Nelsinho Piquet gave his view on the Formula 1 battle in the 2026 season, warning George Russell about his future and career direction. However, he did not fail to show support for the Briton to bounce back at this weekend’s Canadian GP.
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In 2025, Mercedes’ main driver ended the championship in his best form in terms of results and many expected this year to be the favorite for the title. It so happens that four rounds have already passed and it is his 19-year-old teammate who leads the standings with a 20-point advantage.
Assessing the situation, Piquet said on his podcast Pelas Pistas that Russell arrived in Formula 1 in a low-pressure situation alongside Lewis Hamilton. “If you finish behind Hamilton, it’s okay, because he is Hamilton. But if you beat him, that is huge,” he said.
“So, when he joined the team, it was a situation where everyone was winning. It became more about Hamilton needing to finish ahead of him than about Russell having to prove his worth. Now there is a kid there who didn’t even have a driver’s license when he joined the team,” he continued.
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Furthermore, the Formula E champion pointed out that George is one of the strongest on the grid alongside Max Verstappen, Fernando Alonso, and Charles Leclerc, but may be at the beginning of a difficult phase in his career. “This could be the beginning of the end. And when I say ‘the end’ for Russell, we have to remember that he is still one of the top four or five drivers in Formula 1, maybe even better, alongside Leclerc, Max, Hamilton, and Alonso.”
Shifting focus to next weekend in Montreal, Piquet added: “No matter how much we talk about drivers operating at an extremely high level, the best in the world, confidence on a street circuit makes a huge difference. Maybe he is losing confidence, maybe something else is going on. One or two races, now three… and the gap has become so big that it is worrying to see what Russell’s future will be,” he concluded.
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