Russell admits mental exhaustion after bad luck blights 2026 title bid

George Russell has admitted he is mentally exhausted after a 2026 Formula 1 season in which the Mercedes driver watched team-mate Kimi Antonelli clinch the world championship in Mexico while his own title challenge was repeatedly derailed by factors outside his control.

Speaking to media at Interlagos on Thursday, Russell said that even arriving in Brazil — where he took his first Formula 1 victory in 2022 — had done little to lift his spirits. “I probably just feel a bit exhausted this season of constantly picking myself back up,” he said. “When you get kicked to the ground, you pick yourself back up, 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.”

Russell described the toll of three consecutive weeks away from home culminating in another painful Mexico City weekend, where a genuine shot at victory or a podium evaporated through no fault of his own. “When a chance of victory, a chance at the podium just disappears totally outside of your control, is tough to deal with,” he said. “It’s very tough to deal with.”

The Briton revealed he had conducted a thorough post-Mexico review of his entire season with his engineers and found the scale of the problem was greater than he had realised. Of his 20 races, 14 had been affected by what the team initially put down to bad luck — a frequency that Russell said now demands deeper scrutiny. “We need to start questioning things more deeply when it’s happening so often, and especially on our side,” he said.

Despite the frustration, Russell struck a cautiously optimistic note about the final races of the year. “Brazil was a place that I love. I’ve got great memories. Do I come in with high expectations? Honestly, no. But looking forward to next year, for sure.”

Russell sits fourth in the drivers’ standings on 250 points, 11 behind Red Bull’s Max Verstappen in second and nine behind Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton in third.