Sky F1’s Martin Brundle says George Russell must find his “overdrive” mode and return next season with a sharper edge if he is to fight back his Mercedes teammate Kimi Antobelli and revive his championship ambitions
Russell began the campaign as the expected team leader, having comfortably outperformed Antonelli in 2025. Instead, the Italian has won nine races to Russell’s three and secured the championship with four rounds to spare, becoming Formula 1’s youngest-ever world champion.
Russell’s Mexico City weekend summed up his frustrations. A deployment problem on the opening lap was followed by a 10-second penalty for colliding with Isack Hadjar, leaving him sixth as Antonelli celebrated his milestone coronation.
The stopwatch tells the story
Brundle believes watching Antonelli’s rise has affected Russell, who waited years for his Mercedes opportunity after developing his skills with Williams from 2019 to 2021.
"Russell will be broken, because he waited at Williams a long time as a Mercedes junior to get his chance. He got it just as they stopped winning," Brundle told Sky Sports News.
"They suddenly turned up with these new 2026 cars, an early dominant car, it's not dominant right now, but it was certainly in the first phase of the season. And then this kid turns up and just transforms from a bit of a liability in year one to a generational talent in year two.
"George has had to observe that, and I think it's affected his own performance. He's been so unlucky but then Antonelli had his fair share of unreliability, dropping out of races too.”
©Mercedes
For Brundle, misfortune cannot disguise the central issue: Russell has not matched Antonelli’s pace consistently, particularly over longer runs.
“What will hit George hardest is that he couldn't match Antonelli for speed, for consistent speed. That's all that matters in this business, the stopwatch, it's a very antiquated system.
"Despite spending hundreds of millions of dollars a year running through F1 cars, we live and die by the stopwatch. George has not been as fast as Kimi, especially in the second half of stints in a run on set of tyres. That's what will get to George.”
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Russell opens up: ‘2026 was not meant to be my year'Brundle believes the setback could provoke a response rather than end Russell’s ambitions. But the requirement is clear: he must raise his level next season.
"It might break George, but I think it'll make him, he'll find an overdrive, he has to. He has to come back next year and lift his game up. Meanwhile, he's had to suffer an awful season for himself.
“A brilliant season for a 19-year-old who has turned 20 through that season. George has either got an overdrive or it's game over."
Antonelli: All the hallmarks of a multiple F1 champion
A Mercedes junior since the age of 12, Antonelli has moved in just a year from an occasionally error-prone rookie to a title-winning force, with standout victories in Monaco, Monza and Austin.
Brundle admits he wondered whether the pressure might overwhelm him, but believes managing the demands of being champion will determine his longevity.
"Being a world champion is a whole new level of pressure on his shoulders, from his country, from going around the world as he will do," he said.
"If he can manage that and have the right people around him to take some of that pressure and expectation away from him and make life a bit easier with getting around the world, he should have the staying power.
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"He's young, and he's fit. They don't get smashed up as much in F1 cars these days, unless they're super unlucky, actually. So that's a big factor these days.
“You don't get hit on the head like we used to. You don't get your legs smashed up like we used to.
"I do think Antonelli has all the hallmarks of a multiple F1 champion. But we'll see, it's really hard to do, as Lando Norris has found this year, to keep the mental and physical aspects of that going into two, three or even four seasons."
Russell’s task is stark: find another gear next year, or his hopes of becoming champion with Mercedes may be over.
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Brundle warns Russell: Find ‘overdrive’ mode or it’s ‘game over’ F1i.com.
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