Sky Sports F1’s Martin Brundle believes George Russell must find an “overdrive” to hit back at losing this year’s Formula 1 Drivers’ Championship to Kimi Antonelli.
Antonelli clinched the drivers’ title with four rounds to spare on Sunday, becoming the youngest-ever F1 World Champion. Meanwhile, Russell endured another frustrating race, suffering a battery issue on the opening lap before later receiving a 10-second penalty for a collision with Red Bull’s Isack Hadjar. He eventually finished sixth.
Russell started the season as the championship favourite after comfortably getting the better of Antonelli in 2025. However, he has managed just three wins compared with his team-mate’s nine and has generally been outpaced, although he has arguably suffered more than his fair share of misfortune along the way.
“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. 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.
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Last week, George Russell said he wants to be more consistent as the Mercedes driver turns his attention to challenging for the world title next year
“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.
“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.”
Mercedes excused Russell from carrying out his post-Mexico City Grand Prix media duties because the British driver was “distraught” according to team principal Toto Wolff.
The FIA fined Mercedes €5,000 (£4,173) for their driver’s absence from his media duties and Brundle says he “doesn’t blame” Russell, who posted on social media on Monday, for his reaction.
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Kimi Antonelli wore a GoPro during his celebrations at the Mexico Grand Prix
“We get more access to F1 drivers than any other sport can dream of with top players, or what have you in their sports. I think it was a step too far for George to go and have to congratulate him [Antonelli],” he said.
“He did congratulate him of course, underneath the podium, but to have to put up with questions like: ‘How do you feel George? And is this the end of the road for you?’ I don’t blame him.
“The team got fined and I’d be very happy to pay that. Not to have to basically face the music to the world when I’m at my lowest ebb and I think that’s fair enough frankly. George has either got an overdrive or it’s game over.”
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Kimi Antonelli watches back a montage of videos from his journey from go-karting, to F1’s youngest champion
Brundle: Antonelli has all the hallmarks of a multiple F1 world champion
Antonelli has been part of Mercedes’ driver programme since he was 12 years old and the team have carefully managed his career after a huge amount of excitement grew when he was winning championships in karting and junior single-seater categories.
Brundle admits he thought Antonelli may “fall apart” at times this season but was impressed to see him “flourish” instead with impressive victories in Monaco, Monza and Austin.
“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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A look back at some of F1’s newly-crowed champion Kimi Antonelli’s best moments of the season
“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.”
Formula 1 heads to Brazil for the final leg of the triple header with the Sao Paulo Grand Prix this weekend, live on Sky Sports F1. Stream Sky Sports with NOW.