Russell quali theory that’s allowing Antonelli to ‘manipulate’ race starts

George Russell must improve his qualifying consistency if he is to mount a sustained world championship challenge against Mercedes teammate Kimi Antonelli, according to Mark Webber.

Mercedes has dominated Grand Prix qualifying this season, but the teammate head-to-head stats favour Antonelli 6-3.

Mark Webber identifies George Russell weakness in Kimi Antonelli title fight

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Compounding Russell’s woes, Antonelli has won all but one Grand Prix that he has started from pole position.

Winning five on the trot from China to Monaco, Antonelli only missed out on turning his sixth pole position into a Grand Prix win when a wheel shield on his W17 broke at Silverstone.

Antonelli’s points lead was reduced to 25 points by Russell, but it’s clear the Italian is the stronger of the two Mercedes teammates in the opening rounds as he has capitalised on all but one of his pole positions.

Russell has also converted all but one of his pole positions into a Grand Prix win, but he only has two poles; Australia and Austria.

Austria was arguably Russell’s best Saturday lap of this season as the Briton used his experience and knowledge of Formula 1’s rule book to lift just enough for a yellow flag while still racing his way to top spot.

But a one-off big lap, as Webber called it, isn’t enough to take on Antonelli in the championship.

“[Russell] has big laps, like, we saw a few in Austria,” Webber told Channel 4 at Silverstone where Antonelli secured pole with Russell fourth fastest, 0.370s off his teammate’s pace.

“He was brilliant in Austria with that yellow flag. He had great composure to pull off the pole position there.

“But, his big laps are just enough to hang with Kimi’s mean line of his laps.

“In terms of his average lap, just that cluster of laps, he just is stronger at the moment.

“That’s the headache for George. He has to somehow get the consistency in qualifying.

“Then,” continued Webber, “he can start to manipulate things at the start of a race.

“But I’ll tell you what, Antonelli is on absolute fire.

“The kid is just absolutely brilliant in the new regulations at all tracks. We had rain, we’ve had this, we’ve had that, you know, fast corners, we’ve had every combination, and he’s performing brilliantly.”

George Russell v Kimi Antonelli: Mercedes’ F1 2026 scores

F1 2026: Head-to-head qualifying statistics between teammates

F1 2026: Head-to-head race statistics between teammates

Russell was perplexed by his troubles in Saturday’s qualifying at Silverstone, which included a bizarre off at Luffield where he nudged the barrier with the front wing of his W17.

The Briton also revealed that Mercedes was investigating why he was losing speed in a straight line compared to Antonelli.

“There was no damage, but all weekend we’ve been losing lots of time in the straights,” he explained to PlanetF1.com and others.

“Yesterday in Q3, it was almost three tenths I lost in the straights.

“Again today in qualifying, you look at the speed traps, it’s 3k down middle sector, 6k down in the last sector compared to my teammate and compared to the McLaren cars.

“The team are working super hard to understand why that is.”

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