George Russell stated that he is not concerned about the favorable momentum of his Mercedes teammate, Kimi Antonelli, who leads the championship by nine points after three races of the 2026 Formula 1 season. Russell started the year with a victory in Australia and in the sprint in Shanghai, but was outperformed by Antonelli in China and Japan, where he finished fourth after the Italian benefited from the safety car.
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The Briton highlighted that the four-week break in April, caused by the war in Iran, prevents any momentum for his rival. “No, not at all. We are three races into 22, and with a different lap today [due to the timing of the safety car] the victory would have been on my side, and I am confident of that,” he said. “So that’s how things happen. This is racing. Now there’s a four-week break, so there’s no momentum to be maintained. It’s about resetting and trying again in the next race.”
He also attributed the change in the scenario to circumstantial factors. “It’s just how things happened, really. I can’t give more details. Sometimes people have problems in practice. We haven’t had a single problem in practice all season. I had the problems in qualifying. Lando [Norris] didn’t have any problems in qualifying, but had all his problems in practice.”
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“So it’s a matter of luck with these new cars. But it’s the third race of 22. I’m not worried at all, it’s a long year. And I know I have what it takes to recover and not dwell on it,” the Briton concluded.
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