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Mercedes have had the season everyone expected so far, just not with the driver everyone expected to be leading it. George Russell was the universal title favourite before the first race. Four rounds in, it is his 19-year-old teammate who is running away with the championship, and the frustration on Russell's face is becoming harder to ignore.
The Long Road That Led Here
Russell's Formula 1 journey has required more patience than almost any driver of his generation. He debuted in 2019 at Williams, spent three seasons fighting at the back, and occasionally showed enough to justify why Mercedes had invested in him. His one fleeting taste of the front came in the 2020 Sakhir Grand Prix, where he was called up to replace Hamilton and nearly won before a pit stop error and a puncture ended that possibility.
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When he finally joined Mercedes in 2022, he arrived at a team in mourning. The 2021 title had been lost to Verstappen in the most painful circumstances possible, and the new regulations did not suit Mercedes. Russell waited again, beat Hamilton across that difficult period, and when Hamilton left for Ferrari at the start of 2025 he finally had the clear air and the leadership role he had been building toward. He did it perfectly last year, kept Antonelli behind him every weekend, and came into 2026 as the clear favourite.
Then Antonelli Took Over
China was where the dynamic shifted. Russell had a qualifying problem, Antonelli capitalised, took pole and won his first race. Japan followed the same script. In Miami last weekend Antonelli did it again, managing pressure from Lando Norris across the race while Russell had a difficult afternoon in the closing stages involving skirmishes with Verstappen and Leclerc. He finished fourth. He is now twenty points behind his teammate.
Four races in, the conclusion feels unavoidable: Antonelli is the faster Mercedes driver right now. Russell insists he has not underestimated the Italian. Wolff praises Antonelli at every available opportunity. And the gap is growing.
The Risk for Mercedes
Russell is not someone who causes problems when things are going well. But the sport has seen what happens when a driver of real ambition feels the team narrative shifting away from him. The ideal outcome for Mercedes is a Piastri-style correction, where the younger driver's early-season momentum fades after the summer and the more experienced teammate reasserts himself. The dangerous outcome is the opposite: a Russell who starts pushing too hard, makes errors, and turns an internal rivalry into an internal problem.
Azerbaijan Grand Prix
I. Hadjar
A. Antonelli
C. Leclerc
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