Antonelli Expects Russell to Challenge Again After 130-Point Mercedes Gap

Kimi Antonelli has a 130-point lead over George Russell in the Mercedes standings, but he doesn’t expect that margin to define their next season. The newly crowned world champion says Russell remains quick enough to be a serious rival, and points to a run of setbacks that, in his view, has weighed more heavily on his teammate.

Russell arrived as the expected title contender after outperforming rookie Antonelli in 2025. This season, he has finished ahead of the 20-year-old only four times. Antonelli, meanwhile, secured the championship on Sunday, while Russell’s sixth place dropped him from second to fourth in the standings.

That swing makes the gap look decisive. The race-by-race picture is less simple: both drivers have had two mechanical retirements, but Russell has also lost ground through race incidents and other problems that didn’t end his races. Antonelli acknowledged that the tally of retirements alone doesn’t capture how the season has unfolded.

Setbacks have shaped the Mercedes comparison

Antonelli has had costly trouble of his own. He retired while running second at the Barcelona-Catalunya Grand Prix, then lost what looked like a likely Silverstone win when a wheel shield broke. The Silverstone problem also had a later consequence: Mercedes had to discard a new power unit after finding a fault and take an earlier penalty at Monza.

Russell’s difficult moments have included a retirement from the lead in Canada after a close fight with Antonelli and a race-ending failure that cost him a podium in Malaysia. Safety-car timing and power-unit glitches have added to the sense that he has had more than his share of misfortune.

“I think he has had a little bit more than me, being honest,” Antonelli said of Russell’s luck during his world champion’s media session on Sunday. He also stressed that neither driver had been spared: “I’ve also had my moments in Silverstone and Barcelona.”

Those incidents don’t prove that equal luck would have put Russell ahead, or even made the title fight close. They do help explain why Antonelli sees the points difference as an incomplete measure of the competition inside Mercedes. Russell has still delivered three wins, in Australia, Canada and Azerbaijan, even as he has struggled to produce his best form consistently.

Antonelli expects a wider fight next season

Russell’s result in Mexico City added another rough weekend to the mix. An energy shortage at the start contributed to a poor opening lap, during which he spun Red Bull’s Isack Hadjar around and lost positions. Russell received a 10-second penalty. Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff said the team had let him down and excused him from his post-race media duties, despite the resulting fine.

Russell missed the Mercedes team photo celebrating Antonelli’s title, but congratulated his teammate in parc fermé. Those moments came after a race in which the team’s technical problem and Russell’s penalty shaped the result, leaving little reason to treat the finishing order as a clean measure of the drivers’ relative pace.

Antonelli’s view is that Russell can recover. “He’s super quick,” he said, adding that when Russell is performing at his best, “it’s very hard to beat.” For the champion, the response is to keep improving rather than focus solely on the other side of the Mercedes garage.

That focus will matter if the next season brings the larger contest Antonelli anticipates. He expects Red Bull, Ferrari and McLaren to join Mercedes near the front, and singled out Max Verstappen as a particular threat. Verstappen has won three of the past four races and has been Antonelli’s biggest rival since the summer break.

For drivers and teams, a teammate remains the most immediate reference point, but the championship picture can change when more contenders are in the mix. Antonelli’s 130-point advantage is a striking measure of this season’s outcome; it doesn’t guarantee a repeat. Russell’s wins, his speed when in form and the setbacks both Mercedes drivers have faced make next year’s internal contest difficult to call. Antonelli’s practical takeaway is straightforward: he’ll need to keep raising his level against Russell and the rest of the field.