With Mercedes dominant, George Russell might have expected to ease to the championship in F1 2026.<\/p>\n
Yet with teammate Kimi Antonelli winning two of the opening three races to establish an early points lead, Russell suddenly has a battle on his hands as the season resumes in Miami\u2026<\/p>\n
George Russell is facing the same challenge as Lando Norris in F1 2025<\/p>\n
A version of this article originally appeared in PlanetF1.com\u2019s conclusions from the 2026 Japanese Grand Prix<\/a><\/p>\n Want more PlanetF1.com coverage? Add us as a preferred source on Google<\/a> to your favourites list for news you can trust<\/p>\n And how might George Russell cope with this battle on his hands?<\/p>\n Better, you suspect, than Lando Norris did last year.<\/p>\n The doubts that hung over Norris for so much of 2025 \u2013 that he was psychologically suspect and lacked the toughness to win the title \u2013 simply do not apply to Russell, who has never needed reminding how good he is.<\/p>\n That self-confidence and assertiveness, the sort retired athletes like to refer to as \u2018good arrogance\u2019, will serve him well as 2026 unfolds.<\/p>\n Yet it is noteworthy the way Russell\u2019s start to the season seems to have mirrored that of Norris a year ago.<\/p>\n Go deeper: Why George Russell may struggle to contain Kimi Antonelli<\/p>\n Unmasked: The driver who could take Sebastian Vettel\u2019s place in F1 history<\/a><\/p>\n Better than Verstappen? Mercedes has created a monster in Antonelli<\/a><\/p>\n Like Lando, George lived up to his status as the pre-season favourite by winning the opening race in Australia.<\/p>\n And like Lando, nothing has gone right for him since.<\/p>\n For Norris, victory in Melbourne was followed by a subdued weekend in China, a penalty in Bahrain and a qualifying accident in Saudi Arabia.<\/p>\n For Russell, it is as though his season has not recovered from the moment his front wing broke during qualifying in Shanghai.<\/p>\n Then came the power loss moments later at the start of Q3. Then came the Ferraris to swarm him at the start of the race.<\/p>\n Then came the lack of rear grip in qualifying at Suzuka. And then came the safety car right after he had pitted.<\/p>\n As Russell himself put it over team radio behind the safety car in Japan: \u201cWow, our luck these last two races\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n If there is a lesson to be learned from 2025, it is that setbacks of this sort need not be season-defining.<\/p>\n Yet it is amazing what can happen when an athlete\u2019s little bubble of peace is punctured and they take a punch to the face from an opponent they did not expect.<\/p>\n Just as few saw Oscar Piastri, in just his third season, as a serious threat to Norris at the start of last year, so nobody expected Antonelli to give Russell too much trouble in 2026.<\/p>\n And yet here George is trailing Kimi by nine points with three races completed.<\/p>\n Nothing in the grand scheme of things, of course. Nothing that can\u2019t be overcome with a good weekend in Miami.<\/p>\n But annoying nonetheless. And a large enough gap to make a driver fret about whether the points lost over the last two weekends will matter when it\u2019s all said and done in December.<\/p>\n Norris\u2019s reaction to the rise of Piastri was to stew in his own self-pity for a while, making mistakes he shouldn\u2019t have made under pressure, only adding a second win of 2025 months after his first and not peaking until much later in the season.<\/p>\n Russell?<\/p>\n Everything we know about him to this point strongly suggests he will meet the challenge posed by Antonelli head on, but\u2026<\/p>\n That\u2019s the beauty of a title race, you see.<\/p>\n It is the greatest examination of a driver\u2019s character and never fails to reveal what really lies beneath even the stoniest surface.<\/p>\n Whatcha got, George?<\/p>\n Want to be the first to know exclusive information from the F1 paddock? Join our broadcast channel on WhatsApp<\/a> to get the scoop on the latest developments from our team of accredited journalists.<\/p>\n You can also subscribe to the PlanetF1 YouTube channel<\/a> for exclusive features, hear from our paddock journalists with stories from the heart of Formula 1 and much more!<\/p>\n