George Russell’s miserable 2026 season is nearing its end, while teammate Kimi Antonelli is on the verge of becoming champion.

Before the season, Russell was backed as the favourite for the title, and after he won in Melbourne, it looked like that was how the season would play out. The Brit has won just twice since then.

A series of mechanical failures and ill-timed safety cars have not helped him, but Russell has generally lacked the pace of his teammate. Antonelli has dominated in 2026, winning nine races, and he is now on the cusp of winning the title in Mexico City.

Give us your podium prediction for the 2026 F1 Mexico City Grand Prix! 🇲🇽

Damon Hill: George Russell may realise Kimi Antonelli is a ‘magic’ driver and is ‘unbeatable’

The United States Grand Prix was perhaps the biggest gap between the Mercedes drivers. Antonelli won the race, while Russell could only manage P8, finishing 54 seconds behind his teammate.

Toto Wolff was baffled by Russell’s deficit to his teammate, and the Brit was at a loss to explain it too. Across the season, the Brit has only beaten Antonelli four times on Sunday.

His deficit has been so big that Jolyon Palmer thinks Mercedes would have lost the title without Antonelli. Heading into Mexico, only nine points separate Russell in P2 and Charles Leclerc in P5 – he could slip behind both Ferraris and Max Verstappen.

Russell wants to understand why he cannot keep up with Antonelli, but Damon Hill is worried that he may soon realise that that is impossible, as the 20-year-old could be one of F1’s new ‘magic drivers’.

“Of course, the awful part of the equation is that possibly Kimi Antonelli is one of these magic drivers who is just quicker than everyone, and as a driver, you can’t comprehend how someone can be quicker than you.

“You just have to read the time and basically suck it up because it’s not something you want to accept as a racing driver. You think everyone can be beatable, but some people aren’t.”

Would Mercedes have won the championship without Kimi Antonelli?

David Coulthard suggests Russell has been ‘distracted’ by off-track events, saying that he should focus on his racing duties. But he still cannot get to grips with the car, which Guenther Steiner points out should only happen at the start of the year.

He added: “The problems, George should have [them] in the beginning of the season. And I think George’s performance has gone backwards.

“Because if you’re used to something, it takes time to unlearn. As we both know, when you get older, it’s more difficult to unlearn something, and then you have to learn, like Kimi didn’t have a lot to unlearn.

“He didn’t spend a lot of time, he did only one year in the old car while the other ones were used to the old car.

“But I thought with George, if he has got problems too with the new technology, it will be in the beginning of the season, and it seems like it doesn’t get any better for him.”