George Russell is confident he can still become Formula 1 world champion in 2026 despite Mercedes team-mate Kimi Antonelli seemingly romping towards his maiden crown.

The 19-year-old has won the past five grands prix to hold a 68-point advantage over Russell, who was the heavy favourite pre-season but has so far only won the Melbourne opener.  

Yet with just six rounds done and 16 more to come, Russell isn’t giving up just yet, particularly when last year saw Max Verstappen and Lando Norris make late charges for the title.

They respectively held a 104 and 34-point deficit to Oscar Piastri with nine rounds remaining, but were still in contention on the final day where Norris pipped Verstappen to the crown.

So, when asked if Antonelli’s advantage is too great, Russell responded: “No, it's not. You look at Verstappen last year - but I need to get myself out.

“I don't know how we keep ending up in the same position. Things I need to improve for sure. But I know on clean weekends what I can do and it's just unfortunate.

“I still very much believe in myself and know what I can do. I think we're not even 30% of the way through, but there's a lot of points down the drain.”

Andrea Kimi Antonelli, Mercedes

Russell was speaking after Sunday’s Monaco Grand Prix which added to the poor luck he has endured since round two in Shanghai, where Antonelli won from pole after a Q3 mechanical problem for his team-mate.

The Italian again won from pole in Suzuka, but profited from a timely safety car, before being a class apart in Miami, where Russell was uncomfortable with the low-grip conditions.

Russell looked set to end his poor form in Canada before an engine problem caused him to retire from the lead and then in Monaco, it became damage limitation after a bad qualifying.

He took sixth with Antonelli on pole and while the championship leader dominated throughout, the Briton dropped out of the points after a drive-through penalty for incorrectly serving his five-second penalty for speeding in the pitlane.

So 2026 has not gone as expected after what was arguably the 28-year-old’s best campaign last season and Russell has even slipped to third, two points behind Lewis Hamilton in the standings.

George Russell, Mercedes, Lando Norris, McLaren

“I'm in a very weird state of mind because I've had very low moments in my career where I've maybe had a run of two bad races or three bad races on my own personal performance,” he added.

“I've never had a run of bad luck like this. It didn't happen when the car was a P7 car two years ago, or a P4, P3 car last year. Now I've got the car, it feels very painful, but there's a long way to go.

“I still very much believe in myself. I still believe we're going to be fighting for race wins from the end of this year. There's no reason why we won't be continuing into next year, but right now it's tough.”

Russell is therefore confident things would be more level had he enjoyed better luck, but still acknowledged the mega job Antonelli is doing following an up-and-down rookie season in 2025.

“When I look at things objectively,” said Russell, “if things were balanced out a little bit more, I still think it would have been very, very close.

“He's done an amazing job. I think I'd have at least two more victories to my name.”

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Sky Sports Formula 1 commentator and former driver Martin Brundle has heaped immense praise on Mercedes' Kimi Antonelli, drawing a parallel between the young Italian and three-time champion Ayrton Senna following an impressive Monaco qualifying session. 

The 19-year-old, who currently leads the drivers' championship by 43 points over his Mercedes team-mate George Russell, claimed pole position at the final moments of qualifying around the streets of Monte Carlo on Saturday 6 June.

"That was one of the best qualifyings I've ever commentated on," Brundle said on Sky Sports F1. "Punch, counterpunch, drivers who looked like they were about to take pole like Charles Leclerc, then he threw it in the fence. It had everything." 

He added, likening the Mercedes driver to Senna, who was known as the 'Master of Monaco': "Antonelli made less mistakes than anyone else in the front half of the grid. It was super impressive. He makes me think of Senna."

From 10 race starts in Monaco, Senna secured a record-breaking six wins (1987, 1989, 1990, 1991, 1992, 1993), eight podium finishes, five pole positions and four fastest laps.

Ayrton Senna, McLaren hugs a mechanic

Joining Antonelli on the front row of the Monaco Grand Prix grid is four-time champion Max Verstappen, while seven-time champion Lewis Hamilton and his Ferrari team-mate Charles Leclerc complete the second row in third and fourth, respectively.

"It was not easy to fall asleep because I still had a lot of adrenaline, but I managed to sleep well," Antonelli said during the pre-race drivers' parade. "It was a great moment yesterday but today’s another day and we’ve still got to execute the race.

"I have two really tough opponents. The closest one is Max and I know he’s going to make my life very hard, so I’ve just got to try to keep it cool and be as consistent as possible."

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Peter “Bono” Bonnington has engineered championship-winning drivers before. He spent 12 seasons on Lewis Hamilton‘s radio, so when he distills what makes Kimi Antonelli fast into a single sentence… well, you listen.

Speaking to Sky Sports after Antonelli claimed pole position at Monaco – edging out Verstappen by just over four hundredths of a second in a Q3 battle so close the two were separated by 0.001 seconds after the first flying laps – Bonnington didn’t reach for technical jargon. His explanation was almost frustratingly simple: “As soon as he’s happy in the car – happy driver, fast lap time.”

That’s it. That’s the philosophy.

Comfort First, Lap Time Follows

Bonnington described an approach built on removing pressure rather than adding it: “Giving him the freedom to do what he enjoys, giving him the freedom to enjoy driving the car. And that’s a real big thing. And not stressing too much.” Focus on the process, let the results take care of themselves. “Let’s just enjoy the journey and we’ll just get on with it, but let’s not get carried away with ourselves,” Bonnington continued. “Let’s just focus on climbing each mountain at a time.”

Mercedes bounced back from a difficult Friday when Antonelli topped FP3, posting a 1m 12.720s on softs to beat Charles Leclerc by more than three tenths.

Bonnington described the turnaround: Antonelli came in Saturday morning, they worked through a few things together, he got in the car, and “completely transformed.” The switch from Friday’s mess to Saturday’s pole came down to the driver feeling settled.

Bonnington noted it took Antonelli about four laps to start matching what they expected to be fast laps that take most rookies considerably longer.

“I think it probably took Kimi about four laps to start matching the high speed, and if you can match the high speed, you know that the kid’s got some raw talent. So we knew very early on he was a diamond in the rough, just took a little bit of polishing. And it’s the second year that always does it.”

Antonelli has delivered four wins from five races in 2026, sitting first in the championship. He became the youngest championship leader in F1 history in the process, at just 19 years, 7 months, and 4 days.

The numbers are extraordinary for a driver in his second season, and Bonnington admitted that even he keeps getting surprised: “He’s just a joy to work with, but yeah, he does continually keep surprising us. I mean, FP1, we hit the ground running and thought, ‘Wow, we’re actually in decent shape here.'”