George Russell questions rate of “atrocious luck” after crushing F1 title defeat

George Russell has questioned the frequency of the “atrocious luck” he has experienced during the 2026 Formula 1 season. 

The 28-year-old Briton’s inevitable F1 title loss was confirmed in last Sunday’s Mexico City Grand Prix as Mercedes team-mate Andrea Kimi Antonelli finished third to wrap up the world championship with four races to go. 

Russell began the year as the overwhelming title favourite but ultimately ended up watching Antonelli become the youngest F1 champion in history at just 20 years old. 

He made the perfect start to the season with victory in Australia but a combination of poor reliability, coupled with his struggles to get on top of Mercedes’ 2026 challenger, accelerated his defeat to Antonelli. 

Russell qualified second in Mexico but immediately lost ground at the start due to a deployment issue. An opening-lap collision with Red Bull’s Isack Hadjar resulted in a 10-second penalty which ruined his race, leaving him sixth. 

"My focus had just been trying to win races, trying to improve performances, and Mexico it felt like a moment I could regain a bit of confidence and momentum," Russell said ahead of this weekend's Sao Paulo Grand Prix.

"I qualified on the front row, basically on pole as I was so close with Lewis. Then just to have basically the whole race taken away from me because of a software glitch was incredibly tough to deal with when we've just had so many of these little issues in the whole season.

"This season hasn't meant to be. The performance hasn't been good enough. It's been atrocious luck. We need to question, is it luck because it's happened too often?

"We need to question, is there something we're overlooking because we can have bad luck once, twice, three times, four times? But it's been too many times. We're all having this internal conversation, and collectively as a team, we know we need to do better if we want to fight for next season.”

Russell vowed to look at himself “hard in the mirror” over the winter as he looks to bounce back from his heartbreaking campaign. 

"I think it's also important not to be naive and just blame luck on not being victorious," he added.

"I think you need to look at yourself hard in the mirror, think where you could have done a better job.

"If these issues have been any contribution of lack of preparation on your side, I don't believe it is, but we need to go through that with my team. And things will come good again, I've got no doubts about it.

"I probably just feel a bit exhausted this season of constantly picking myself back up. When you get kicked to the ground, you pick yourself back up, and then you get kicked down again, you pick yourself back up.

"And I was hoping to do that maybe twice in the season, not every other weekend really. I think when you get to a point of this season, you're away from home for three weeks in a row and you have another race like what happened in Mexico where a chance of victory, a chance of the podium just disappears totally outside of your control, it's tough to deal with, you know. It's very tough to deal with."