Mercedes driver George Russell said he feels exhausted from the constant cycle of disappointment after suffering technical issues in 14 of the 20 races during the 2026 season. The Briton, who entered the year as a title favourite, has struggled with reliability despite the team possessing a fast car.
Technical setbacks impact Russell’s championship campaign
Russell’s pursuit of the 2026 world title was severely hampered by recurring mechanical problems. Russell said he and his team concluded that they had only experienced six clean weekends out of 20 races this season.
The driver’s recent struggles were highlighted at the Mexico City Grand Prix, where a loss of power on the run to the first corner prevented him from capitalizing on a front-row start. The electrical issue led to a collision with Isack Hadjar’s Red Bull at Turn Six, resulting in a 10-second penalty and a sixth-place finish. This result saw Russell drop from second to fourth in the drivers’ championship, trailing behind Kimi Antonelli, Max Verstappen, and Lewis Hamilton.
Reflecting on the mental toll of the season, Russell told reporters ahead of the Sao Paulo Grand Prix that the frequency of these setbacks was unexpected.
When you get kicked to the ground, you pick yourself back up. And you get kicked down again, you pick yourself back up. And I was hoping to do that maybe twice in the season, not every other weekend really,
George Russell, Mercedes driver, via Reuters
He also noted the difficulty of maintaining momentum while traveling.
When you’re away from home three weeks in a row and you have another race like what happened in Mexico where a chance of victory, a chance of the podium just disappears totally outside of your control, it’s tough to deal with
George Russell, Mercedes driver, via Reuters
Reliability vs performance at Mercedes
While Russell pointed to technical glitches as a primary cause for his lack of a sustained title challenge, he stopped short of blaming his team.
I don’t think the team have let me down honestly because these things do happen. Nobody intends for it to happen. We’re all trying our best to deliver the best,
George Russell, Mercedes driver
Russell compared the current car’s characteristics to the Mercedes vehicle used in 2022, when he secured his first career win at Interlagos. He noted a fundamental trade-off between the two seasons:
And last year, we had a car that was extremely reliable and we only finished fourth of the championship. This year, we have a car that’s extremely fast but has been unreliable. So which one do you prefer?
George Russell, Mercedes driver
Antonelli targets Russell’s qualifying rhythm
While Russell contended with reliability issues, his 20-year-old teammate Kimi Antonelli secured the world drivers’ championship with a third-place finish in Mexico. Despite the title win, the Italian driver is looking toward Russell’s specific strengths as he prepares for the 2027 season.
As reported by Motorsport, Antonelli has identified Russell’s qualifying performance—often referred to by the nickname “Mr. Saturday”—as an area he is trying to learn from. Antonelli admitted to studying Russell’s data to understand how the veteran extracts maximum performance during single-lap sessions.
He's an incredible driver, very quick, especially in qualifying,
Antonelli said.
I think one thing that I really admire of him is how quick he can be in qualifying, how he can get into the rhythm and how he can just find lap time and put an incredible lap together.
Kimi Antonelli, Mercedes driver
Antonelli expressed a desire to replicate Russell’s ability to transition from practice sessions into a high-performance qualifying state.
It is a thing that I will try to learn even more from him to understand how he’s able to extract more performance out of himself and the car during a qualifying session,
Kimi Antonelli, Mercedes as he continues to develop his skills and refine his approach to maximizing performance during the most critical stages of the race weekend.