The more the merrier in F1 title fight, Russell says

George Russell says he would love more drivers to be fighting for the Formula 1 world championship, after closing the gap to Kimi Antonelli to 40 points at the Austrian Grand Prix.

Antonelli won five straight races to open up a comfortable championship lead before Lewis Hamilton’s victory in Barcelona suggested Ferrari could offer a threat. With Max Verstappen then putting pressure on Russell and Mercedes throughout the race at the Red Bull Ring, Russell says a more open championship race would be akin to the junior categories.

“I’d love a big fight, to be honest,” Russell said. “You want to have the best drivers with the best teams all fighting. And of course, Max is very much one of the best, and Lewis, Charles [Leclerc], Lando [Norris], Oscar [Piastri], you want them to be in that fight.

“Unfortunately, the midfield and backfield teams are not there, but more the merrier. And it feels like when we all raced go-karting, you were never in a one-on-one battle with anybody. There were always, normally at least, three drivers in the fight for a championship. When I raced F2, F3, F4, there were three, four, five drivers all fighting. And that’s how it should be.”

Antonelli retains a comfortable lead in the championship despite finishing third on Sunday, but says he didn’t manage to maintain the level required throughout the Austrian race weekend.

“It was a weekend where I started very strong, and I think because of that I kind of lowered the intensity a bit too much,” Antonelli said. “And coming to qualifying, I just felt a bit tense, driving-wise. We were still up there, but I felt like I wasn’t driving that well and not as free.

“Of course, the last lap [was aborted due to a yellow flag], but I was a tenth behind George, so it probably would have been P2 – very close, but P2. Of course, it went like that.

“And obviously starting from P4, first lap was really bad for me. Then I really struggled with brakes, and I just lost a lot of time because I started to do mistakes. But the second stint was a bit better and then the third stint was really, really strong. The pace was just there but of course fell a bit short.”