While Kimi Antonelli’s performance is on the rise, expert Jolyon Palmer has observed that George Russell has been getting worse and worse lately
After three consecutive Grand Prix victories, Mercedes driver Kimi Antonelli leads the Formula 1 World Championship with a 20-point lead over his Mercedes teammate George Russell. Ahead of the upcoming race in Canada, the Briton is now under pressure.
Expert Jolyon Palmer has observed that Russell’s performance this year has gotten worse “with every weekend.” “He was outstanding in Melbourne, unlucky in China, struggled in Japan, and was nowhere to be seen in Miami,” Palmer wrote in his column for F1.com.
In fact, Russell won the season opener in Australia, finished second in China, and then missed the podium in both Japan and Miami. With Antonelli, however, the exact opposite is true, according to Palmer. The teenager is getting better and better.
“I’ve never seen Kimi drive as well [as he did in Miami],” says the former Formula 1 driver, explaining: “His wins in China and Japan were convincing, but not particularly spectacular. In China, he had by far the fastest car, and his teammate ran into trouble.”
“In Japan, he was undoubtedly the fastest, but he received additional help from the safety car during the race,” he recalls. In Miami, on the other hand, he had “his teammate under control more clearly than ever before,” Palmer praises.
“George struggled to get within even a few tenths of a second of him,” says the expert, who emphasizes: “Now his teammate has reached a new level of performance, and he is gradually facing the same questions and concerns as his compatriot Lando Norris did twelve months ago.”
Why Russell needs a “fresh start”
At McLaren, a similar scenario unfolded in 2025 when Norris won the season opener in Australia but saw Oscar Piastri overtake and pull away from him in the World Championship in the following months. It wasn’t until after the summer break that the tide turned again, and Norris ultimately became World Champion.
“George needs a fresh start,” explains Palmer, “and next time around, he’ll have the perfect opportunity for it.” Because while Miami is, according to Russell himself, a track that has never really suited him, the Brit is certainly considered a “Canada specialist.”
In 2024 and 2025, he secured pole position in Montreal each time, and last year he even won the Grand Prix. “It seems as though Canada is already shaping up to be a decisive weekend in the 2026 season,” Palmer explains.
“Antonelli is in a form that hardly anyone could have predicted back in February. If he were to win again on a track where Russell has excelled in recent years, that would be an even stronger statement than his performance in Miami,” he emphasizes.
So the pressure is clearly on Russell for the upcoming race.