{"id":864636,"date":"2026-08-22T18:12:15","date_gmt":"2026-08-22T18:12:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/864636\/"},"modified":"2026-08-22T18:12:15","modified_gmt":"2026-08-22T18:12:15","slug":"george-russell-more-relaxed-as-f1-2026-title-is-kimi-antonellis-to-lose","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/864636\/","title":{"rendered":"George Russell “more relaxed” as F1 2026 title is Kimi Antonelli’s to lose"},"content":{"rendered":"

George Russell<\/a> has returned from the 2026 Formula 1 summer break feeling \u201cmore relaxed\u201d as he attempts to claw back into the title fight against Mercedes<\/a> team-mate Kimi Antonelli<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The championship leader holds a 56-point advantage over third-placed Russell, with Ferrari<\/a>\u2019s Lewis Hamilton<\/a> sitting second and 53 behind Antonelli after 11 rounds with 12 remaining.<\/p>\n

This weekend\u2019s Dutch Grand\u00a0Prix marks an opportunity for Russell to stage a late bid and he has done well so far, winning the sprint race from pole while Antonelli only took fourth.<\/p>\n

Russell\u2019s advantage continued into Saturday\u2019s qualifying as he took second<\/a> behind McLaren<\/a> polesitter Lando Norris<\/a>, while a frustrated Antonelli is starting third after a mistake at Turn 1.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m just going to take it race by race,\u201d said Russell at Zandvoort. \u201cI\u2019m not going to come away from this weekend and say all issues are resolved.<\/p>\n

\u201cI do think I made some big changes going into the Barcelona weekend, and as I said earlier this morning, I had some good races, Barcelona and Austria. Then Silverstone and Spa, we had the PU issue, and Budapest was just not a competitive weekend on my side.<\/p>\n

\"Lando <\/p>\n

Lando Norris, McLaren, George Russell, Mercedes, Andrea Kimi Antonelli, Mercedes<\/p>\n

Photo by: Sam Bloxham \/ LAT Images via Getty Images<\/p>\n

\u201cSo, I think it just hasn\u2019t been a clean run this season. It has not been a clean season whatsoever with all of the issues that we\u2019ve had. But I just feel, I think after the break, I just feel way more relaxed. I don\u2019t feel like I\u2019ve got anything to lose.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe pressure\u2019s off. I\u2019m just going to go out, enjoy it, and I don\u2019t even really feel in a fight. It\u2019s not mine to lose, it\u2019s mine to gain. So that\u2019s the mentality I\u2019ve got, and I feel it\u2019s going to help me. I\u2019m just enjoying driving.\u201d<\/p>\n

This season has obviously not gone as hoped for Russell, who started the 2026 regulation switch as the heavy title favourite thanks to his Mercedes team expecting to dominate.<\/p>\n

But his sophomore team-mate has enjoyed the upper hand thanks to his blistering one-lap pace with six poles, while misfortune has hit both drivers at times during a grand prix.<\/p>\n

Russell also previously claimed that these new 2026 cars suit Antonelli\u2019s aggressive driving style, so the 28-year-old has spent much of the year adapting his more smooth approach.<\/p>\n

That is why the August summer break came at a good time for the Briton, who used it to continually keep developing – especially when he thinks the title fight is \u201cfar from over\u201d.<\/p>\n

\"Lando <\/p>\n

Lando Norris, McLaren, George Russell, Mercedes<\/p>\n

Photo by: Simon Galloway \/ LAT Images via Getty Images<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously Kimi\u2019s been doing an amazing job this season, and clearly the two of us have quite different driving styles,\u201d added Russell.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat was apparent last year, and it is really working well for him with this car and these tyres and just trying to implement something similar into my driving style.<\/p>\n

\u201cI describe it as if you change your golf swing, you\u2019ll probably take half a step back before making those improvements.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe break just allowed me to put those learnings into the back of my mind, come here this weekend, not fixating on what I want to try and achieve with the car and the tyres, but knowing in the back of my head what I need to achieve and just drive more freely.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m really, really proud of that because it\u2019s just sort of building that toolbox of experience for me that\u2019s going to allow me to be even better in the years to come.<\/p>\n

\u201cWho knows, maybe next year the technique is totally different again. That\u2019s the beauty and challenge of Formula 1. Every year it\u2019s different.\u201d<\/p>\n

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– The Motorsport.com Team<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"George Russell has returned from the 2026 Formula 1 summer break feeling \u201cmore relaxed\u201d as he attempts to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":864637,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[573],"tags":[12295,64,63,60689,817,813,816,3875,433419,945,85,73588],"class_list":["post-864636","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-formula-1","tag-andrea-kimi-antonelli","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-dutch-gp","tag-f1","tag-formula-1","tag-formula1","tag-george-russell","tag-george-russell-more-relaxed-as-f1-2026-title-is-kimi-antonellis-to-lose","tag-mercedes","tag-sports","tag-zandvoort"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/864636","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=864636"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/864636\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/864637"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=864636"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=864636"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=864636"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}