George Russell currently holds second place in the Drivers’ Championship, trailing behind teammate Kimi Antonelli, while the F1 paddock travels to Monza for the 2026 F1 Italian GP.
Following a third-place finish at Zandvoort, Russell spoke to print media in Thursday’s press conference about title fights, the Monza circuit and team strategy.
Analyzing car performance and the team to beat
When asked about whether Mercedes can learn from McLaren’s ability to quickly solve setup issues during the Dutch GP weekend, Russell explained the fine margins between performance and optimization. He noted that questions remain over whether McLaren underperformed on Friday before reaching their true potential on Saturday or if Mercedes simply over-delivered during the sprint sessions to secure a strong result on Sunday.
With Lando Norris taking victory at Zandvoort, Russell acknowledged that McLaren is clearly the team to beat at the moment. He admitted that Mercedes currently sits an upgrade behind their rivals, though the team hopes to close the gap in coming races.
For the weekend at the 2026 F1 Italian GP, he expects an intense fight involving both McLaren and Ferrari, with both of them bringing upgrades to the weekend.
“Yeah, well I think you can look at it from two angles, did they underperform on the Friday and just reached their potential on the Saturday and did we maybe optimise, we overperformed on the sprints and we achieved a great result on Sunday. I think, when you look at our sprint races and how competitive Lando and McLaren have been it’s definitely very fair to say that they are the team to beat right now. We know we’re an upgrade behind most and we hope we can go back to being the team to beat in a couple of races time, but, for now, the fight [is] with McLaren and Ferrari who have got the upgrades this weekend.”
Reflecting on the previous race, he added that finishing on the podium and sprint points probably masked the car’s actual lack of performance over the weekend.
“I don’t think, I as a kid came away from Zandvoort having a very positive weekend as a team and I think a P2 and a P3 on sprint point was actually probably better than the true car’s performance.”
Russell’s expectations for an entertaining weekend at the 2026 F1 Italian GP
Turning attention to the unique characteristics of the Monza circuit at the 2026 F1 Italian GP, Russell recognizes that the weekend presents plenty of exciting opportunities on track.
While races at energy-starved circuits do not always suit everyone, Russell argued that they consistently deliver high entertainment, pointing to other races earlier in the year at Silverstone and in Australia.
He explained that Monza features four long straights where drivers must carefully manage and divide their energy deployment. This tactical back and forth will create moments of high risk, especially because running out of energy makes recharging extremely difficult.
However, he emphasized that everyone faces the exact same challenge, which should set the stage for an entertaining Grand Prix at the 2026 F1 Italian GP in Monza.
“I think there’s a lot of exciting opportunities this weekend with the races, we know the races at the energy-starved tracks haven’t been everybody’s cup of tea, but I don’t think you can deny they’ve been pretty entertaining when we look at some of the races, Silverstone, Australia and I think this is going to be the same again, you’ve got four long straights where you have to divide the energy up and there will be back and forth, it can go wrong as well, if you run out of energy it will be very difficult to recharge, but everyone’s in the same boat, I think it will be a pretty good race.”
Russell on managing the team championship battle with Antonelli
Addressing questions about his close championship fight with teammate Kimi Antonelli and the point at which team orders might shift, Russell outlined the current mindset inside Mercedes. He stressed that prioritizing the team remains essential at this stage of the season, noting that past examples show how selfishness can ultimately hurt a driver later down the line.
While he acknowledged that the approach may evolve if the points gap narrows further, Russell made it clear that a shift to an every-driver-for-themselves mentality is not currently a consideration.
For now, Mercedes continues to operate through collective teamwork and the team will adapt and race according to how the championship unfolds from there.
“Yeah, I mean at the moment that’s not really a consideration because, you know, I think we’ve always got to put the team first at this point, I think we’ve seen it in the past where if you are selfish you’re only able to pin them yourself later down the line, yeah and probably if it gets closer it will just be the greed upon us all and that’s how we’re going to race it, but for now this is how we do things and yeah, we’ll go from there.”
