BARCELONA, Spain - George Russell has taken inspiration from documentaries on sporting greats Rafael Nadal and Ronaldinho to help not lose all hope about his crumbling Formula 1 title challenge.
Russell, the preseason favourite and winner of the season’s opening race, has slipped to third in the championship and is 68 points behind wonderkid teammate Kimi Antonelli after six events.
Antonelli has won five races in a row and gained 50 points on Russell over the last two -- Russell retired from lead of the Canadian Grand Prix with car trouble and then finished out of the points in Monaco.
Russell said the gap to Antonelli means he approaches races like Sunday’s Barcelona-Catalunya Grand Prix free of the usual pressure of a title fight.
“It has been very tough, of course,” Russell said on Thursday. “But when I’ve sat down and thought about this season as a whole, if it was just a clean season, not a season that I had bad luck, but just a neutral season, I think I’d have had three more podiums to my name and it would have been five out of six races on the podium, maybe a couple of wins, two out of three sprint race victories.
“I still think I’m probably slightly behind Kimi in the standings [in that scenario], but the picture is totally different, and now I’m just going to do every race to try and control the controllables. I can’t do anything about the engine breaking down, I can’t do anything about a bad safety car timing or this pit lane infringement situation.
“That is out of my control. Now the pressure feels off, too be honest. I’m going to try and enjoy every race, not even think about a championship, it’s so far out of reach right now. That is just going to enjoy the races and have fun, drive fast, and do what I know I’m capable of doing, and I’ve done that for my whole career in Formula 1. Yeah, that’s what I’m excited for.”
Russell said it has been easier to process his situation because of the amount of things outside of his control.
Asked exactly how he’s got his head around how quickly his season has unravelled, Russell admitted he has turned to streaming services to find good examples of how to bounce back from his current situation.
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“Every week I’ll always talk with my performance psychologist, and I’ve been doing that for six years now, so that isn’t anything new,” he said. But it’s just always great to talk to somebody about what you’re feeling, how you’re going to overcome those emotions, and are the emotions you’re feeling a true reflection of the performances.
“If I was 60 points behind in the championship based on performance, I would have been in a substantially worse place than I am today. 60 points behind when 45 of those at least were out of my control...
“I recently watched the Rafa documentary and also the Ronaldinho documentary. Quite contrasting [people], I think! But two greats, and it’s not plain sailing every tournament, every match, every season. Ronaldinho was a hero of mine. I didn’t realise that he had so many years and matches and competitions of struggle.
“We always only remember the highlights of all of these greats. Everybody goes through these moments, whether it’s through personal performance, things out of their control, injury, whatever it is. Yeah, that’s where we are now.”
Russell’s ‘no pressure’ approach is similar to the mindset his old friend Lando Norris said he adopted last season after retiring from the Dutch Grand Prix, which gave then-title rival Oscar Piastri a 34 point lead with less than half the season to run.
The Englishman went on to win the championship under that approach.
Norris said time will tell if the same approach helps Russell out or not.
When asked how important the fresh approach took for him after Zandvoort and how a similar one might benefit Russell, Norris said: “It certainly made a difference. Everyone thinks differently. I’ve always put a lot of pressure on myself. I don’t know if George puts pressure on himself or doesn’t or feels it or not. I don’t know what situation he was necessarily in now. He’s also always been quite a confident guy at the same time.
“Whereas last year I went from not much confidence to, ‘what have I got to lose now?’ He’s gone from feeling quite confident to maybe losing some of that confidence. Maybe now getting to that point, every driver has to find their own way of doing it. It’s not one thing works for all.
“It’s tough to know exactly what you’ve got to do in that situation. Do you put more pressure on yourself? Do you try and feel none of it? There’s a lot of things to think about as soon as someone says you’re a title contender and you’re in that situation. He’s also got a teammate that’s doing a pretty unbelievable job.
“Probably better than I would say most people are expecting in here. He’s got pressure from having a very good teammate and someone that’s challenging him incredibly well, not making any mistakes. And then you’ve got your own challenge of just getting the most out of yourself.
“We’ll see this weekend. If he says he’s going around with no pressure now, then we’ll see if that helps him or not. Every driver has to find their own way, so we’ll see what’s happening.”
