Why were so many people caught speeding in the pit-lane at Monaco? F1 Q&A

George Russell’s admission after qualifying that he had struggled to maximize the Mercedes car all season appeared to be a pivotal moment in the championship fight.

Russell pointed to the driving style Antonelli struggled with last year’s car and now He was struggling with this one.

Until then, Russell was looking for external factors to explain his difficult start to the season.

Indeed, there have been many.

He suffered a gearbox problem and then a front-wing problem in qualifying in China, which could have denied him pole.

Safety-car timing in Japan handed victory to Antonelli and put him ahead of Russell.

Although, it is a bit of a stretch to claim, Russell would have won in Japan without it, as McLaren’s Oscar Piastre led the first stint, and stopped in the same window as Russell before the safety car, and Russell did not pass at all in Australia.

And in Canada, Russell was leading when his MGU-K failed to make his retirement.

At the same time, the reason Russell’s admission feels important is because it has been assumed for some time that he is struggling to keep up.

In China, Antonelli had the same front-end problem as Russell in his final race – although his session was not disrupted in other ways, as Russell’s was – and still claimed pole.

And after both fell behind the Ferraris at the start, Antonelli’s race-craft was far more decisive in passing them.

In Japan, Antonelli was on pole, and only fell behind due to a bad start. And such was his pace on the medium tires early in the race that Mercedes felt he was aiming to run long and claim the lead anyway, even without the safety car.

In Miami, there was no argument, Antonelli was simply faster. And although Russell took pole for the sprint and grand prix in Canada, winning the sprint and leading the grand prix when he crashed, Antonelli was on top of him in both races and looking fast. Victory’s fate in Montreal was not assured when Russell retired.

In a way, Russell’s decision to finally admit he’s struggling may be a good thing.

Last year, Lando Norris held the same position at McLaren. After convincingly beating Piastre in 2024, and therefore entering 2025 as favourite, Norris struggled with the car’s characteristics early in the season.

Sounds familiar, right?

Through hard work on the part of Norris himself and the team – technically in terms of making changes to the car, but also psychologically in helping Norris rise to the top of his situation – he came back and won the title.

Russell is in a tough spot, 68 points behind Antonelli, but is far from recovered.

As he said on Sunday: “I want to be racing now. The season has fallen apart. I still believe in myself a lot and know what I can do. I think we’re not even 30% of the way, but there are a lot of points down the drain.

“When I look at things objectively, if things had been a little bit more balanced, I still think it would have been very, very close. He’s doing an amazing job, but I think I would have at least two more wins to my name.

“I still believe in myself a lot. I still believe we are going to fight for race wins until the end of the year.”