Untitled

Premise: I'm SICK of it. Sick of the utterly ridiculous narration that Mercedes and the F1 community has done to elevate Antonelli's merit by diminishing Russell's. I've been arguing with people for days because as someone who has a background in Business Administration (Bachelor in Management in the Digital Age, Master in Digital Marketing, Honours in Data Driven Management, so tons of statistics, business strategy and academic research quant, quali and market) AND follows 99% of Mercedes's communication everyday plus Russell and Antonelli's onboards, the percentage of audience who is "watching" races half asleep, uninformed or STRAIGHT UP STUPID is astonishing.

Being uneducated/uninformed, especially because media and Mercedes are not sincere, isn't in itself a crime. I've put 100+ hours into it this season, not everyone has the tools or time. But knowing you are uninformed on the topic and feeling the need to present your opinion as a fact (all humans are inherently affected by a degree of cognitive bias. If you ain't aware, you can't mitigate it) is a choice that denotes subpar intellectual honesty.

I'm starting a compilation of evidence that I personally verified (help me correct/update them in case tho) to dismiss these poor excuses of human beings. They'll not change their minds, but third parties who read and are not equally cretin at least won't fall for their bs. FEEL FREE TO USE THEM, but ofc ideally verify them yourself because I'm not infallible either and situations change in time. For interviews and telemetries, I can usually provide a source if asked. Onboards and team radios gotta watch yourself. PR and business strategies are my assessment and interpretation of what I'm shown, through my background (educated guesses). I'll try to update if new things emerge/come to my mind.

Ordered by statement:

🤡: Russell has always been a bad driver and nobody wants him. 🤓: Multiple TPs and motorsport figures throughout the years have praised Russell, who has been sought after from prior to his debut in F1. Racing legend Niki Lauda was involved in Mercedes signing Russell to the Junior Program, believing in his potential as "one of Mercedes's future WDC". To these days, Claire Williams supports him publicly often, as he was "one of the greatest that we had at Williams", and admitted she couldn't bring herself to let him go to Mercedes earlier. Prior to leaving the paddock, Christian Horner -sympathies aside regarded as the most successful TP in F1 along Wolff for building up RB, Vettel and Verstappen- said: "George Russell is out of contract at the end of next year. It would be foolish not to take that into consideration". This is just a short selection, but there are many other testimonies online.

🤡: Russell is a crybaby/moaner/whiner/snitch. 🤓: There is a difference between crying and providing feedback about the car (especially if it isn't running smootly) and what happens in the race via team radio/communication to the audience, as it is part of the job. This includes potential misdemeanors from other drivers that gain them an advantage or are risky, as the garage can notify the stewards for investigation. If you ever followed integral onboards live (the broadcast only does a selection), you'd know how EVERY DRIVER DOES IT, they are all very vocal when things don't go their way and that's ok. Verstappen, Leclerc and Albon being tilted af for example. You are biased, full stop.

🤡: Russell crashes other drivers all the time. 🤓: Russell was deemed primarily responsible for only 2 out of 8 collisions investigated by the FIA since his debut in 2022 Mercedes, so 25%. Based on FIA Investigation Reports, reporting who beared the most responsibility in drivers collision; Silverstone 22, Gasly-Guanyu-Russell, Russell. USA 24 Sainz-Russell, Russell. Qatar 23, Hamilton-Russell, Hamilton. Australia 24 Alonso-Russell, Alonso (the cars didn't touch, but Alonso's dangerous driving was faulted for causing Russell to crash in the barriers). Canada 24, Piastri-Russell, no driver predominantly at fault. Spain 25, Verstappen-Russell, Verstappen. Miami 26 Verstappen-Russell, no driver predominantly at fault. Belgium 26 Hamilton-Russell, Hamilton. All integral reports are publicly available online. No, as much as FIA also commits mistakes, reports still more trustworthy than your "I saw it" random dude online. Teams can appeal decisions from investigations. If they haven't, there is a reason. Stop taking memes as news.

🤡: Antonelli is schooling Russell so far (Australia-Hungary 2026). 🤓: F1 is a sport that relies heavily on externalities. You CAN'T assess the drivers' individual performances and compare them solely based on the results you see in the qualifyings/races or random telemetry numbers WITHOUT CONTEXT. Pace and speed alone don't tell you why performance is different, they are the consequences of a sum of factors (driver+MANY EXTERNALITIES). To confidently say who is better, you'd have to assess them in equiparable conditions to try to reasonably isolate the variable "driver input" (from all "non driver inputs", which is statistical noise). It's already hard normally, yet has been borderline impossible this season with how externalities have affected Russell more (10 weekends) compared to Antonelli (2 weekends). This is not saying "Russell > Antonelli" or vice versa, or that there aren't differences in how they handle the car, with Antonelli reportedly looking more comfortable in it. What is put in question is whether the result would have looked different were the externalities comparable (YES, but how much we'll never know), which would a more accurate way to determine driver's comparative performance.

🤡: Antonelli and Russell have had equal bad luck. Antonelli had more, what about the 2 DNFs!!! 🤓: What is shown on the broadcast is NEVER the full picture, you can't possibly fit everything 22 drivers' are going through at the same time on screen + many issues are investigated after the sessions and communicated to the public later. By compiling onboards and Mercedes's debriefs, updated to Hungary Antonelli had 2 weekends compromised (Barcelona, Silverstone). Russell EVERY WEEKEND BUT AUSTRALIA. List of notable CAR ISSUES AND GARAGE MISHANDLEMENT NOT DEPENDENT ON DRIVER on top of my head (didn't include everything about the discourse on setup in Japan, Miami, Canada, Monaco because it is more nuanced) follows;

-China: car shutdown in qualifying after garage adjustment. -Japan: energy deployment glitch during overtake. -Miami: the setup needed correction, Dudley provides no valuable contribution despite it being his job and Russell found more performance by CHANGING IT HIMSELF towards the end of the race. -Canada: PU failure, DNF. -Monaco: everything related to the penalties, from not reminding Russell to slow down (Antonelli got warning in FP, Mercedes knew but only reminded Antonelli during race), wrong speeding in pit penalty assigned (FIA confirmed steward error, in the Alpine appeal), garage failing to serve it (Russell was forced to follow Safety Car into pitlane, saw tyres ready, asked Dudley what to do, Dudley stayed silent), to Dudley lying "we were stationary 5 seconds" (his exact words) when Russell asked before drive through penalty was given (Russell offered redoing it, was assured it was handled properly, it wasn't), Russell having to PLEAD BY HIMSELF over the wrong penalty as Wolff said to "discuss it after the race" (too late to change anything), to dropping the appeal filed only after massive online backlash when FIA granted the right to review (even if I doubt anything would have changed in the standings, why not letting it play out???), out of points (would have finished P3 without the penalties, backed up by Piastri's comment on the Alpine appeal). -Barcelona: strategy changed on the garage's suggestion during the race despite Russell's perplexities (that indirectly favoured Antonelli), being told to manage on hards while Antonelli was told to push by the garages (when Russell figured it out, he asked Dudley who couldn't properly justify it), issues in the front wing balance on both stint 2-3, made worse in stint 3 by faulty adjustment during pitstop causing massive oversteer (correlated to the drop in pace that led Antonelli to catch up, Motorsport. com). -Austria: first symptoms of the deployment issue. -Silverstone: deployment issue, slow puncture (wasn't driver's dependent). -Spa: deployment issue, battery not charging, out of all Mercedes's engine powered cars got affected the most by the issue at the start of the race, DNF for collision "wholly attributed to Hamilton" (source: FIA, Hamilton on Road&Track). -Hungary: still deployment deficit from telemetries, despite alleged software fix (countermeasures were put instead of debugging, might have failed). Cracked PU, idraulic leakage reaching tyres in qualifying, car had to be stopped on track. Mercedes confirmed anti-stall not driver dependant and takes full accountability, p6>p21 in the race just for that. Something with boost, noted by Antonelli on team radio ("I think he [Russell] hit the top of the pack and lost the boost") and investigated by Dudley during race, on Russell's request.

🤓: Updated to Hungary. Antonelli DNF (=did not finish) only in Barcelona so far. In Silverstone, repeated collision with the kerb caused the wheel shield to break. It was a chassis component that could be easily substituted and it was addressed during the race. After two laps of the car being "undrivable", in his last pitstop the garage changed it and the car exceeded speed compared to the 2 cars ahead and 2 behind. Breaking and throttle graphs looked comparable to others, until Safety Car stalled the race until the end. Antonelli crossed the finish line, got demoted to P16 for track limits penalty, and promoted to P15 because of Pérez. He was widely praised online for his desperate "resilience" in ignoring Bonnington's request to retire the car, so the collective psychosis of calling it a DNF (displayed also by Wolff and Simone Resta, who have the credibility of a banana peel for this as it ain't rocket science) is astonishing. Can't keep a foot in both shoes.

🤡: The deployment deficit to Antonelli is on Russell's driving style, Mercedes/Wolff said it. Antonelli understands the car better. 🤓: Written post Hungary. Mercedes confirmed the deployment deficit is software related in Hungary, a bug deep in the code. Simone Resta straight up thanked Russell for insisting the car was acting abnormal and heavily implied they wouldn't have looked into weren't for Russell's insistance (and the public backlash + McLaren coming out about it I assume). Yikes. Also NO, IT'S NOT FIXED. If you look into what Mercedes did to address it, a countermeasure was put in the code instead of debugging (it's like slapping a plaster on a splinter to make the skin stop bleeding, but not taking the splinter out. The plaster can come off). From telemetries analyses, it seems the countermeasure already failed in Hungary FP1. @uruptosmth on X explains it well. Even if Antonelli also had the bug in it's PU, it hasn't manifested the way Russell's did, it's objective and verifiable data. As for the hardware, after the Russell's PU cracked in Hungary qualifying, only one in six components was changed (ICE). It's not a fully new PU.

🤓: Written post Hungary. Turns out Mercedes's drivers lift on the hearing of a sound in their earpiece prompted by the PU that calculates how to maximise energy harvesting. Russell's PU is confirmed to not be working as it should and simultaneously many tried to claim Antonelli lifts better, BUT THEY'RE TOLD WHEN TO LIFT BY THE PU. So even differences in what we thought were driving preferences might be attributed partly to algorithm, geez.

🤓: Written pre Hungary. About the deployment deficit, Mercedes is straight up fooling you. https://x.com/sixty_threeee/status/2079571642187936008 is a tread compiling the 15+ different versions officially released. From blatant contraddictions they have provided themselves, Wolff and Simone Resta from the debrief are unreliable (among other reasons, neither of them knows what a DNF is it seems despite being TP and Deputy Technical Director. Wolff went from 50-50 to "100% on us" within 24h, absurd). From also looking at telemetries and statements from those with no stake in Mercedes (namely McLaren, which incurred in eerly similar situation with Piastri in Spa qualifying because it is that evident), I can infer THERE IS A PROBLEM NOT DEPENDENT ON RUSSELL AND HIS DRIVING. Mercedes had Russell change his driving to mimic Antonelli's during Spa FPs in terms of throttle/breaking, and it's still present. More honest assessments in terms of consistency follow;

Mercedes trackside engineering director Andrew Shovlin said: "George continued to suffer from poor deployment into the final chicane, which cost him a grid position. We're investigating what's causing this as a priority as there is a clear loss that we CANNOT explain by driving style."

McLaren's TP Andrea Stella said: "If I compare Lando and Oscar in their best lap in Q3, Oscar is losing time in the final straight and Blanchimont for reasons that have nothing to do with Oscar's driving. They are just a minor deviation in how the power unit was operated. And I think this seems to be pretty much the same across the two Mercedes cars. When you overlay Antonelli and Russell, it looks like Lando and Oscar."

Russell in Spa post qualifying said: "Yesterday, I was losing eight-tenths in the straights; today, I'm losing four-tenths. It's a step in the right direction, but we saw this from Silverstone. We thought we'd found the problem. We thought it was simply the brakes. It wasn't the brakes. Then we thought it was my driving style with the throttle, and I convinced myself that it was something in me with the driving style. Now, we're very confident it's NOT the driving style, and that there's a serious issue at play here. The team are working so hard to resolve it. But every lap I do, when I see I'm down anywhere from two-tenths to six-tenths in the straights, it's pretty infuriating."

🤓: Written pre Hungary. You may ask what is the cause of the deployment deficit, if switching car would prove anything related to the favouritism rumours and whether changing mechanical components (PU) would help. My understanding is likely not, because it could be related to the algorithm of the PU, which is specific to each driver due to machine learning evolution. No, that doesn't mean Russell is at fault/Antonelli is better, keep reading. While Mercedes hasn't made any progresses in detangling the situation in a full month despite "working super hard", too busy trying to blame it on Russell until they legitimately couldn't any longer (hence the 15+ contraddicting statements), McLaren's TP Andrea Stella provided the following explanation to the media (I think the analysis is by The Race, but I need to retrace it from the screenshot);

"According to Andrea Stella, the 2026 power unit will have a structure that calculates and learns battery usage and regeneration in real time. That's why, even if the driver drives almost identically, power distribution can vary slightly from lap to lap. McLaren judged that Piastri was slower than Norris not because of driving, but due to the power unit algorithm, estimating a loss of 0.1~0.2 seconds because power distribution in the final straight differed from expectations. (There may have been insufficient track time due to a hydraulic issue during Friday FP, meaning the PU software had limited data to learn from + the possibility that abnormal driving data was input when he hit gravel in the first attack lap of Q3, which altered the power distribution calculations as a result). The problem is that, since this power unit learns and calculates in real time, even the engineers can't fully explain why such decisions were made. Because the power unit software learns in real time, the next lap can differ slightly from the previous one due to what it learned in the lap just before. As a result, if energy recovery varies, entry speed into the braking zone can differ by about 10 km/h, and the braking point keeps changing too. Drivers have to adapt not only to the power unit but also to the ever-shifting braking points. In the end, drivers today feel like they're not just fighting their competitors, but also their own power unit and the machine learning algorithm inside it."

🤡: Why would Mercedes favour Antonelli, they only care about WCC. 🤓: Sigh, tell me you don't know about how businesses work, oh sweet summer child. I can't ofc confirm it (the famous allegedly, don't sue me thx) because obviously Mercedes is never going to admit it, but it makes a lot of sense from business strategy theory. One word: money. The commercial gain of having "the youngest WDC" in Antonelli, who is a more digestible figure to the broader F1 community than Russell, is a gold mine in terms of reputation and business/sponsorship opportunities for Mercedes. Branding wise, they have already positioned him as the long term project in Mercedes, nurtured into the company since he was not yet a teenager and rushed into F1 at the insistance of Wolff (who mind you, is a finance bro first TP second, sees himself as Antonelli's "father figure" and has strong ties with Antonelli's actual father Marco, who btw owns a motorsport team and is in contact with big names in the industry in Italy, this is public information). Like why do you think he got 2 documentaries on himself preceding his success in 2026 (third incoming on Sky Sport Italia)? The situations that bought him and Russell into Mercedes are quite different as well. Him getting into a Mercedes as a rookie one year ahead of a massive change in regulations is an opportunity in modern times not even drivers the caliber of Verstappen and Leclerc got (they started in midfield. McLaren's situation is a bit more nuanced). It's public knowledge that Wolff's great regret was missing out on Verstappen's "generational talent" (careful to the wording). 2016 and 2025 amply demonstrated why having two competing teammates at the front in a dominant car can turn into a disaster/point cannibalisation matter real fast. Antonelli was, in terms of ratio of points scored against senior driver, at 47% of Russell's in 2025 (for comparison, Bearman his F2 teammate 108%), now he's leading the championship with more points gap than Piastri-Norris in 2025. Based on all this information, you seriously think the result is SOLELY a matter of talent? Antonelli HAS talent and merit to an extent. BUT he's also competing with no one most races due to Mercedes's advantage, and the only car theoretically equal to his isn't in practice because it has issues outside of the driver control every weekend (check onboards and debriefs). Could just be that Russell is the unluckiest mf alive and his garage is worse than Antonelli's (who if anything is a Bonnington-merchant, overelying on his race engineer based on onboards)? Who knows, and kind of. EXCEPT the way Mercedes (and the FIA to an extent) has consistently used the media and its PR communication to build a narrative that Antonelli is a genius BY undermining Russell through omitting the context of the season is quite telling from my perspective, based on my educational/professional background. I could discuss incongruencies for hours, there's just that many if you follow Mercedes's communications daily like myself. If my perception is accurate, THAT IS A FORM OF FAVORITISM BY DEFINITION. Also why hire Stéphane Folio (ex Formula E) as one of Antonelli's performance engineer and not provide Russell an equivalent (from interview of Wolff to Sky Sport Germany)? This is a regulation heavily based on electronic and electric aspects.

🤓: Favoritism in motorsport is not farfetched and has documented instances, there are many strategic reasons supporting why it's used. In F1, just look into Red Bull and Verstappen. Yes, Verstappen is perhaps the best driver of the decade, doesn't change that RB was unfair towards his teammates. We'll likely never know their potential in equal conditions because of it. That sucks from a sportsmanship perspective. With Antonelli, if there is indeed intentional favoritism it's even worse because he has not previously (to Russell having external issues each weekend) demonstrated being significantly better than Russell on track to warrant it. So it would be a commercial plant. Also Ferrari fan especially should be mad too, because if Antonelli and Russell had splitted the points (cannibalisation) like they realistically would have, Hamilton would be closer in the standings and have a better chance at the WDC.

🤓: WDC is still indirect money towards the team. No, not the same outcome financially for both drivers as it depends on their potential commercial value conversion. Mercedes absolutely cares to win WDC too, with Antonelli being a stronger strategic choice. As for WCC, you can just do the maths. P1 + P6 is 33 points. P2 + P3 is also 33 points. Sprints are very little points comparatively. Mercedes doesn't need both drivers on the podium to keep Ferrari behind, considering it already has a buffer. Even with external issues plaguing him, Russell hasn't gotten lower than P4 in races besides that travesty that was Monaco, which was on the FIA and his garage, and Hungary, which was because of anti-stall going P6>P21 (confirmed not driver dependent). Mercedes just need to keep scoring at least enough points to offset Ferrari's incremental gain. Unless Ferrari starts getting P1 more or Mercedes gets too frequent DNF, it'll be fine. Would be interesting to see if the gap closes to 30 points whether Russell's car becomes more reliable.

🤡: Russell said there is no favoritism/he would speak up if there was. 🤓: "A dog better not bite the hand that feeds it". 1) Russell is under contract. 2) from a 2025 interview on the F1 website, Martin Brundle gets Wolff into taking how he and Mercedes have "managerial rights" over Russell from a -in my opinion predatory- clause on his Mercedes Junior Program's agreement, implying they are to an extent on both sides of the negotiation table. The Times reported "George Russell: Mercedes and Toto Wolff hold cards on my future. British driver admits he lacks power in continuing negotiations over new contract amid team's long-term interest in Red Bull's Max Verstappen." If true, yikes. 3) After Russell justifiably finally got angry on team radio in Spa after weeks of bs (which F1TV didn't broadcast for some reason, but the German broadcast yes), Torger Christian Wolff reprimended him in subsequent interviews and said he shouldn't discuss these things before further assessment (hypocritical old man, Wolff does all the time, see his "there's no issue" in Silverstone, then debunked by himself lol). There are multiple videos made for damage control on Mercedes's IG like after Suzuka on the top of my head, featuring Wolff giving Russell paternalistic speeches where -I kid you not- it seems like Russell is not having it and being held at gun point. Would you freely speak up in his place? I personally wouldn't.

🤡: Antonelli got a penalty in qualifying (Hungary), Russell got away with it (Austria), BRITISH BIAS!!! 🤓: Firstly, you must have been asleep during Monaco GP. Secondly, different conditions and consequences of actions taken by drivers. Just look at this picture.

🤡: But *insert random media outlet/opinionist/commentor/anyone* said blah blah. 🤓: No matter how credible a source has been in the past (and I sincerely doubt some of y'all can distinguish good from bad sources, empirically) you still have to fact check it with your own tools and other sources. For example, Autoracer.it is considered moderably reliable outlet in Italy, yet I was subject to a horrifying article where the authors drew causal inference on a telemetry variable (energy mapping) that is not publicly available and PRESENTED THEIR SPECULATION AS A FACT (they were proven wrong by subsequent information from Mercedes). People believe that bs and try to use it to fuel their delusions. A good method to keep in mind is SIFT;

-Stop: don't immediately believe or share the claim. -Investigate the source: find out who created the information and whether they are credible. -Find better coverage: search for the same story from other reliable, independent sources. -Trace claims: follow the information back to the original source, study, data, or statement.

Also let's all collectively bathe in humility once in a while, please. If you don't think you're qualified and/or informed enough on a topic, either don't give your half assed opinion as a fact, or research it and come back. It's also ok to be wrong and take a step back, if you can't dispute a claim by providing quality evidence against it and/or point out the other person's flaw in logic. Aristotele docet.

🤓: F1 commentators care about entertainment, not facts. They don't have the full context on hand during races nor after, and most of them are inherently biased. See Vanzini from the Italian broadcast for example. When Russell drives it, the Mercedes's car is illegal, when Antonelli does, it's talent. He uses his verified IG profile to pile on Russell. He was shouting like a chicken that Russell stopped the car in Hungary qualifying due to insufficient fuel, the car was smoking because of a cracked PU and idraulic leak reaching the tyres. He has proved over and over in his decades long carreer in F1 that he is NOT objective, nor doesn't care to. Coulthard, Palmer, Brundle, Jaques, Buxton, they've all said bs at least once (every race imo). As for other countries' broadcast, idk. Heard complaints, but can't confirm directly as I do for the English and Italian ones.

🤓: Don't blindly trust what teams and who represents them (employees, TP, drivers) say either. Especially once statements don't match anymore and they display a habit of contraddicting themselves. Looking at you, Mercedes and Torger Christian Wolff, giving 15+ explanations of the deployment deficit between Silverstone and Hungary which contraddited eachother. Figure out who has the most consistent story at least, trying to discern from one's personal sympathies. In that case, it's Russell and Stella.

george russell wdc propaganda post incoming because apparently some of you need to be reminded how mathematics works.

okay. everyone, take a deep breath.

I know we are in the trenches right now but let us all just breathe. My first popular post is the notorious Till the math ain’t mathing manifiesto, where from the get-go I stated that:

“I’m done doom posting about this.

He will win. Fuck it.

Until the numbers say otherwise, George Russell is still perfectly capable of winning that title. He has the experience, even if the current narrative likes to undermine it. He has the skills, even if the internet won’t acknowledge them. He has the car, even if it’s not bending to his favor yet. He has the mindset, even if people who don’t know shit are twisting his own words to make him look like he’s chickening out.”

So let us take a step back and analyse the situation, putting our feelings aside, zooming in on the numbers and the variables and the percentages and the lingering faith that hope is the last thing that dies, even if the power unit does so first.

Yes, Spa was catastrophic. A disaster. The word I’d use? Anticlimactic. It was game over from the start, when the lights went out and he was already being embarrassingly overtaken due to the speed straight line issue. Perhaps I am comforting myself by saying that lowkey this nightmare scenario saved us from a humiliation ritual for George. Still, not ideal, not motivating, not great for the ‘we are so back’ agenda my tiktok reposts have been spreading.

Yes, Kimi winning while George retired is quite literally the worst possible combination of results. Not great for the ‘till the math ain’t mathing’ agenda, because, why does it matter that George tries and tries, that we call Mercedes out in their IG posts, that we rant over here about the mercedes shitshow, that we blow up the anti kimi antonelli tag -

Why does any of that matter if the car is fucked? How is it a fair fight if the chance to fight is not within grasp?

Yes, George Russell is now 50 points behind Kimi Antonelli in the Drivers' Championship, with Kimi on 204 and George on 154. Yes, George has dropped to third - again, behind Hamilton on 159.

Yes, I too would like to lie face-down on the floor and scream. I too would like to doompost and say see you in hungary. I too would like to spend the rest of the week opening Tumblr to check new posts that drag Mercedes to the ground, anything to feel validated, anything to feel like we haven’t lost this, that this hasn’t slipped through our fingers.

I too would like to sit on the floor and just take the defeat.

But that ain’t the manifesto I wrote, not the reason with which I picked my username.

The Hamilton Musical wisely sung:

“I’m laughing in the face of casualties and sorrow. For the first time I’m thinking past tomorrow”

And bars

Because George Russell is not mathematically out of the 2026 World Championship.

He’s not ‘technically still alive’ in the way people say something is technically possible when it would require a miracle, a blood moon and three different drivers to spontaneously vanish.

I mean genuinely, mathematically, absolutely still in the fight.

There are still 12 Grands Prix and 2 Sprints remaining. That is 316 points still available. George is 50 points behind Kimi, meaning he needs to outscore him by 51 points over the remaining races to take the lead.

That is a big gap and haters love to say that he is not max verstappen.

But let them talk, tweet and mock, because it is not an impossible gap.

A 50-point deficit with this much season left is not a championship funeral. Okay? It is a championship setback. An obstacle.

A narrative tool, if we chose to view it that way, if we decide to say fuck it we ball and carry forth.

Let’s explore the terrain, the land of possibility on which George can still pull this off.

First off, most importantly, George does not need to win every remaining race, he does not need to suddenly become the only driver capable of operating a motor vehicle. The obsession with expecting every champion to dominate is part of max verstappen’s legacy, but not part of george russell’s successful comeback. he’s got his own character arc, no need to copy and paste verstappen BORING!

So, George does not need Kimi to DNF every Sunday. And we shouldn’t be asking for it. Despite my past blog having had certain relevance in the anti antonelli tag, we should not be wishing for Kimi to crash every race. Or anyone else for that matter. Yes, we are pissed off. But safety is still important here and death is still an outcome and funerals aren’t as expensive as their yachts.

To quote the manifesto:

“And I believe that we are in for one of the most indisputable champion campaigns in the last of Formula 1 history. After everything that has gone wrong, when it finally turns around and George is on the first step of the podium again and again, over and over, when the dust clears, it will be unquestionable that he earned that title.

For that exact reason, I wish the best for the rest of the grid.

I wish for their race strategies to be thought-out properly, for their tyre management to be smartly handled, for their wins and losses to be entirely their own. I won’t be praying for DNFs, I won’t be manifesting for Kimi to fuck up.

I want George Russell to prove that he can win on his own right, that he doesn’t need for someone else to fuck up to get there. If they do fuck up, amazing. But I want clean races, where his skill is shown, where it’s obvious that the talent is there, that is had been earned, fought for and polished like the rest of him.”

In fact, like in another previous post, I believe that our fury at Kimi and our thirst for his blood is a result of Mercedes’ braindead propaganda that will one day blow up on their faces, on Kimi’s. They aren’t making that man - man because he is nearly twenty - any favors by putting him in a pedestal they had to put a staircase on for him to reach. This unfounded narrative is planting the seeds for the massive hate wave that will one day swim over antonelli. You already have a good chunk of ferrari and mclaren fans travelling to the anti kimi antonelli tag and that will only grow because he is not doing enough to actually earn that fabricated image. But Mercedes - Toto - doesn’t care. For them, Kimi is short-term liquidity, a ‘gifted kid’ who is now first in the standings but last year was outscored by 169 points by his ‘washed’ teammate in already a competitive car. This is not Kimi’s first time in a good car. It’s his first time in a battling car while George’s ‘equal machinery’ is constantly MIA.

As logic has it, to get that title George needs to consistently outscore Kimi. That much is obvious, but let’s explore the scenarios.

For example:

George wins a race: 25 points.

Kimi finishes fourth: 12 points.

George gains 13 points in one weekend.

Do that four times and suddenly the 50-point gap is basically gone.

George finishes second: 18 points.

Kimi finishes fifth: 10 points.

That is another 8 points gained.

George wins while Kimi has a bad weekend? gang that can be a 15–25 point swing in a single race.

And we have twelve of those left. Twelve and this is Formula 1. We have literally just watched a championship swing dramatically because one driver won and the other retired on the opening lap, the opening lap. The same mechanism that made Spa so devastating for George is the mechanism that means the championship is not over.

And please, for the love of God, stop thinking about this as ‘Kimi has a 50-point lead, therefore George needs to win 50 points.’

No. George needs to outscore Kimi by 51 points over the remaining 14 scoring events.

That is, if I’m correct, an average differential of about 3.6 points per scoring event.

Obviously, points are not distributed evenly and this is not how a championship actually unfolds, but the point is: George does not need to be massively better than Kimi every single weekend.

He needs to have the better second half of the season. A few wins, a few podiums. Kimi having one or two bad weekends due to his own errors or w2w with other drivers. George avoiding another zero.

That is it.

If George averages 20 points per Grand Prix and Kimi averages 15, George gains 5 points per race. Over twelve races, that is 60 points.

And that means the championship is overturned.

If George wins three or four races and Kimi has a DNF or two, the gap can evaporate frighteningly quickly. If George wins Hungary next weekend and Kimi has a bad result, the conversation immediately changes. If George wins Hungary and the Netherlands while Kimi has one genuinely disastrous weekend, suddenly we're not talking about a 50-point deficit anymore.

If George enters the final five races within 15 points?

Chat, that is not a championship deficit. That is a fucking title fight.

And yes, I know that right now Kimi is the favorite. I am not going to lie to you and gaslight ourselves by pretending that George is in the statistically stronger position. He is not. Kimi has been phenomenal and has built a serious lead.

My honest estimate, based on the current situation, is that George's chances are somewhere around 25–30% right now.

But do you understand what that means? That means roughly one chance in four.

Let me grab you by the shoulders and tell you that doesn’t mean ‘George is finished’ or that ‘the championship is over, see you in 2027’.

It means that George Russell has a difficult, tough, obstructed but very real comeback path.

And that estimate can change after a single race. You hear me? It’s within reach.

A win for George and a bad result for Kimi? The odds can improve dramatically. Two George wins and one Kimi DNF? We are suddenly looking at a completely different championship and narratives love to change from one race to another, don’t they? George entering the final stretch within striking distance? All bets are off.

Please, for the love of God, don’t fall for the propaganda of how this season is decided by what the standings look like on July 19th. Nah, today we care about the World Cup because the F1 championship is decided at the end of the season.

And the current standings are:

Kimi Antonelli - 204

Lewis Hamilton - 159

George Russell - 154

That is a 50-point gap. It is painful and frustrating and i know you want to rip your hair out and objectively, the gap is a massive punch to the face after the season George has had, after the renowned hope from the past weekend.

But there are still 316 points on the table. I can’t express this enough.

George Russell has won races this year. He has been on the podium. He has shown the pace required to win. The Mercedes is capable of winning because that team has the resources and the advantages to do so.

The season is not over. So please stop writing his championship obituary in July.

You can cry and I am crying too and I have personally already mentally gone through all five stages of grief over Spa. You can be angry and devastated and hate everyone on tiktok for dismissing george.

But do not say it is over. Because it is not.

Not mathematically, not strategically, not with twelve Grands Prix and two Sprints still to go.

The gap is 50 points and yes, the deficit is difficult but news flash, in this blog, in my house of russell, the comeback is absolutely possible.

It is not over until the chequered flag in Abu Dhabi. Y’all can keep doubting him till december idc

And until then, I will be here, not delusional but informed, calculating points, threatening the universe, and believing in George Russell's World Championship because apparently someone has to do it because oh my god you guys clearly haven’t listened to That’s Life by mafia boss Frank Sinatra and it shows:

“I've been up and down and over and out

And I know one thing

Each time I find myself

Flat on my face

I pick myself up and get

Back in the race

That's life (that's life)

I tell you, I can't deny it

I thought of quitting, baby

But my heart just ain't gonna buy it”

Which, also, why are we acting as if kimi and george race each other in vacuum? We already have had two races won by ferrari. My fellow 63ers, why are people looking at the standings and acting like the championship is a two-person private competition happening in a sealed laboratory. And why are we playing along with that??

KIMI ANTONELLI AND GEORGE RUSSELL DO NOT RACE IN A VACUUM!!!

There are still twelve Grands Prix and two Sprints left, and they are not going to spend all of those races peacefully finishing 1-2 in front of the rest of the field while politely exchanging championship points between themselves. Like, honestly, we need to be so for real. We should know better, gang, because this if Formula 1 and other teams can catch up, can take wins, can split Mercedes, can finish between George and Kimi, can take points away from Kimi.

And do you know who that helps?

GEORGE

Because the championship is not George vs Kimi, winner takes all, everyone else go home sponsored by Meta AI and oh look at that Louis Vuitton baner.

People wake up, don’t let the doom and gloom get to you. It is a points championship. If George finishes second and Kimi finishes fifth because a Ferrari, a Red Bull, a McLaren, or whoever else has a strong weekend gets between them, George gains points.

If George wins and Kimi finishes third, George gains seven points.

If George finishes second and Kimi finishes sixth, George gains ten.

If George wins and Kimi has a mechanical failure, a bad strategy, a penalty, a collision, or simply a terrible weekend, that is a massive swing.

And the more competitive the field becomes, the more opportunities there are for exactly that to happen.

The current Mercedes advantage is not a guarantee that every remaining race will be another clean Mercedes 1-2. Formula 1 does not work like that, even if every dumb TikTok creator likes to larp as if it does. Performance changes and development happens and upgrades are brought in and circuits suit different cars and the strategy goes wrong and drivers make mistakes and -

fucking hell, Kimi does not need to lose to George every weekend for George to gain on him.

He just needs to finish behind him. And if other teams are capable of getting between them? Even bloody better.

The title fight is not over because Kimi is currently the faster championship scorer and no, that is not the same thing as saying that Kimi is unbeatable.

And this is where I am going to say something that some people clearly do not want to hear:

George Russell and Kimi Antonelli are not the same type of driver.

Kimi has been good this season. Obviously. I am not going to sit here and pretend that he has accidentally stumbled into 204 points. He is fast. He is talented. He is winning races.

But a championship is not won solely by being fast when everything is going right, not when it feels as though every win is handed to you in a silver platter because the only guy who could give you a run for your money didn’t start the race, didn’t find the speed, didn’t even fucking finish the race.

No. Eventually, you have to deal with pressure.

You have to deal with a championship leader suddenly being hunted. You have to deal with your teammate closing the gap. You have to deal with races where the car is not perfect. You have to deal with wheel-to-wheel combat. You have to deal with making decisions when the driver behind you has nothing to lose.

And this is where George has something that Kimi, simply by virtue of being younger and less experienced at this level, has not had the same opportunity to build.

George Russell has been here before.

Guys, George knows what it is like to drive under pressure, what it is like to have a teammate who is being positioned as the next great thing, what it is like to have a championship fight turn against him. George knows how to fight for a position and he knows how to race wheel-to-wheel and he knows how to survive ugly races and he knows how to drag points out of weekends that should have been disasters.

To quote my manifesto again because I cooked so hard with it:

“George Russell has the guts.

You hear me? He has the guts to challenge his teammate, to fight for his positions, to stand tall when the public has already written him off and to act unbothered and to be too PR trained and to be too whiny and whatever else they want to throw at him without actually giving him a chance to show that he is more than the driver Mercedes seems eager to drop for 2027.

George Russell has the guts to be bullied by the internet, to be misunderstood and to be taken out of context. He has the guts to be turned into a meme and not flinch. He has the guts to stay respectful when interviewers, after every race, ask their questions in their ‘what does it feel to be a loser, george?’ tone.

George Russell, for his entire career, has had the courage to be a fucking loser.

To be uncool. To cry in public. To be called feminine in an emasculating way. He has faced scrutiny before, first by the stopwatch of his own father and then by the team he has been loyal to since the age of sixteen.”

And no, this does not mean Kimi is incapable of doing those things.

It means that we have not yet seen him tested by the exact kind of pressure that George would be applying if this gap starts to disappear. Simple as that.

Because being the championship leader is one thing.

Being the championship leader while your teammate has won three races in a row, while the media is asking whether the momentum has shifted, while every mistake is being analysed, while George Russell is appearing in your mirrors with absolutely nothing left to lose? Oh, honey, that is a completely different environment.

And George has a very obvious advantage in one particular area: our boy knows how to fight.

Chat wake up this is not a pity campaign. I need everyone to understand this, need to also climb up the Empire State with a flag that says it:

We are not rooting for George because he is sad.

We are not rooting for George because he had a bad day.

We are not rooting for George because we think he deserves a participation trophy for trying very hard.

Hell, I am not even rooting for him because I think he’s perfect for rpf and would hate to only see him winning this season as an AU.

No, gang, we know who we are bloody rooting for! We have always known, no mercedes marketing scheme will make us, will make me, forget that I am rooting for George Russell because he is a fucking Formula 1 driver capable of winning the World Championship.

He is not some meek child sitting in a corner waiting for Toto Wolff to decide whether he is allowed to have a career. He is a 28 year old man, with a yacht and years of Formula 1 experience.

He has been at Mercedes for years. He knows that team, its politics, how the organisation works.

He knows how to play the game. He’s the PR doll for a reason, no? He knows how to be extremely polite while also making it very clear that he is not going to be walked over.

And this brings me to the Toto thing. The elephant in the room.

Yes, I understand why the optics are making everyone insane and I too have posted countless of anti mercedes, anti toto wolff takes.

Yes, it can absolutely look like Toto is more emotionally invested in Kimi. And I believe he is.

Yes, Mercedes' public narrative around Kimi has been extremely loud (and obnoxious) and it can definitely feel Kimi is being presented as the future while George is expected to quietly accept whatever is left over.

But Toto Wolff is not the entire Mercedes organisation. And thank fuck for that.

Mercedes is not one man standing in a garage with a clipboard deciding who gets to win the World Championship and George is being dragged into a room for electroshock. Mercedes is a massive organisation, we cannot overlook it. Again, for the people in the back: this teams do not exist in a vacuum

There are executives and a board and the shareholders and fact that there are people whose entire job is to care about the success of Mercedes-Benz and the Mercedes-AMG F1 Team.

And I am sorry, but Mercedes cannot afford to throw away a Drivers' Championship because one person has a favourite. With this much money involved, they cannot risk losing a Constructors' Championship because the team cannot manage two drivers. Or because Toto refuses to do so.

They cannot allow a championship fight to become a civil war and simply shrug because at some point, Mercedes has to get its shit together.

Because whatever the optics are, whatever Toto's personal preferences are, whatever the narrative machine is pushing, the team still has a championship to win.

And George Russell’s job is not to sit there and wait for Mercedes to decide to be fair to him.

His job is to make himself impossible to ignore. He needs the races wins, to score points, to put pressure on Kimi, to make the championship close, to force this hell he calls home to deal with the fact that they have two drivers capable of winning it.

George does not need to beg for the championship. He needs to take it.

And do we really think that after everything George has already dealt with at Mercedes, he is going to look at a 50-point deficit and go well. that's unfortunate. congratulations, Kimi. padel tomorrow?

Be serious. Genuinely. Gang they are brainwashing us into hopelessness. We cannot be booed into silence, we need to be loud and proud about who we support, about the unfairness of the conditions, we need to help the movement of george russell being impossible to ignore.

And yes, George is devastated today.

Of course he bloody is. He has every right to be. He lost a massive amount of ground in a race where his teammate won. Anyone pretending that does not hurt is lying. It does not make weak, does not turn him into a cry baby.

He is probably heartbroken rn and the world may have titled underneath him.

But George Russell being devastated after a race does not mean George Russell is defeated.

We have seen this man get knocked down and then show up the next weekend ready to fight again.

We know what he does. He gets angry. He processes it.

And he gets back in the car.

He pushes. He pushes because GEORGE RUSSELL HAS THE GUTS

And that is the thing about George that people keep forgetting when they reduce him to some sad little victim of Mercedes politics: he is not waiting to be saved. bro in real life isn’t little omega playing damsel in distress.

Because, unlike Kimi, apparently, George Russell is, in fact, a grown ass man.

He is not waiting for Toto to hand him a championship. He is not waiting for Kimi to make the fight easy. He is not waiting for us to feel sorry for him. He is a bloody racing driver, living his dream even if it looks like a fucking nightmare right now.

He knows exactly what the objective is.

And if the championship comes down to George Russell needing to take it from Mercedes, from Kimi, from the media narrative, from the points deficit and from every single person who has already decided that the fight is over?

Then let him.

Because George has 154 points. Kimi has 204. There are still 316 points available. Other teams can take points off Kimi. George can beat Kimi. Kimi can make mistakes under pressure. Mercedes can be forced to recognise the actual championship situation. George can go on a run.

The gap can close. The entire narrative can and will change.

And when it does, I do not want to hear oh, I always believed in George.

No, hands off Gabriella. Some of you are currently acting like his championship is over because he had one disastrous Sunday.

It is July. JULY

The season is not over. The points are not all awarded. The other teams are not going to politely stay out of the way. Kimi is not invincible and George is not helpless.

Mercedes is not a one-man dictatorship and George Russell is not going to roll over.

So no, we are not supporting George out of pity.

We are not saying poor George, maybe he can get lucky fingers crossed, manifesting, let’s ask Jesus and the crystals.

NO.

for fuck’s sake, that is NOT what we’re doing.

Bitch take a look around because we are saying that George Russell is a World Championship-calibre Formula 1 driver. He is 50 points behind with 14 scoring opportunities remaining. He has the experience, the racecraft, the pressure management and the ability to fight back.

He is not finished.

And I, for one, would rather be the person backing George Russell with a 50-point deficit in July than the person celebrating a championship victory in July and then discovering that Formula 1 has another four months of races left.

WE KNOW WHO WE ARE ROOTING FOR.

We are not here because George needs our pity. We are here because we know what he can do.

And George Russell still has twelve Grands Prix, two Sprints, a Mercedes, a very long memory, and absolutely no reason whatsoever to roll over.