George Russell only had six clean races out of nineteen this F1 season. Six! Imagine fighting for a title with that kind of odds stacked against you, yet the Mercedes driver isn’t pointing fingers, even after watching Antonelli snag the championship in Mexico with four races still left to run.
Six Clean Races. That’s It.
After years of grinding, Russell thought this was his shot at an F1 title with Mercedes. He kicked things off strong, snagging a win in Australia and then a second-place finish right after. But man, things went sideways fast. While Antonelli was building momentum and tearing up the track, Russell’s season started unraveling. The Italian had some reliability issues too, sure, but nowhere near the level Russell faced. When the title was finally clinched by Antonelli in Mexico, Russell was left reflecting on what might have been. He’s not chalking it all up to bad luck, but he can’t ignore the numbers: only six races out of nineteen this year were “clean.”
“Post-Mexico I was just more disappointed with how the race unfolded,” Russell told the media after the title slipped away. “It felt like a good opportunity to fight for the victory. Starting P2 in Mexico is always a great chance to go for the lead at Turn 1, and then just another race with something outside of your control was very difficult to accept.” He went through every single race with his engineers, and the shocking truth was out: only six without an issue. That means 14 races were plagued by what seemed like bad luck, but Russell knows they’ve got to dig deeper when these issues keep popping up.
No Blame Game For Mercedes, Just Raw Speed
Here’s the wild part: Russell isn’t throwing Mercedes under the bus either. He sees these things as just part of the game. He even compared this year’s lightning-fast, but unreliable, car to last year’s, which was super reliable but only got him to fourth in the championship. “I don’t think the team have let me down, honestly, because these things do happen,” he explained. “Nobody intends for it to happen. We’re all trying our best to deliver the best.”
Russell highlighted specific moments where the season slipped away, where penalties and mechanical failures compounded the problem. There was a qualifying failure in China, issues in Japan, an engine failure in Canada, and a drive-through penalty. These things stack up, they kill momentum. When you’re in a championship fight, constantly playing catch-up can push you to overdrive, to overachieve. He won’t say for sure if that contributed, but the sentiment is clear: “It just hasn’t been the year we wanted.” He’s looking ahead, focusing on what’s next and pushing to make sure next season is far from this kind of chaos.
This article was created with AI assistance and published under Seattle On Tap’s editorial standards. See our Editorial Policy.
Originally reported by Yahoo Sports.
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