Andrea Kimi Antonelli may have what it takes to win the F1 championship one day, but David Coulthard says he’ll need to get past his Mercedes teammate George Russell if he wants to claim the 2026 title.
Russell began the season strongly, claiming wins from pole in both the Australian Grand Prix and the Sprint in China. But Antonelli responded with back-to-back Grand Prix victories in China and Japan, also starting from pole each time. Those results put him ahead of Russell at the top of the drivers’ standings.
The Bologna native became the youngest driver ever to lead the F1 standings after building a nine-point gap over Russell when the Briton missed out on a podium finish in Japan. Antonelli’s lowest finish so far is second place in Australia, while Russell managed only fourth in Japan.
Mercedes now give Antonelli as much of a chance as Russell to win the 2026 F1 title, due to just how strongly the former has started his second term on the grid. British F1 legend Nigel Mansell thinks “everyone” is rooting for Antonelli to emerge victorious in the title fight, too.
Coulthard also feels Russell will put up a strong fight after all he has been through during Mercedes’ decline at the end of the previous regulations era. The team failed to add another world championship following Lewis Hamilton’s seventh and last crown in 2020.
The Briton still went on to win races until 2023 but lost ground in the standings every season until he eventually finished P10 with one podium for Ferrari. Russell took over at Mercedes from Hamilton that year after his switch and finished P5 with three wins, but none since then.
Coulthard told ServusTV: “It doesn’t quite feel that way. They’ve invested a lot of time and had a long dry spell. Let’s wait for Miami, and then maybe we’ll understand how the technology is developing.
Ferrari team principal Fred Vasseur thinks F1 could see a “different championship” in Miami when the season resumes following the five-week break from the cancellation of events in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia. Most, if not all, teams are expected to have upgrades by Miami.
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