George Russell heads into the weekend of the British Grand Prix as the latest winning F1 driver this season. He took the lead of the championship at the season opener in Melbourne, but prior to his victory in Austria, he had spent the following months seeing his teammate check out ahead.
Kimi Antonelli has taken the F1 paddock by storm, winning his maiden Grand Prix in China and following this up with a run of five consecutive Sunday wins. No driver who has ever achieved this has failed to go on and win the Drivers’ Title that season.
Yet, this is 2026. Massive, all-new regulation changes mean that despite Mercedes’ dominance of the top step of the podium, related engine failures and a surprising pace differential from circuit to circuit mean nothing is quite as certain as it has been in previous years.
Chasing a Massive Deficit
Russell has recovered from a 68-point deficit to his teammate which existed after the Monaco Grand Prix. But at times, he sounded as though he had chucked in the towel in the fight for the Drivers’ Championship after a string of misfortunes, including poorly timed Safety Cars and mechanical failures.
Having finished second to Antonelli’s debut win in China, George failed to make a podium before finishing second to Lewis Hamilton in the Barcelona Grand Prix. After a huge disappointment in Monaco, where Mercedes failed to cement him a third place, Russell was understandably disconsolate.
“Right now, it’s Kimi’s to lose,” said the British driver after his teammate scored the win while he came home pointless.
These are the defeatist words of someone who believes they have already lost. And given Mercedes were not switched on enough to instruct their driver not to serve his faulty speeding penalty and argue the toss later, it was reasonable for Russell to accept the whole world was against him.
Alpine, on the other hand, decided not to serve Pierre Gasly’s penalty. He was demoted from third place at the chequered flag but reinstated following an appeal from the team. There, the FIA admitted they had placed the timing loop sensors—which measured speeding in the pit lane—incorrectly, meaning drivers who were not speeding were penalised for doing so.
Since then, the picture has improved somewhat for George. In Barcelona, his teammate suffered a similar engine failure to Russell’s in Canada, meaning he failed to finish the race with just four laps to go. Then in Austria, a string of rash moves at the start of the Grand Prix saw Antonelli lose places, leaving him only able to recover to third come the chequered flag while Russell won the race.
Managing the F1 “Mania and Depression”
This weekend, the British Grand Prix will be the first power circuit on the calendar since Red Bull sorted their early-season engine woes. With an internal combustion engine that is the most powerful in the field, it could make the difference when the cars are out of electrical energy — which will be frequently.
A win for Max Verstappen is not out of the question, but Toto Wolff is prompting his elder driver to keep his emotions in check whatever the weekend brings. The Mercedes boss implies that Russell is prone to extreme mood swings depending on how the results for each weekend land. Wolff was keen to stress the importance of emotional stability, having already explained the “spiral of overthinking” his driver had found himself within.
“In this sport we tend to, and the same with some of our competitors, to swing between mania and depression,” the Mercedes team principal said at his press event in Silverstone.
“It’s like one weekend we’re the greatest, and we are world champions, and this is all fantastic. And the next weekend, five days later, is the big depression, that, ‘everything is s**t, the upgrade didn’t work, the engine is not what we wanted’. But the weekend before it was actually the best.
“I think it’s important to keep the balance, to keep the neutrality. You’re going to have swings in performance, you’re going to have DNFs that go in your favour or not, and some you win, some you score solid points, some you lose.
“And it’s over the 22 races that we’re going to have in the season, hopefully, that you need to optimise on that, rather than to swing emotionally, and then declare a state of emergency, and everything is down to s**t.”
From Bust to Boom in the Styrian Hills
The weekend of the Austrian Grand Prix was a case in point. Russell struggled during the early practice sessions, whilst his teammate dominated. Then late on Saturday, as the pole position shootout was hurtling towards its conclusion, Russell pulled it out of the bag with a remarkable piece of thinking and driving.
As Max Verstappen hurtled into the barriers at Turn 9 travelling at some 300 kph, race control, for some inexplicable reason, threw just a single yellow flag despite the clear and present danger another car losing traction would present. Russell was on the hottest of laps, almost half a second up on the current pole time. He obeyed the yellow flag instruction, lifting briefly and losing around a quarter of a second before flooring it to claim pole position by what, in reality, was a massive 0.25 seconds.
During the race, Verstappen possessed far better pace than Russell, as his last stint proved. The Dutch driver came out from his final pit stop over ten seconds behind Russell, but clawed his way back to finish just 1.6 seconds behind at the chequered flag.
Wolff almost mocks the mood swings of his British driver, suggesting he went from bust to boom in just a couple of days in the Styrian hills.
“If you would have spoken about George 36 hours before the race, we would have said this campaign is really not going [well], and is he ever going to recover? Now, he’s the real deal,” the Austrian grinned.
Kimi Antonelli has had his lead slashed by 28 points across the last two weekends. His 40-point advantage in this context doesn’t seem quite so invincible. With Lewis Hamilton just a further 6 points back, the title race is definitely still on.
Wolff concludes by saying as much:
“So, let’s keep the trajectory; that’s important, and that’s why I have never had any doubt that this can go very long in the driver championship, who can potentially win; there’s a three-way race at the moment, and that’s why it’s about scoring those points.”
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A.J. Hunt is Senior Editor at TJ13, where Andrew oversees editorial standards and contributes to the site’s Formula 1 coverage. A career journalist with experience in both print and digital sports media, Andrew trained in investigative journalism and has written for a range of European sports outlets.
At TJ13, Andrew plays a central role in shaping the site’s output, working across breaking news, analysis, and long-form features. Andrew’s responsibilities include fact-checking, refining editorial structure, and ensuring consistency in reporting across a fast-moving news cycle.
Andrew’s work focuses particularly on the intersection of Formula 1 politics, regulation, and team strategy. Andrew closely follows developments involving the FIA, team leadership, and driver market dynamics, helping to provide context behind the sport’s biggest stories.
With experience covering multiple seasons of Formula 1’s modern hybrid era, Andrew has developed a detailed understanding of how regulatory changes and competitive shifts influence the grid. Andrew’s editorial approach prioritises clarity and context, aiming to help readers navigate complex developments within the sport.
In addition to editorial duties, Andrew is particularly interested in how media narratives shape fan perception of Formula 1, and how reporting can balance speed with accuracy in an increasingly digital news environment.
