George Russell "struggling to comprehend" F1 2026 woes after Monaco GP penalty disaster

George Russell claimed to be “beyond frustration” after a drive-through penalty dropped him out of podium contention at the Monaco Grand Prix.

The Mercedes driver has endured a torrid run of bad luck this season, and recorded back-to-back Formula 1 zero scores after being handed a five-second penalty for speeding in the pit lane, before receiving a further drive-through penalty for failing to serve the initial sanction in his next stop.

While the rules are black and white on both counts, Russell maintained that he did nothing wrong, and questioned the severity of his punishment.

“I’m beyond frustration now,” he told media, including Crash.net.

“It’s just struggling to comprehend how on Earth the season is panning out the way it has done.

“The team said there was nothing I had done wrong with the speeding in the pit lane. [It was] a software issue. We don’t know where from.

“A five-second penalty is not ideal, but not the end of the world, and then obviously, the drive-through for not serving it properly when I was in P3. Two weekends in a row, 40 points down the drain.”

Russell was far from the only driver to be penalised for pit lane speeding, with second-placed finisher Lewis Hamilton, Franco Colapinto, and Pierre Gasly – twice – among those caught out.

“I got the drive-through because there was a lot of confusion last minute,” he added. “I was meant to be staying on track, but then the FIA pulled the cars through the pit lane. I was asking the team ‘Am I stopping for tyres or not’, but I saw my set of tyres there.

“Everything just happened too quick, and I guess the mechanics didn’t get the message that they had to leave the car for the five seconds. Then I was on the radio saying I was willing to serve the penalty the next lap.

“I believe I had a 20-second gap to Gasly behind me, but the rules say we didn’t serve the penalty correctly, and the punishment is the driver-through.

“I probably, with the software glitch, gained one tenth-of-a-second in the whole pit lane, and lost 13 positions.”

The Briton now finds himself 68-points behind team-mate Kimi Antonelli in the drivers’ standings, while also dropping behind Hamilton to third place.

“I wish – yesterday was a bad day for me, and I accept that, but the result of the last two races, I wish I could take some responsibility for the car breaking down in Canada, or the penalties today,” Russell said.

“But it has been completely outside of my control, and that is an incredibly difficult pill to swallow. I don’t ever really believe in good luck or bad luck, but when I look at the season as a whole; leading the race in Canada and I break down, could have been on the podium today, zero points, leading the race in Japan, safety car comes out 10 seconds after my pit stop.

“There’s not a lot and the whole season could look totally different. Now, I’m 70 points off the lead.”