George Russell admits he plans to have a “deep look in the mirror” as he reflects on his failed F1 world championship challenge this season.

Mercedes driver Russell, the strong favourite to win the title this season, has been outperformed by teammate Kimi Antonelli, who became the sport’s youngest-ever champion last week in Mexico City.

Russell has also been on the end of some rotten luck, with two mechanical DNFs alone costing him 40 points alone, but he is now 130 points behind Antonelli with four rounds remaining and, tellingly, he has dropped to fourth in the standings behind Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton.

The British driver said ahead of this weekend’s race in Brazil: "It wasn't meant to be this season but you also need to look at yourself in the mirror and think: 'What could I have done better'?

"Is all of the misfortune truly misfortune? Or is it actually things in our control that could have been better? So you need to just have a deep, deep look in the mirror and pick yourself up again and go from there."

Russell also acknowledged that his car has been blighted by issues, including another software issue at the last race in Mexico.

"These issues constantly keep popping up but unfortunately this always seems like it's on my side of the garage," he added.

"We concluded we've only had six races from the 20 where we've had a clean weekend. So to think 14 of those weekends have had issues is unbelievable.

"We need to look to understand why that is, if there's something we are overlooking or if it's just pure misfortune. At the moment it does seem like it's more misfortune than anything.

"In a normal season you might have two weekends or three weekends where there are issues. We've had three quarters of this season and that has been incredibly unfortunate."

Even though the title has gone, Russell still has plenty to play for this season. He trails second-placed Verstappen by 11 points but will also be looking over his shoulder: Charles Leclerc in fifth is just five points behind him.

Russell has good memories of Interlagos in Sao Paulo: it was where he claimed his first Formula 1 victory in 2022.