2026-07-08 09:55:04
George Russell has admitted he needs to be better to stay in contention this year.
The 28-year-old racing driver started the season as title favourite but he currently trails his Mercedes teammate Kimi Antonelli by 25 points and knows he needs to work with his team on producing improved performances.
He reflected to Sky Sports: “The feeling (of the car) was good, but the lap times were slow. And as I said, there were things outside of my control that contributed a lot towards that, and things in my control.
“I’m still struggling to understand this car. I probably still leave this weekend, albeit extremely grateful to stand on the podium, I leave less satisfied than Canada, when I broke down from the lead.
“And if I want to fight for the championship, the performances need to be better. I need to be better. I need to be working better with my team. We need to be maximising everything.”
And George noted Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton is also challenging to be world champion again.
He added: “We’ve got a close fight now with Ferrari, so it’s not just Kimi and I, Lewis is still very close. It needs to be improved.
“I’m not even thinking about it, to be honest, because I’ve got my own things I need to deal with and improve upon on my own side.”
George believes he has been outperformed by Kimi – who has had issues including retiring due to enginge failure in Barcelona and another technical issue at the British Grand Prix – so far this season.
He said: “Whether the luck has balanced out or not, I’m not sure.
“However, based on my performances and based on his performances over the course of these nine races, I think a 25-point gap is in his favour is probably correct.
“He has done a better job than me this year to this point, so he deserves to be ahead of me.
“Whether it should be 25 points, whether it should be 10 points, whether it should be 35 points is a debate, but in that ballpark between… I obviously lost 15 points as well in Monaco with the drive-through penalty. I think anywhere from 10 to 30 points behind is probably about fair.”
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