George Russell’s quest for the Formula 1 title has hit another bump in the road, even though he’s recently gained some momentum. The Mercedes driver has received an “unbelievable” warning from Kimi Antonelli as the competition within the Silver Arrows team heats up. Currently, Russell is trailing his teenage teammate by 25 points after nine races in the 2026 season, despite narrowing the gap with a solid second-place finish behind Charles Leclerc at Silverstone. Former Haas team principal Guenther Steiner believes that Antonelli is still the clear frontrunner for the championship and sees the Italian as the one to beat for the rest of the season.
Steiner refused to rule Russell out completely but questioned whether the Briton could find another level quickly enough. Speaking on the Red Flags podcast, the former team principal pointed to Lando Norris’ as he said, “I’ll go back to last year with Lando [Norris]. Lando was struggling in the first half of the season, and then he came back stronger, so you can’t write anybody off. Obviously, George admitted himself that he needs to be better than this, and the only one who can do that is himself. He knows that, but can he do it? And can Kimi keep this form?”
George Russell Closes The Gap But Kimi Antonelli Still Holds The Advantage
The championship landscape has changed quite a bit since Monaco. Over the last three races, Russell has managed to claw back 43 points on Antonelli, thanks to some reliability issues and a bit of bad luck for the Italian driver. What used to be a daunting 68-point gap has now shrunk to just 25 points as we head into the next part of the season. However, Russell has been candid about the fact that the current standings mostly reflect how things have played out so far. He feels that a gap of somewhere between 10 and 30 points would be a more accurate representation of the first nine rounds, especially after he lost crucial points due to a speeding penalty in the Monaco pit lane.
Russell has also been upfront in admitting that Antonelli has had the stronger season up to this point, as he said, “He has done a better job than me this year to this point, so he deserves to be ahead of me. Whether it should be 25 points, whether it should be 10 points, whether it should be 35 points is a debate, but in that ballpark between, you know, I obviously lost 15 points as well in Monaco with the drive-through penalty.”
To make things even more interesting, Ferrari is making a comeback at the front. Lewis Hamilton is now just seven points behind Russell, thanks to Ferrari’s recent surge in form, and Charles Leclerc’s victory at Silverstone has tightened the constructors’ standings as well. For now, though, all eyes are on the Mercedes garage, where Russell has the tough challenge of trying to fend off an in-form Antonelli, who continues to impress both rivals and former team bosses.
