Mercedes' George Russell has taken to social media to "speak from the heart" after not speaking to the media following Sunday's Mexico City Grand Prix, where teammate Kimi Antonelli was crowned world champion.

As the season commenced, Russell was seen as the clear favourite for the title but was consistently outperformed by his younger teammate, who would become the youngest world champion in F1 history at the age of 20.

Russell wrote on his social media: "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."

To date, Antonelli has won nine races compared to Russell's three, though he will not receive any prize money for his Drivers' Championship win. In the latest run of bad luck, the Brit suffered a power unit issue, leaving him with suboptimal power on the opening lap of the Mexico City Grand Prix, dropping to fourth in the Drivers' Championship in the process.

• June 2026 — Russell won the Austrian Grand Prix, his second victory of the season.
• July 2026 — Russell retired from the Belgian Grand Prix, leaving Spa without points.
• September 2026 — Antonelli charged from 19th to win at Monza, beating Russell.
• September 2026 — Russell converted pole into victory at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix in Baku.
• October 2026 — Antonelli won the United States Grand Prix as Russell finished eighth.

Russell continued: "All I know is that I’ve given it my all and 2026 was not meant to be my year. I want to sincerely congratulate Kimi on what has been an absolutely incredible season. You truly deserve the Championship.

"Thank you to the team for producing the best car and power unit this season; it’s been inspiring to see everyone coming together over four tough years to bring Mercedes back to the top.

"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 producing for the majority of my career and fingers crossed a little bit of luck returns."

Toto Wolff's Reaction to George Russell's Hard Weekend

Mercedes boss Toto Wolff revealed Russell was "distraught" in Mexico and departed after congratulating Antonelli on his achievement.

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."

Not much could be done by the British driver to combat the rise of Antonelli, as the young Italian driver has had multiple impressive appearances this season, including a memorable victory at the Italian Grand Prix in which he started the race in 19th.