George Russell showed a great deal of calm regarding the fight for the runner-up spot in the 2026 Formula 1 season, saying he won’t lose sleep if he ends up losing the second place to a rival.
This weekend’s Mexican Grand Prix is likely to be the stage where Kimi Antonelli is crowned season champion. Meanwhile, in the battle for second place, the British driver Lewis Hamilton, Max Verstappen, and Charles Leclerc are separated by only nine points.
“I think that, for every driver on the grid, there is only one position that matters: the first. Being the ‘best of the rest’ isn’t exactly something you dream of as a kid. Of course I want to finish in the best possible position. I want to win as many races as I can. But, for me, the most important thing is to end the season with a good pace, more than the final standings themselves,” he said.
“If I finish in second, third, fourth or fifth place, what will affect my sleep, for better or worse, will be my performance, and not the final position. In this sport, if you’re not first, it’s practically as if it didn’t matter.”
Speaking about his teammate, Russell noted that Antonelli is at a ‘higher level’. “On a personal level, Kimi is obviously an excellent and energetic guy. We haven’t had any reason this year to not maintain a great relationship,” he said.
“I believe that many of these on-track rivalries arise from incidents or actions during races; the truth is that this year he has been at a higher level than mine. Therefore, we haven’t found ourselves in that situation very often — it happened in only one or two races. And, when the moment of the race itself arrives, each one goes his own way,” he concluded.
