Kimi Antonelli Says It’s ‘Really Hard to Judge’ Whether His 25-Point Lead Over George Russell Is Fair

• Kimi Antonelli says it is “really hard to judge” whether his 25-point championship lead over team mate George Russell is a fair reflection of their season so far.
• The comment came after Russell suggested the current gap was “probably correct,” with both Mercedes drivers having lost points to reliability problems this year.
• Antonelli heads into the Belgian Grand Prix having missed out on points at Silverstone after a wheel-guard failure ruined a likely victory bid.

Kimi Antonelli believes it is “really hard to judge” whether a 25-point championship lead over Mercedes team mate George Russell is a fair reflection of their season, after both drivers have been hit by reliability problems in 2026.

Antonelli looked set to fight for his sixth win of the season at the British Grand Prix, quickly closing on race leader and eventual winner Charles Leclerc. But a problem with his front-left wheel shield meant it became detached, forcing two unscheduled pit stops, while a five-second penalty for track limits picked up while dealing with the issue dropped him outside the points entirely.

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Russell’s Verdict on the Gap

Second place for Russell at Silverstone means the gap between the pair in the Drivers’ standings now sits at 25 points heading into the Belgian Grand Prix. On Thursday’s media day at Spa, Antonelli was asked to respond to a comment from Russell, who had suggested “a 25-point gap in his favour is probably correct” based on their performances across the first nine race weekends of the year.

“It’s really hard to judge because yes he’s had bad luck for sure,” Antonelli said, before working through the season’s key moments to make his case.

Making His Case, Race by Race

Antonelli pointed to specific races where fortune swung one way or the other, arguing the season so far is more complicated than a straight points comparison suggests.

“Montreal was one of them. Of course, we wouldn’t have known how the race would have ended, because we were both neck and neck. He was very unlucky because at that point, he was leading before he stopped. For sure there were a couple of other times that he was a bit unlucky,” Antonelli said.

“In my case, we were going towards a result that was almost certain, Barcelona was P2. Silverstone we cannot know because I didn’t have a shot, but I think it would have been a fight for it [the victory]. We know those for sure would have been certain points.

“I have to say, both of us had bad luck and one of us had it at more critical moments at times, but it’s the way it is, this is how motorsport goes. We can see ourselves how this can shift very quickly.”

A Season That Has Already Swung Once

Antonelli’s caution about the gap is rooted in how quickly his own advantage has already shrunk. The teenager took five race wins in succession earlier this season, building what was at one stage a much larger cushion at the top of the standings, only to watch it narrow to 25 points after a run of misfortune.

He had just passed Russell and was on course to finish second behind Lewis Hamilton in Barcelona when his engine failed. Between those setbacks, Antonelli still finished a close third behind Russell and Max Verstappen in Austria. He managed that result after missing out on a front-row start in qualifying, when Verstappen’s crash hampered his lap.

Race Starts Remain a Weak Point

One area Antonelli and Mercedes have identified as needing work is his getaway from the grid. The team appeared to have turned a corner on race starts after early-season struggles, only for Antonelli to be overtaken by both Ferraris at the first corner in Silverstone after starting from pole position.

He also had a couple of overzealous moments at the start of the Austrian Grand Prix that could easily have ended his race early had they gone differently. Antonelli has so far avoided serious punishment for those rare bursts of aggression, but sorting out the small errors around race starts will only grow more important as the pressure builds through the second half of the season.

Reliability the Common Thread

With Russell’s retirement from the lead in Montreal and Antonelli losing points in both Barcelona and Silverstone, Mercedes have dropped a large haul of points in the Constructors’ standings. The Silver Arrows now sit only 78 points ahead of Ferrari, while Hamilton trails Antonelli by 32 points in the Drivers’ championship.

Antonelli believes Mercedes have the quickest car on the grid, but admits the team needs to get on top of their reliability issues.

“As a team, definitely reliability has not been our strongest point,” he said. “We’ve realised ourselves that it’s something we need to keep working on. Ferrari seem very strong on that side. We just need to make sure, and I know the team is working super hard to make sure these things don’t happen.”

Nineteen and Leading the Championship

Whatever the final verdict on the standings, Antonelli remains F1’s youngest ever championship leader at 19 years old, and turns 20 in August. His answer at Spa laid out, race by race, why he does not yet see the 25-point gap as settled, even as he acknowledged Russell’s own share of misfortune this year.

Russell, for his part, has dug deep to keep Antonelli honest over one lap this season, pulling out pace late in qualifying sessions to snatch pole positions even when his race pace has lagged behind his team mate’s. But Russell has not matched Antonelli’s race pace over a full grand prix distance for several rounds now, a gap in raw speed that makes the reliability question all the more pointed heading into the final two rounds before the summer break.

Belgium and Hungary are the final two rounds before Formula 1 breaks for its summer shutdown, with a near month-long gap set to follow before the season resumes at the Dutch Grand Prix in late August. Both Mercedes drivers know the margin between them could look very different by the time they leave Hungary, and neither wants to head into that break on the wrong side of an argument about who really has the upper hand.

As Antonelli put it himself, discussing how the gap has already moved once this season: “We can see ourselves how this can shift very quickly.”

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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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