Russell: “Duels with Kimi? Wolff trusts us. Bad luck will also befall Antonelli”

Desire for redemption George Russell chases redemption in Monaco. The Briton won the Sprint in Canada but had to suffer bitterly on Sunday, with a retirement due to technical problems which took him out of the race while he was in the lead – albeit hounded by Antonelli – and made him fall 43 points behind the top of the standings, occupied more and more firmly by the Italian himself. With the journalists present in the Principality Russell returned to talk about what happened in Montreal, starting from the sparks that characterized the duels between him and Antonelli. “There is absolutely nothing to worry about – explained the #63 of Mercedes – we were told that we have to be considered reliable and that’s what we do. We are drivers, we push ourselves to the limit in every single lap and when we race against each other we push each other to the limit; of course when you are sitting on the side of the track, like those on the wall or even like Toto, it is very stressful to see and you are tense because you can’t control what is about to happen, while you wish you could. But in the end [Wolff] he must trust us and does. This is how things are and therefore we will continue to fight with all our strength. We know each other’s limits and it was positive.” The duels with Kimi and the bad luck. Regarding the retirement suffered in Montreal and the bad luck that he says is haunting him, Russell now seems to have a ‘fatalistic’ attitude and did not fail to ‘owl’ Antonelli: “To get over it? It’s definitely necessary over the course of a 24-race season and it didn’t take me long to get over that result because, ultimately, it was out of my control. I came to Canada with one goal, which was to dominate every single important session and that’s exactly what I did. I started on pole in both qualifying, I won the Sprint, I was leading the race and I had a good duel with Kimi; I was in the lead before the breakdown” claimed the Englishman. “I felt that I couldn’t do more in Canada, so in the end I achieved the goal I had set for myself. Otherwise, it’s part of racing and if you look at the championship victories of anyone in Formula 1 or any series, I don’t think anyone in history has ever managed to avoid having a bit of bad luck at some point. I remember last year Lando had a breakdown in Zandvoort and was disqualified in Las Vegas, two things out of his control. Verstappen had the puncture in Baku in 2021 and, probably, you can also say the accident in Silverstone; both could have retired, but he did it and his rival won the race. So these things have always happened in motorsport. I don’t think Kimi will be here at the end of the season saying he hasn’t had a bit of bad luck at some point. That’s how the game goes and I don’t let those things upset me.”

Automobile Magazine – F1 English News , 2026-06-05 02:15:00