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<\/p>\nGeorge Russell arrived in Monaco contending that the championship was teammate Andrea Kimi Antonelli\u2019s to lose.<\/p>\n
After another scoreless grand prix, what had been a shrewd psychological play may have become a self-fulfilling prophecy.<\/p>\n
Russell\u2019s 43-point margin before the weekend has ballooned to 68 points \u2014 almost three clear race victories \u2014 and left him third in the championship standings behind Ferrari\u2019s Lewis Hamilton.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
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Join now and get your first month for just $1.<\/a><\/p>\n Despite having yet to win a race, Hamilton\u2019s three podium finishes outrank Russell\u2019s two, and his average finishing position of 3.8 is ahead of Russell\u2019s average result of 4.6.<\/p>\n As Antonelli demonstrated in Monaco and at the previous four rounds, there is a gulf between Mercedes and Ferrari machinery.<\/p>\n The two-point gap to Hamilton will be reversed sooner rather than later, but Russell\u2019s precipitous drop is indicative of a disastrous opening phase of a season that started so promisingly in Australia, where victory from pole seemed to secure his status as champion in waiting.<\/p>\n Five races, one podium and two non-scoring weekends later and Russell\u2019s title hopes are, at best, smouldering.<\/p>\n PIT TALK PODCAST: EXCLUSIVE: Are Geroge Russell\u2019s title hopes over after a disastrous Monaco Grand Prix weekend? Plus Jack Doohan on his route back to Formula 1 as Haas reserve driver | Listen to <\/a>Pit Talk<\/a> | Watch Pit Talk on YouTube ><\/a><\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s just struggling to comprehend how on earth this season has panned out in the way it has,\u201d he said dejectedly in Monte Carlo.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t ever really believe in good luck or bad luck, but when I look at the season as a whole: leading the race in Canada \u2014 breakdown. Could have been on the podium today \u2014 zero points. Leading the race in Japan (sic) \u2014 safety car came out 10 seconds after my pit stop.<\/p>\n \u201cThe whole season could look totally different. Now I\u2019m 68 points off the lead.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re not even 30 per cent of the way through, but there\u2019s a lot of points down the drain. It\u2019s not been very enjoyable.<\/p>\n \u201cI wish I could take some responsibility for the car breaking down in Canada or the penalties today, but it\u2019s been completely outside of my control, and that is an incredibly difficult pill to swallow.\u201d<\/p>\n ‘I’m not going to take the f**** blame!’ | 01:51<\/p>\n \u2018THAT\u2019S 40 POINTS DOWN THE DRAIN\u2019<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s 40 points down the drain for things outside of my control,\u201d Russell said, per the BBC, putting a figure on his misfortune.<\/p>\n Luck \u2014 good and bad \u2014 always plays a role in deciding the championship, particularly when the fight is between teammates, who share identical machinery.<\/p>\n But do Russell\u2019s lamentations stack up that he\u2019s been totally deserted by fortune? And what would the championship look like had it been on his side?<\/p>\n Australian Grand Prix<\/p>\n Score: 25 points<\/p>\n Points lost: 0 points<\/p>\n This was a straightforward weekend for Russell, winning from pole despite losing the lead off the line to Charles Leclerc. A better strategy got him back the lead, allowing him to cruise to the finish.<\/p>\n \u201cI like this car! I like this engine!\u201d he proclaimed on the cool-down lap.<\/p>\n Antonelli dropped from second to seventh off the line, but not only did he recover to second, he pressured Russell late. The Briton had the race in hand, but in retrospect it was a quiet sign of what was to come.<\/p>\n China sprint<\/p>\n Score: 8 points<\/p>\n Points lost: 0 points<\/p>\n Russell was in good form in the Shanghai sprint, where he outqualified Antonelli by 0.289 seconds and converted to a straightforward win after a skirmish with Hamilton. A shocker off the line saw Antonelli finish fifth, down from second on the grid.<\/p>\n Chinese Grand Prix<\/p>\n Score: 18 points<\/p>\n Points lost: 0<\/p>\n Russell has lamented that qualifying problems cost him pole and therefore victory in China. A gearbox problem had him stop on track and lose his first lap in Q3, though he was able to complete his second lap to qualify second. Both he and pole-getter Antonelli completed Q3 with a front wing problem.<\/p>\n Both drivers lost places off the line, but Antonelli was more decisive in recovery to take the lead and control the race. Russell lost time battling past the Ferrari drivers to finish the race 5.5 seconds adrift.<\/p>\n It\u2019s hard to argue Russell\u2019s pole-to-victory claim is anything more than theoretical.<\/p>\n Leclerc goes SCORCHED EARTH on his car | 02:49<\/p>\n Japanese Grand Prix<\/p>\n Score: 12 points<\/p>\n Points lost: 3 points<\/p>\n Antonelli took pole with Russell in second, and both got poor starts again. Russell fell to fourth, but though he was back up to second behind leader Piastri within four laps, he had nothing for the Australian, who was solid in defence and better tactically. They held those positions even after their pit stops.<\/p>\n Antonelli fell to sixth but had great race pace as he battled forward. The team was convinced enough by his speed to give him an offset strategy, delaying his pit stop to give him fresher tyres late in the race.<\/p>\n It incidentally paid off thanks to a safety car that put him into the lead, where he easily cruised to victory ahead of Piastri.<\/p>\n An unconvincing second half of the race saw a frustrated Russell drop to fourth.<\/p>\n Russell said incorrectly that he was \u201cleading the race in Japan\u201d when a safety car ruined his afternoon. At best he lost second place behind what should have been victorious Piastri, but given Antonelli\u2019s pace, third is a less drastically revisionist hypothetical result.<\/p>\n Miami sprint<\/p>\n Score: 6 points<\/p>\n Points lost: 0 points<\/p>\n Antonelli had Russell beaten for pace over a single lap and in the short race too, though a post-race penalty dropped him to sixth and promoted Russell to fourth for a minor points swing.<\/p>\n Miami Grand Prix<\/p>\n Score: 12 points<\/p>\n Points lost: 0 points<\/p>\n Russell was again nowhere in qualifying, beaten by 0.399 seconds and four places by his pole-getting teammate. While Antonelli beat Norris for a tactical victory, Russell finished a fortunate fourth, passing Leclerc late only after the Monegasque spun into the barriers.<\/p>\n Selfless Lando sacrifices race for Oscar | 00:59<\/p>\n Canada sprint<\/p>\n Score: 8 points<\/p>\n Points lost: 0 points<\/p>\n Russell admitted that he pulled his pair of Canada poles out of the hat, having struggled for one-lap pace up to the final laps of the session. In the sprint he was challenged by Antonelli, culminating in a controversial defence at the first turn in which ran his teammate off the track. Antonelli then ran off the road after catching a bump on the brakes to finish third.<\/p>\n Canadian Grand Prix<\/p>\n Score: 0 points<\/p>\n Points lost: 18 points<\/p>\n Another last-gasp pole for Russell led to a titanic duel between the Mercedes teammates for the lead. It was a telling battle at a circuit Russell had been expected to dominate given his historical form in Montreal; Antonelli was all over the back of him, with the two swapping positions frequently until Russell\u2019s engine expired.<\/p>\n It was undoubtedly unlucky for the Briton, though victory was by no means assured ahead of Antonelli, who looked at least as fast, if not faster. Given we shouldn\u2019t take anything away from Antonelli, and given Russell had admitted he feels he hasn\u2019t had the pace since Miami, let\u2019s give him second place in this hypothetical.<\/p>\n Monaco Grand Prix<\/p>\n Score: 0 points<\/p>\n Points lost: 15 points<\/p>\n Russell was well off Antonelli\u2019s pace again, with 0.394 seconds separating the pole-getting Italian from the Briton in sixth on the grid. Antonelli easily won the race.<\/p>\n Russell was lucky to benefit from Max Verstappen and Leclerc\u2019s retirements, bumping him from sixth to fourth. He undercut Isack Hadjar for third before the safety car and red flag.<\/p>\n He was pinged for speeding in the pit lane \u2014 teams and drivers had been warned about the risk throughout practice \u2014 but had enough of a buffer ahead of Hadjar to absorb that and hold third before the safety car and red flag.<\/p>\n But the punishment for failing to serve the five-second penalty killed his race.<\/p>\n He was told to stay out during the Lance Stroll safety car, but then race control directed all drivers through pit lane to clear the crash site. He then appeared to unilaterally stop in his pit box for new tyres. His team, caught somewhat unawares, then serviced his car without first serving the penalty.<\/p>\n The ensuing drive-through dropped him from third to out of the points. Mercedes claimed responsibility for the error, but Russell played a part.<\/p>\n Had Russell served his penalty correctly, his good start after the red flag would have secured him a place on the podium.<\/p>\n Monaco track starts to break apart?! | 03:31<\/p>\n The result<\/p>\n If we give Russell back the points he lost, we\u2019d be looking at a far closer championship battle.<\/p>\n Antonelli would be pegged back slightly to 149 points \u2014 owing to the lost victory in Japan, where we\u2019ve assumed the safety car never happened \u2014 but Russell would be considerably boosted to 124 points.<\/p>\n The margin, then, would be 25 points \u2014 still significant as a clear race victory, but a far more manageable gap.<\/p>\n Russell\u2019s lost score amounted to 36 points. His rough calculation, then, was pretty much spot on.<\/p>\n Of course it\u2019s worth noting that we\u2019ve expunged only Russell\u2019s bad luck from these scenarios. We haven\u2019t, for example, fixed Verstappen\u2019s broken engine on the grid in Monaco or Leclerc\u2019s bung brakes later that race.<\/p>\n Some of Antonelli\u2019s bad starts were also down to car rather than driver, but we haven\u2019t accounted for those either.<\/p>\n We also haven\u2019t neutralised Russell\u2019s good luck, like Verstappen and Leclerc spinning off in Miami in separate incidents. He also would have finished behind Hadjar in Monaco had there not been a red flag and standing restart. That\u2019s the thing about hypotheticals \u2014 you can take them as far as you like.<\/p>\n But while it\u2019s undeniable that the Englishman has had his share of poor luck, there\u2019s also no denying that luck alone hasn\u2019t put him behind Antonelli.<\/p>\n ‘Something is going to explode!’ | 00:55<\/p>\n \u2018I\u2019M A BIT BAMBOOZLED RIGHT NOW\u2019<\/p>\n The essential second part of the equation is what Russell admitted for the first time after qualifying in Monaco: that he hasn\u2019t been fast enough to beat Antonelli.<\/p>\n Across sprint and grand prix qualifying sessions, Antonelli is qualifying on average 1.2 places and 0.111 seconds ahead of Russell.<\/p>\n But the Briton says those stats are flattering because they include his double pole in Canada, which he says came out of nowhere and despite his own expectations on a weekend he felt he was struggling.<\/p>\n \u201cThe start of the year was just easy,\u201d he told Sky Sports. \u201cQualifying it was P1, worst case P2 every single session.<\/p>\n \u201cThe last three races it\u2019s just been nowhere. Even Canada it was a real fight to get a decent lap, and then I just nailed it at the end of both of those sessions, but that was pulling something special out of the hat and a little bit lucky to do it at the right time.<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s just where I am right now.\u201d<\/p>\n He confessed for the first time that the car he said he liked in Melbourne actually didn\u2019t seem to like the way he was driving it.<\/p>\n \u201cI think there are definitely some things we\u2019ve seen where the changes with this year\u2019s car, my natural driving style doesn\u2019t suit it as last year\u2019s car did, and Kimi and I have had different driving styles,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t want to go into too much detail, but it was clear last year and it\u2019s clear this year, but obviously last year it suited me just fine and this year it\u2019s suiting him perfectly well.<\/p>\n \u201cI need to adjust to this, and I do my best to do that. But it\u2019s still doesn\u2019t answer why the start of the year was such a breeze.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t know. I\u2019m a bit bamboozled right now.\u201d<\/p>\n It\u2019s admirably open, if a little after the fact, having denied in previous rounds that there\u2019d been any problems. Russell has also pointed out that it can\u2019t be directly related to upgrades given they didn\u2019t arrive until Canada, where he took two pole positions.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t really have an answer right now [and] until I can make some adaptations or adjustments it\u2019s going to continue like this.\u201d<\/p>\n That, more than luck, is Russell\u2019s problem. Even if he had his hypothetical 25-point deficit, he wouldn\u2019t have the pace to close it.<\/p>\n That\u2019s the story of the season so far.<\/p>\n Russell doesn\u2019t deserve to be third in the standings, and he doesn\u2019t deserve the massive points gap that might already be fatal to his championship aspirations.<\/p>\n But he doesn\u2019t deserve to be first either. He doesn\u2019t deserve to be close.<\/p>\n If he can\u2019t understand why he can no longer perform in this car, then no amount of luck will save his flagging title chances.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"George Russell arrived in Monaco contending that the championship was teammate Andrea Kimi Antonelli\u2019s to lose. After another…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":726666,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[573],"tags":[349793,2095,12295,1724,64,63,689,131169,70684,2090,2065,193798,81114,2774,351989,36339,13275,512,351985,264166,351993,351988,338725,177473,351983,312389,351987,349258,9239,82605,2057,817,36242,159165,351995,351996,73235,2755,813,816,36238,282119,248308,3875,2105,841,18901,2045,941,34866,8282,1737,351997,825,647,5140,70683,927,938,226770,2041,2067,677,86011,2333,75749,88575,2119,81550,351991,102412,351994,351984,139193,351986,2111,21749,28421,25598,163482,4933,106465,2643,85,351992,99282,349855,337115,155228,31303,351990,2614,660,2062],"class_list":["post-726665","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-formula-1","tag-aid-teammate","tag-america","tag-andrea-kimi-antonelli","tag-asia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-australia-and-new-zealand","tag-australian-grand","tag-average-finishing-position","tag-british-broadcasting-corporation","tag-canada","tag-canadian-grand","tag-championship-aspirations","tag-championship-hopes","tag-championship-look","tag-championship-standings","tag-charles-leclerc","tag-china","tag-china-sprint","tag-chinese-grand","tag-claim-stack","tag-clear-race","tag-clear-race-victories","tag-clear-race-victory","tag-closer-championship-battle","tag-disappointing-race","tag-disastrous-opening-phase","tag-driving-styles","tag-eastern-asia","tag-engine-problems","tag-europe","tag-f1","tag-final-laps","tag-five-second-penalty","tag-flagging-title","tag-flagging-title-chances","tag-flagging-title-hopes","tag-florida","tag-formula-1","tag-formula1","tag-fresher-tyres","tag-front-wing-problem","tag-gearbox-problem","tag-george-russell","tag-getty-images-inc","tag-grand-prix","tag-grand-prix-qualifying","tag-jack-doohan","tag-japan","tag-joe-portlock","tag-kimi","tag-lando-norris","tag-massive-points-gap","tag-max-verstappen","tag-melbourne","tag-miami","tag-minor-points-swing","tag-monaco","tag-montreal","tag-natural-driving-style","tag-north-america","tag-northern-america","tag-oceania","tag-one-lap-pace","tag-oscar-piastri","tag-pit-box","tag-pit-stops","tag-pit-talk","tag-podium-finishes","tag-points-losses","tag-pole-positions","tag-pole-to-victory-claim","tag-post-race-penalty","tag-prix-qualifying-sessions","tag-qualifying-problems-cost","tag-quebec","tag-race-pace","tag-red-flag","tag-safety-car","tag-scoreless-grand-prix","tag-shanghai","tag-single-session","tag-sky-sports","tag-sports","tag-swapping-positions","tag-team-game","tag-things-outside","tag-time-battling","tag-title-favourite","tag-title-hopes","tag-two-point-gap","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-victoria","tag-western-europe"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/726665","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=726665"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/726665\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/726666"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=726665"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=726665"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=726665"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}