Is Russell right about Antonelli's championship lead?
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What is George Russell’s perspective on the current points gap with Kimi Antonelli?
Thank you for listening to the Late Breaking F1 podcast. Make sure to check out new episodes every Wednesday and every Sunday.
Hello and a very warm welcome to the Late Breaking F1 podcast presented by Sam Sage and me, Ben Hawking. One week removed from the British Grand Prix, one week to go, until the Belgian Grand Prix gives us a good opportunity to take stock, Sam, and and celebrate England's continued success in the World Cup.
Oh, is that what this episode's about, is it? Yes.
Um what did you make of Dan Byrne's cameo?
Dan Byrne is my favorite human being of all time. I love that man and I'm very proud of him being a Newcastle player.
He is the tallest man alive.
Him and Gary Barlow's son.
I'm really glad we've started this episode here. Uh, and apologies to other countries that unfortunately your terrible teams have already been knocked out.
So Did Argentina beat Switzerland? They did.
Needed extra time as well. Um, but yes they did.
I wanted to play Switzerland.
Never mind. Um we've got plenty more World Cup chat. Um in in another episode coming.
No, it's never coming again.
Okay, fine. Um, on today's episode, we're playing Formula Fortunes, the grand return of Formula Fortunes later on. Uh, some discussion from Mohammed Ben Suleyam on V8 engines. It's all right. He doesn't say anything completely ridiculous this time, which is odd because it's probably brewing for something else coming up. But um, some comments from Adrian Newey about Aston Martin's struggles at this point in the year. But we're gonna start with Georgie Rush. Yes, um, because he has admitted he needs to raise his game if he is to remain in the Formula One title fight this season. After nine rounds, Russell sits twenty-five points behind Mercedes teammate Kimmy Antonelli in the championship, although the gap harass narrowed significantly from the sixty-eight point deficit he faced just a few races ago.
Despite closing in, Russell admits he is still struggling to understand this car and believes Antonelli has done a better job than me this year to this point, so he deserves to be ahead of me. Are these fair comments, Sam, and um what are your thoughts on him actually admitting to this very openly?
Let's break it down into two sides of things here. Yes, I think they're fair comments. And if they come from a journalist, they come from uh let's say the race or something like that and I seen an article that discussed how George Russell does need to up his game to be a better part of this title fight. I probably would look at that article, go, yeah, I I think that makes a lot of sense. The fact that these words have come out of George Russell's mouth is Awful, absolutely awful, in my opinion. There is a set mentality that world championship winners must have. It must be cutthroat. It must be so headstrong. And I think Russell is approaching this quite um I almost too kindly to his rivals around him. He's almost
Lost the battle mentally here before the war has even properly begun. And I just think the way he's talking about Ansang Ali, who is a 19-year-old, is a teenager, and he's masked these cars faster than you, George Russell, who is not old as a human being, is younger than me, so therefore he is not old. And I do believe that he still has the ability to just get get to grips with this. He's got rockets. Silence. He's got the ability to learn this. He was only in the junior formula less than a decade ago. He had to go through the trials and tribulations of the the Williams in the previous era. Then he mastered the Mercedes in the ground effect era, beating Lewis Hamilton two years in a row. It's not that much of an extreme challenge to overcome that Antonelli has been that better than he has.
And the only way he's actually called back so many points is mainly due to reliability problems. But Antonelli has phased two in the last few Grand Prix, and Russell has been quite fortunate that the pendulum of luck has swung the other way and he's been able to finish the races, arguably not maximizing the points that him and Antonelli was able to maximize when Russell was losing out due to reliability problems.
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
What is George Russell’s perspective on the current points gap with Kimi Antonelli?
0:00–10:43
2
How does Adrian Newey explain Aston Martin’s 2026 car challenges?
10:43–19:46
3
What are the proposed plans for re‑introducing V8 engines by 2031?
19:46–29:32
4
How might an independent engine supplier change the F1 landscape?
29:32–37:52
5
What strategies does Russell need to close the gap before the summer break?
37:52–49:08
6
Which drivers did fans choose as the best and worst in the Formula Fortunes quiz?
49:08–56:52
7
What are the fans’ predictions for the best race of the 2026 season?
56:52–1:02:42
8
What are the final takeaways and upcoming preview for the Belgian Grand Prix?
1:02:42–1:14:00