mercedes arrive at the Sepang International Circuit for the Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia carrying their first significant car upgrade after the Canadian Grand Prix in late May, a gap Russell himself called unusual for a season.

Russell’s Conscious Adjustment

Russell told reporters in Malaysia that a deliberate change in how he drives the car, rather than a shift in machinery alone, explains his recent form.

“As I’ve really said this whole season, firstly I never really felt in a position to fight for the victories because I didn’t feel that the performances were strong enough,” Russell said. “But now, finally, I feel I’m in a place where I can fight for victory week in week out.”

He pointed to the size of the gap that remains in the standings while arguing plenty of racing is still to come. “Of course, there is a big deficit in the championship but we’re only two thirds of the way through. There’s a third of the season to go and still so much can happen,” he said.

Russell described the method behind his revival as something that no longer needs conscious thought. “It’s definitely been a conscious adjustment of my driving,” he explained. “I think I went through a few races when I was having to think how to make those adjustment, whereas now it’s all a bit more intuitive and natural. What I set out to achieve in terms of getting the car in a slightly better window, I’m now achieving without having to think about it as much, so I can just focus on driving fast.”

Asked directly about his state of mind compared with earlier in the year, Russell said: “I don’t really feel lost anymore” and that his “confidence is back and growing again.” He added that he is “enjoying it more than I have done recently, just because I feel more at one with the car.”

The Pressure Sits With Antonelli

Russell was asked whether a second successive win at Sepang could plant doubt in his teammate’s mind heading into the final two months of the season. He turned the question back onto where he believes the burden now rests.

“For sure there’s a lot of pressure in his position,” Russell said. “For any driver fighting for your world championship there’s a lot of pressure. At this point of the season it is his to lose so, from my side, I’m just going to go out there and enjoy every race.”

Antonelli has finished off the podium only rarely all year, yet his Baku weekend was littered with trouble from the start. A technical issue cost him a chunk of track time in practice, he crashed in qualifying to leave himself starting 16th, and he settled for fifth in the race itself.

“Last weekend was probably the worst weekend from me, from my side, of the season,” Antonelli said. “But still very good learning from the weekend. It was also a very strange race for me in Baku because it was one of those races where I consciously tried not to take any risk and just drive under the limit, which was very weird but it was a good and what I needed. I needed a clean result after a very disrupted weekend.”

He added that the result left him unsatisfied even as he took something useful from it. “But after the race I wasn’t happy with the result but I learned many things and the most important learning is I need to always be 100 per cent and I really do my best to achieve the best result,” Antonelli said. “If I don’t try to do everything right in my power than nothing is going to come my way.”

Antonelli had previously joked that he drove like his grandmother in Baku. Asked about the line again on Thursday, he quipped: “My grandmother went back home! I booked her a flight and she’s back in Italy!”

On Russell’s victory, Antonelli offered generous praise for his teammate rather than any sign of concern. “He did an incredible weekend in Baku and he’s got the momentum,” Antonelli said. “George has been doing great, especially last weekend, so it’s going to be a tough challenge but I’m looking forward to it.”

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Why Mercedes Picked This Weekend for an Upgrade

Mercedes have gone five months without a significant update to the W17, and Russell called the timing unusual by the standards of a typical campaign.

“It’s a good step,” Russell said. “We think it’s a good step purely because it’s been so long since we last brought some upgrades. It’s quite abnormal to have an upgrade back in May and then only again in October. So, as an individual upgrade step it’s large, but in a normal season it’s just the normal trajectory you would expect from a May to October upgrade package.”

He explained what he hopes the new parts correct. “Hoping it’s going to propel us back to the front on these types of circuits, which have been more challenging for us in the past six races,” Russell said.

Mercedes have won the last three Grands Prix to stretch their lead over Ferrari in the constructors’ standings to 160 points, though two of those victories came at Monza and Baku, tracks whose long straights suit a low-drag power unit. Antonelli’s win in Madrid owed something to a Virtual Safety Car that worked against McLaren’s Lando Norris.

Russell set out why he expects Sepang to pose a different kind of question of the car. “I think we have a very efficient car on the circuits that are lower drag, so in Azerbaijan, Monza we were very competitive. Red Bull were also on the podium in Monza as well as in Azerbaijan,” he said. “I expect Malaysia to be slightly more closer to the circuits of Madrid, Budapest, Zandvoort, where we saw likes of Ferrari and McLaren competing strongly, so that’s going to be an interesting one.”

Antonelli made a similar point about the car’s characteristics and why the upgrade’s timing suited this particular layout. “I think this weekend is the right one to bring it,” he said. “Our car is very efficient. It’s not draggy, especially on tracks like Monza, Baku, where we were very quick because it’s new tarmac, short corners. Whilst I think in these type of tracks without the upgrade we would struggle. For example, Zandvoort McLaren was very quick and Zandvoort has very open tarmac. So I think this race was the right one to bring the upgrades and see if we can improve on these kind of tracks with long corners and very old tarmac.”

A New Track for Both Title Contenders

Neither Russell nor Antonelli has driven the Sepang International Circuit before. Formula 1 last raced in Malaysia in 2017, and its return as the venue for the rescheduled Bahrain Grand Prix gives both Mercedes drivers an unfamiliar layout to learn in the second leg of the Azerbaijan, Malaysia and Singapore triple-header.

Antonelli’s 66-point lead remains the second-highest cushion he has held this year, built on a run of five wins in his opening six Grands Prix of the season before Baku interrupted it. Russell now arrives with form, a fresh upgrade and a point to prove that his title bid is not finished, with a third of the season still to run and Mercedes looking to turn an unfamiliar circuit into another step forward for both of their championship contenders.

More F1 Reading

• Sepang Track Guide: A Corner-By-Corner Breakdown
• 2026 Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia: Fast Facts
• Fernando Alonso Calls F1’s Return to Sepang a Golden Ticket as Drivers Relish Malaysia Homecoming
• Mercedes Unveil Special Petronas Livery for Sepang Return as Toto Wolff Confirms Major Upgrade Package

Written by

Jack Renn

Jack Renn is an editor at F1 Chronicle and a veteran motorsport journalist with 25 years of experience covering Formula 1 and international motorsport. A member of the Association Internationale de la Presse Sportive (AIPS), the global body representing accredited sports journalists, Jack has spent his career reporting from paddocks and press rooms across the F1 calendar. His work spans race analysis, technical insight, and in-depth features, giving readers authoritative coverage grounded in decades of firsthand experience at the highest level of the sport.

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