{"id":943492,"date":"2026-10-28T03:42:11","date_gmt":"2026-10-28T03:42:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/943492\/"},"modified":"2026-10-28T03:42:11","modified_gmt":"2026-10-28T03:42:11","slug":"f1-news-2026-george-russell-falls-to-kimi-antonelli-drivers-championship","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/943492\/","title":{"rendered":"F1 News 2026: George Russell falls to Kimi Antonelli, drivers\u2019 championship"},"content":{"rendered":"

George Russell<\/a>\u2019s career is currently suspended in a state of limbo, a reality the British driver never could have envisioned for himself.<\/p>\n

A decade ago, Mercedes<\/a> endured a ferocious internal battle between Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton<\/a>. <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Mercedes have already seen a major breakdown between their drivers after a championship fight. \u00a0AP<\/p>\n

The 2016 title fight wounded Rosberg to such an extent that he retired from the sport mere days after finally lifting the drivers\u2019 championship trophy.<\/p>\n

Now, exactly 10 years later, the Silver Arrows find themselves staring down the barrel of another formidable intra-team rivalry, this time ignited by the meteoric rise of Kimi Antonelli<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In recent days 1996 world champion Damon Hill has weighed in on Russell\u2019s mid-season spiral and the shifting dynamic inside the Mercedes garage.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s been very unlucky, but then also when he wasn\u2019t being unlucky \u2026 when they\u2019ve been level pegging, Kimi has always caught him up,\u201d Hill said to Fox Sports. <\/p>\n

\u201cOn those occasions you have to say, crikey, maybe he\u2019s having to readjust his sights, because the possibility of being a world champion when you\u2019re shown up by someone who is clearly faster – it\u2019s very difficult to recover from that.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think he\u2019s taken a crushing blow, quite frankly, and a huge shock to the system.\u201d<\/p>\n

When Hamilton made his shock departure to Ferrari, Russell was widely tipped to become the leader and number one driver of the new-look Mercedes unit. <\/p>\n

Instead, in just his sophomore year, Antonelli has rewritten the rules of the sport<\/a>, the prodigy now on the verge of making history as the sport\u2019s youngest-ever world champion at 20 years old. <\/p>\n

He now only needs a mere two points at the upcoming Mexico City<\/a> Grand Prix to secure the crown.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe all thought George would walk it,\u201d Hill continued.<\/p>\n

\u201cNobody expected Kimi to be quite so good so early, and he\u2019s just been amazing. We\u2019re all a bit taken aback by that.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut this happens in the sport. People turn up, and they suddenly show that they\u2019re just a lot better than everyone else.<\/p>\n

\u201cOn current information, as far as we can tell, Kimi Antonelli is a lot better than everyone else and really phenomenal.\u201d<\/p>\n

Even former Red Bull advisor Helmut Marko<\/a>, who left the team at the end of last year, believes there\u2019s no coming back for Russell from that defeat to his 20-year-old teammate.<\/p>\n

\u201cRussell is no longer the number one driver,\u201d Marko said.<\/p>\n

“Antonelli has quite \u200bclearly taken that spot from him. <\/p>\n

\u201cI doubt whether he\u2019ll ever have \u200banother chance at the world title or be given number one status anywhere.\u201d<\/p>\n

Even though Mercedes supremo Toto Wolff<\/a> dismissed this idea, it felt like the final nail in the coffin for Russell\u2019s standing arrived in Austin, where Antonelli cruised to his ninth victory<\/a> of the year, with the British driver finishing eighth. <\/p>\n

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Kimi Antonelli and George Russell have fought all season. \u00a0Getty Images<\/p>\n

Even Aussie Oscar Piastri<\/a> expressed confusion at Russell\u2019s lack of pace during their battle for seventh at the United States Grand Prix<\/a>. <\/p>\n

As Antonelli ran away with victory, Piastri managed to comfortably stop his rival\u2019s advances until the chequered flag, a development that \u201csurprised\u201d the McLaren<\/a> driver. <\/p>\n

\u201cI was a bit surprised that I could keep (Russell) behind, to be honest,\u201d Piastri told media.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut no, I mean glad that I could, but obviously, (I) don\u2019t think either of us really want to be battling for seventh.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo yeah, just a tricky weekend, but at least that was a bit of a positive.\u201d<\/p>\n

As the season nears its endgame, the battle for the runner-up spot has intensified into a thrilling four-way fight. <\/p>\n

Russell currently clings to second in the standings, but just nine points separate him from Charles Leclerc<\/a> in fifth, with Hamilton and Max Verstappen<\/a> firmly wedged in between.<\/p>\n

With only potentially five races left – if Qatar and Abu Dhabi go ahead – Russell admitted his sole aim was to now help Mercedes win a ninth constructors\u2019 crown.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cFor me, as long as we win the constructors\u2019, that\u2019s the main thing,\u201d Russell said.<\/p>\n

“I’d like to finish as best of the rest, but P2, P3, P5 is not the champion, so it doesn’t mean anything.”<\/p>\n

Formula 1<\/a> continues racing in Mexico City this weekend, with the race set for Monday at 7am. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"George Russell\u2019s career is currently suspended in a state of limbo, a reality the British driver never could…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":943493,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[573],"tags":[64,63,817,813,816,85],"class_list":["post-943492","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-formula-1","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-f1","tag-formula-1","tag-formula1","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/943492","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=943492"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/943492\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/943493"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=943492"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=943492"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=943492"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}