George Russell makes “no turning back” admission about Monaco F1 penalty nightmare

Formula 1 championship hopeful George Russell has conceded there is “no turning back” when it comes to his double penalty disaster at the Monaco Grand Prix.

Russell’s title hopes suffered another major blow last weekend in Monaco after a double-whammy penalty saw him drop out of the top-10 and score no points for the second consecutive race.

The result, combined with Mercedes’ team-mate Andrea Kimi Antonelli clinching a fifth successive victory, leaves Russell third in the drivers’ standings and 68 points adrift.

Russell said he did not seek an explanation from the FIA after being hit with a five-second time penalty, which turned into a drive-through penalty after Mercedes failed to correctly serve his original punishment.

“It's very frustrating when something seemingly totally out of your control and the team's control ultimately completely destroys your weekend,” Russell told media including Crash.net.

"I've got to be honest I haven't personally looked for an explanation because it's history and there is nothing I can do now, unlike Pierre [Gasly, whose Alpine team succeeded in the first stage of its right of review request over the Frenchman’s penalties on Thursday] , for example, who can maybe get his result back.

“It was kind of why I was pleading with the FIA and the red flag to not serve that drive-through penalty and to at least penalise me after the race if they feel it was justifiable because once you serve the penalty there's no turning back.”

Despite the hardships and bad luck he has faced, Russell insists he is simply focusing on controlling what is in his hands over the coming races.

“It has been very tough of course dealing with the outcome,” Russell admitted.

“When I’ve sat down and thought about this season as a whole, if it was just a clean season - not a season that I had good luck - but just a neutral season, I think I would have had three more podiums to my name and it would have been five out of six races on the podium, maybe a couple of wins, two out of three sprint race victories.

“I still think I'd probably be slightly behind Kimi in the standings but the picture is totally different, and I'm now just going to do every race to try and control the controllables. I can't do anything about the engine breaking down I can't do anything about a bad safety car timing or this pit lane infringement situation. That is out of my control.

“Now the pressure feels off to be honest I'm just going to try and enjoy every race, not even thinking about a championship. It’s so far out of reach right now that it's just go and enjoy the races and have fun, drive fast and do what I know I'm capable of doing and what I've done for my whole career in Formula 1. That’s what I'm excited for.”

Russell revealed how speaking to a sports psychologist has helped him deal with his emotions.

“I mean every week I'm always talking with my sort of performance psychologist and I've been doing that for for six years now so that isn't anything new,” he explained.

“But it's it's just always great to talk to somebody about you know what you're feeling how you're going to overcome that those emotions and are the emotions you're feeling let's say a true reflection of the performances.

“If I was 60 points behind in the championship based on performance, I would be in a substantially worse place than I am today being 60 points behind when 45 of those at least were out of my control.”