'I've never had an F1 season like this': George Russell explains what’s behind his nightmare 2026

George Russell has given fascinating detail on what’s been behind his 2026 struggles during a humbling campaign.

The Mercedes driver, who is well adrift of young teammate Kimi Antonelli in this year’s title fight, has said: “I've never had a season like this in my career.”

Ahead of this weekend’s Mexico City GP, the British star spoke about the challenges he’s faced behind the wheel this year, and his efforts to turn things around.

George Russell reflects on tricky 2026 Mercedes F1 car and season

Seen as the pre-season favourite for this year’s F1 title, Russell stamped his authority on proceedings early on by winning out in the season-opener in Melbourne.

Since then though, his season has gone awry, with Antonelli turning into the championship’s runaway leader. Though the Brit has had his moments, taking three race wins in total, it’s been a poor effort compared to his teammate.

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Russell has appeared to struggle to get to grips with his Mercedes W17 car, and went into detail on this speaking in the pre-race press conference.

“I think there's just a few factors with the cars this year that potentially favour or hinder a certain driving style,” he said.

“I've always been a driver that focuses on the mid-to-the-exit of the corners, which often means I'm on the throttle earlier than most, and with these new power units [that have a bigger electric motor than before], that means I'm spending more energy, and is sometimes not the most efficient way to drive for the power unit.

“And secondly, the tyre pressures this year, especially on the rear, have been very, very high.

“Pirelli are taking a few PSI [pressure per square inches] margin, especially on the rear axle, and so again, that sort of has hindered me a little bit by pushing the exits.

“The rear tyre can't cope with it as well, and there's been a bit of a hindrance on the power unit side, so it was these two factors [that] just really hampered my natural driving style, and I'd say that's probably been the biggest thing of this season.”

Now Russell is looking to preserve his runner-up place in the standings, but has Lewis Hamilton, Max Verstappen and Charles Leclerc right behind him. The Brit explained what he sees as key to keeping the chasing pack at bay.

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“Well, I think it is definitely important for me to try and gain some consistency,” he said.

“It's a couple of races ago we were on pole by eight tenths and won the race, and then last week I finished in P8 [...] I've never had a season like this in my career where the performance has fluctuated so much.

“I know it's in there, because you can't deliver performances like that in Baku [where he won], if you've so-called ‘lost it’, it's just we're struggling to have a high hit rate.

“We don't know why that is, and as I said, we've never had it. I've never had it personally before in my career, and I guess that's probably the priority for me in these last few races.”

Mercedes has been struggling in recent races to get the most out of its latest upgrade, until Antonelli triumphed in last week in Austin. Russell was struggling towards the back of the top 10, and implied it summed up its season.

“It's been a little bit strange for us since we brought this package to the car,” he said.

“Obviously, we first brought it in in Malaysia, and it was a pretty tough weekend for the two of us.

“And then Kimi had it on in Singapore again - not a straightforward weekend [on] my side, and he obviously had a very, very strong race - and we are seeing some things, the characteristics that just show that it performs in a very narrow window. So we need to try and widen that, and obviously from my side, need to try and focus on getting into that window.”