Kimi Antonelli’s title luck compared to Michael Schumacher by David Coulthard

David Coulthard has compared Kimi Antonelli’s fortunes to those of Michael Schumacher’s after the Italian took a step closer to a maiden world title when George Russell retired from the Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia.

Antonelli brought his updated Mercedes W17 home in second place, extending his lead over Russell by a further 18 points to 84 with seven race weekends remaining.

Kimi Antonelli’s F1 title hopes compared to Michael Schumacher

Although Mercedes arrived at the Sepang circuit with an upgraded W17, prompting Max Verstappen to say that it was going to be a “little bit more difficult” for Red Bull to win its first race of the campaign, Verstappen did just that on Sunday.

The Red Bull driver secured pole position before winning the Grand Prix by two seconds ahead of Antonelli.

But while it looked as if Mercedes would at least record a double podium, Russell retired six laps before the end of the race with a power unit failure.

Antonelli may have told Mercedes over the radio that he was “sorry for George”, but it was a huge gain for the Italian’s championship hopes.

Instead of extending his lead over his teammate by three points had Russell finished third, he put a further 18 points between himself and Russell with a maximum of 183 still in play.

Antonelli’s fortune at the Sepang circuit reminded former F1 driver Coulthard of Schumacher during his era of dominance.

The Ferrari driver also pulled off a Hail Mary pass at the Malaysian track to win in 2001 despite going off into the gravel in the opening laps. He returned to the track as monsoon rain began to fall.

With several drivers aquaplaning off the track and into retirement, the Safety Car was deployed with Schumacher having to double-stack behind his teammate Rubens Barrichello, who had a slow pit stop. Despite that, Schumacher was P1 by Lap 16 and went on to win the race by 23s ahead of Coulthard.

Put to him by Channel 4’s Lee McKenzie that “the champions get all the luck”, Coulthard replied: “It does feel like that, doesn’t it?

“It does feel that, when you’ve got a roll of performance… it would be easy for me to reflect back on the Schumacher era.

“Here, racing, he goes off and still wins the Grand Prix because of a set of circumstances.

“But the greats are serial winners.”

Kimi Antonelli’s run to a potential first world title

The F1 2026 Drivers’ and Constructors’ Championship standings

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Russell was the first to acknowledge that Lady Luck was not on his side.

“I don’t need to say that I think it’s gone, or whatever, but it’s extremely unlikely and that’s the reality,” he told Sky Sports of his title chances.

“I knew if I wanted to come back I needed luck on my side and, unfortunately, I’ve had a lot not on my side.

“A three-point loss today, being behind Kimi, turned into an 18-point loss. Of course, if the issue was on the other side, it would have been an 18-point gain.

“It’s a real shame, but that’s just how it is.”

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