{"id":730962,"date":"2026-06-12T01:36:09","date_gmt":"2026-06-12T01:36:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/730962\/"},"modified":"2026-06-12T01:36:09","modified_gmt":"2026-06-12T01:36:09","slug":"out-of-reach-george-russell-refuses-to-think-about-f1-title-after-antonelli-surge-george-russell","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/730962\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Out of reach\u2019: George Russell refuses to think about F1 title after Antonelli surge | George Russell"},"content":{"rendered":"

George Russell insists the pressure is off in the battle for the Formula One drivers\u2019 championship. A succession of mishaps \u2013 combined with the exemplary form of his Mercedes teammate<\/a>, Kimi Antonelli \u2013 has left him 68 points off the pace.<\/p>\n

Sunday\u2019s round seven is the newly styled Barcelona-Catalunya Grand Prix, with the Spanish Grand Prix shifting to a new venue in Madrid in September. Mercedes are expected to excel again this weekend, but it is the 19-year-old Antonelli who has established a firm grip on the drivers\u2019 championship after five consecutive victories<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Russell\u2019s latest misfortune arrived in Monaco on Sunday when he was one of five drivers penalised for speeding in the pit lane. That was magnified when his initial five-second penalty was incorrectly observed and he received a further drive-through punishment. Russell finished 12th as Antonelli delivered a flawless drive to extend his championship lead, while Lewis Hamilton moved into second<\/a> for Ferrari.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe pressure feels off,\u201d Russell said on Thursday. \u201cI\u2019m going to try to enjoy every race, not even think about the championship: it\u2019s so far out of reach. It\u2019s just going to enjoy the races and have fun, drive fast and do what I know I\u2019m capable of doing. That\u2019s what I\u2019m excited for.\u201d<\/p>\n

Russell was more upbeat than after Sunday\u2019s travails, when he said he was \u201cbeyond frustration\u201d. The 28-year-old led the Canadian GP last month, but was forced to retire when his battery failed and also suffered costly bad luck in China and Japan in March.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt has been very tough,\u201d Russell said of dealing with Sunday\u2019s disappointment in particular. \u201cBut when I\u2019ve sat down and thought about this season as a whole \u2013 if it was just a neutral season, I think I\u2019d have had three more podiums and it would have been five out of six races on the podium, maybe a couple of wins, two out of three sprint race victories.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019d probably be slightly behind Kimi, but the picture is totally different. Now I\u2019m going to do every race to try to control the controllables. I can\u2019t do anything about the engine breaking down, I can\u2019t do anything about a bad safety car timing or this pit lane infringement situation. That is out of my control.\u201d<\/p>\n

Alpine were the only team to appeal against the pit lane speeding penalties after Pierre Gasly was denied a place on the podium, and on Thursday two elements of their case were ruled admissible by the FIA, with a final decision expected on Friday.<\/p>\n

Gasly described losing third in Monaco as \u201cthe hardest day I\u2019ve had in F1 and in my sport career\u201d, but with new evidence suggesting the speed measurements may have been inaccurate he could yet be reinstated to third, with Red Bull\u2019s Isack Hadjar currently occupying that place.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the FIA have announced that Pirelli will remain the single tyre supplier for Formula One<\/a> until 2028.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"George Russell insists the pressure is off in the battle for the Formula One drivers\u2019 championship. A succession…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":730963,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[441],"tags":[49,48,578,576,577,82],"class_list":["post-730962","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-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/730962","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=730962"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/730962\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/730963"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=730962"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=730962"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=730962"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}