After struggling to sixth on the grid in Monaco, George Russell admitted he is ” bit bamboozled” by how his season has unravelled so quickly.<\/p>\n
F1\u2019s preseason favourite won the opening race in Australia but has watched Mercedes teammate Kimi Antonelli claim victory at the next four races.<\/p>\n
Antonelli won the Canadian Grand Prix two weeks ago after Russell dramatically retired from the lead, a result which stretched the Italian teenager\u2019s championship lead to 43 points.<\/p>\n
On Saturday, Antonelli claimed a stunning pole position in Monte Carlo in what is often seen as the most important qualifying session of the year, given Monaco\u2019s lack of overtaking opportunities.<\/p>\n
Russell had no answers about why he\u2019s struggled to match his teammate.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t really know what\u2019s going on to be honest,\u201d Russell said after qualifying.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s clearly something in my driving that\u2019s not helping the car at the moment, but that was there at he start of the year as well. Every lap I did, if I look at Melbourne and at least China until I had my issues, it was P1 in every single session, and every lap I did was good, the last three races have just been nowhere, even Canada I was nowhere until the last lap of Q3 in both sessions, so I don\u2019t have an answer for that.<\/p>\n
\u201cI went out in [Monaco final practice] and on my first lap I was four tenths ahead of everybody and everything felt back to normal, and from thereon in it\u2019s just not been the same. So as I said I 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
Speaking to Sky Sports, Russell said: \u201cI need to adjust and I\u2019ll do my best to do that. But it still doesn\u2019t answer why the start of the year was such a breeze. So yeah, I don\u2019t know. I\u2019m a bit bamboozled right now.\u201d<\/p>\n
Antonelli has surged into championship contention in conjunction with Formula 1\u2019s new rules era.<\/p>\n
The sport introduced brand new car designs and V6 hybrid engines this year, ending the so-called \u2018ground-effect era\u2019 which ran between 2022 and 2025.<\/p>\n
Russell alluded to this and hinted that the new cars just simply do not suit him as well as his young teammate.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s clearly a difference in driving style between the two of us, which has been there last year as well. It played into my hands very well last year and it\u2019s clearly playing into his hands very well this year, but it still doesn\u2019t answer why I was so good at the start of the year and so poor now, so we need to look at why that is.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s clear in the data, the difference in how we\u2019re driving has such an impact on the tyres and he\u2019s just getting the tyres in a nicer window than me, a nicer balance, and the pace is just coming easier for him, so yeah, I don\u2019t know why that is.\u201d<\/p>\n
– Monaco GP: Kimi Antonelli eyes fifth straight win after \u2018magic\u2019 pole- Monaco GP: Ferrari\u2019s Charles Leclerc puts pole lap error down to \u2018dirty air\u2019- Monaco Grand Prix 2026: Race start time, how to watch, full schedule, predictions<\/p>\n
Mercedes\u2019 car has been the class of the field so far this year and the team introduced an upgrade package in Canada two weeks ago in a bid to stay ahead.<\/p>\n
Russell would not be drawn on whether that has been a factor, making the point that he is simply in the situation Antonelli found himself in during 2025.<\/p>\n
\u201cWell, we brought the upgrades in Canada and I was on pole … I\u2019ve got some ideas why it is, but I\u2019ve been driving this manner for my whole career and now for whatever reason it\u2019s not working with this car.<\/p>\n
\u201cLast year\u2019s car, Kimi was trying to drive it my way and it was also not working for him. It\u2019s no excuse, it\u2019s just a reality, I need to either work with the team to adjust my driving to compensate these new tyres, these new cars, or I need to find a different set-up that works for me, but it\u2019s not clicking right now.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After struggling to sixth on the grid in Monaco, George Russell admitted he is ” bit bamboozled” by…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":719664,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[441],"tags":[49,48,578,576,577,185042,82],"class_list":["post-719663","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-formula-1","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-f1","tag-formula-1","tag-formula1","tag-george-russell-sports-auto-racing-player-player-statscom-1089617","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/719663","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=719663"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/719663\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/719664"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=719663"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=719663"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=719663"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}