George Russell makes alarming Kimi Antonelli statement as Mercedes hold emergency meeting

George Russell believes that Kimi Antonelli is driving at the same level he was earlier in the season, and that Mercedes' declining performance is to blame for his miserable recent results. The Silver Arrows have scheduled a 'big meeting' after a joyless weekend at the Belgian Grand Prix. Mercedes started the 2026 campaign in fine form. Russell notched four podiums in the first six race weekends, while in Montreal, the Brit scored his first victory of the year.

Antonelli finished on the podium that day in Canada, but his pace has evaporated since then. Heading into the final race before the summer break, Antonelli has four DNFs and two finishes of 16th or below in his last seven outings. Worse still, his two Q1 exits in Belgium signalled that his confidence is trending in the wrong direction, rather than recovering.

According to Russell, though, the car is to blame. "I mean, the fact is he's - in terms of his own performance - it's no worse, and it was no better, no worse than at the start of the season," the Brit explained on Sunday. "It's just as a team we've gone backwards, so he was out in Q1 yesterday.

"But he was only three tenths off me. In Canada, he was six tenths off me, but I qualified pole, and he was P4. So the pace of the car has a big influence on how a driver's performance is perceived, so of course it's frustrating for me. It's frustrating for him, it's frustrating for us as a team, but we're in it together ultimately, and we need to figure it out."

Russell's results have tailed off, too. Since his faultless performance in Montreal, the four-time Grand Prix winner hasn't recorded a finish better than fifth, and he has dropped 28 points back from third-placed Max Verstappen.

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The 27-year-old is now assisting the Mercedes recovery effort with meetings planned ahead of this weekend's race in Hungary. "We're going to have a big meeting this week with all the designers and engineers, to sort of understand the decisions we've made in recent weeks or months," he said.

"And why we've gone backwards. So [we're] hoping for some improvements in Hungary." Russell also offered his theory for the dip in performance, adding: "We made a clear change of direction a couple of months ago.

"And I think it's been since that point we've taken a step backwards, so you know, it sometimes takes a few races to understand what the real reasons are for that lack of pace, but clearly it seems that we need to revert back to what we had earlier in the season."