George Russell says his struggles in 2026 while Mercedes team-mate Kimi Antonelli marched to the drivers’ title have been “tough to deal with” and had left him “often confused”.

Russell started the season as favourite and won the first race, but soon started to struggle as Antonelli built up unstoppable momentum.

In a post on Instagram, the Briton congratulated Antonelli “on what has been an absolutely incredible season” and said the Italian “truly deserved the championship”.

Russell added: “Now feels like a pretty suitable moment to speak from the heart.

“This season started off exactly how I had hoped but it very quickly unravelled with tough luck and poor performances.

“It’s been the first proper season of my career where I’ve had more bad days than good.

“Has it been tough to deal with? Yes, very.

“Has it been tough to pick myself up week in, week out? Yes, very.

“Confusion at times? Often.

“All I know is that I’ve given it my all and 2026 was not meant to be my year.”

Russell has won three races to Antonelli’s nine, and finishing sixth in the Mexico City Grand Prix on Sunday while Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton finished first and second ahead of Antonelli meant he slipped to fourth in the championship as the Dutchman moved up to second ahead of Hamilton.

The Mexico race was the latest example of Russell, who started second behind Hamilton, suffering tough luck.

A glitch in energy deployment off the start line left him down on power, and he was swamped by the field.

A misjudgment then led to his hitting Red Bull’s Isack Hadjar at Turn Six and tipping him into a spin. For that, Russell was given a 10-second penalty.

Russell thanked his team for “producing the best car and power-unit this season” and said it had been “inspiring to see everyone coming together over four tough years to bring Mercedes back to the top”.

He had gone into the race knowing it was highly likely Antonelli would clinch the title, but afterwards emotions overwhelmed him and he was close to tears while being weighed.

Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff saw the Briton at that point and allowed him to miss his post-race media duties.

Wolff said: “I saw George after the race on the FIA scales. And obviously, he’s distraught about the situation. It was a great show of sportsmanship to go and see Kimi.

“I have known George for such a long time. And I know, for a sportsperson, he’s going through a hard time, but he was also responsible in getting the young man into this team.

“And so I’m very much with him at the moment. I’ve been in situations where he’s very, very difficult to cope. So him not doing the media work or leaving the track is absolutely understandable. Him staying would have actually surprised me. So that’s absolutely on. Yeah, we said he can go.”

Russell added on instagram: “Now all I can promise is that for the rest of this season and into the next one I will be giving my absolute all to rediscover the performance I have been capable of for the majority of my career and fingers crossed a little bit of luck returns.”

Antonelli said of Russell after the race: “Definitely I think he has had also bad luck at some point in the season. He said a little bit more than me, being honest.

“But still he will definitely come back. He’s super-quick. He has shown this season that when he’s on it, he’s very hard to beat. So it’s just about, on my side, keep focusing on myself, keep trying to raise the bar, keep improving, keep developing because it’s not going to be only a matter of George at the end of the season.

“Also for next season Red Bull, especially with Max, Ferrari and McLaren eventually, we’re all going to be up there and it’s going to be a tight fight so it’s going to be important to be on top of the game, not only against my team-mate but against also all the others.”