George Russell tipped to win "psychological battle" against F1 team-mate Kimi Antonelli

George Russell has been given the vote of confidence by his former Formula 1 boss to come out on top in a "psychological battle" against Mercedes team-mate Kimi Antonelli in the title race. 

Claire Williams was the de facto team principal of Williams during Russell's three years with the team, and helped to guide the Briton through the early stages of his career. 

A Mercedes junior driver at the time, Russell was forced to wait for his opportunity to join the factory team, making his debut at the 2020 Sakhir Grand Prix after Lewis Hamilton tested positive for Covid, before making the permanent step up in 2022 - which also marked the beginning of the ground effect era and the end of Mercedes' dominant spell. 

Russell scored his second victory of the 2026 campaign in Austria, ending a long wait for success that stretched back to the season-opener in Melbourne. The result saw him take a chunk out of Antonelli's championship lead, reducing the margin to 40 points, and Williams is confident that her former charge has what it takes to overturn the gap completely. 

“It’s a psychological battle that wins the war at the end of the day, and I think George, because he’s got a layer of maturity perhaps over Kimi at this stage, just by sheer numbers, I think that’s where he will win the fight,” said Williams.

“From my experience of George, I think he is perfectly capable of winning that psychological battle when it comes to trying to win a world championship, competing for that against your team-mate, who is invariably going to be the hardest competitor that you have, because you’re in the same equipment.

“George, what he’s really good at, is he’s quite self-aware and he’ll be sitting there thinking each and every day, what do I need to do in order to surpass my team-mate? How can I win that battle?”

Russell has been undeniably unlucky on a number of occasions this year, with reliability woes and Safety Car periods hampering otherwise strong performances that could have led to further race wins. 

Commenting on Russell's 'maturity' in these moments, Williams added: “George is just thorough, and he’s a perfectionist, and I think that that can only be an advantage in the position that he’s finding himself in this year.

“He used to tell a story [about] karting with his dad when he was very young. I think people used to nickname him Grandpa because he just behaved in an extraordinarily mature way for his years, and I think that level of maturity afforded him that level of perfectionism.

“That’s George, isn’t it? He’s just buttoned up and he is myopically focused, and everything for him he has to do to the best of his abilities.”