Russell vows to fight on for title despite 81-point gap to Antonelli

"I'll keep fighting until it's mathematically impossible"

George Russell has vowed to continue his pursuit of the 2026 Formula 1 Drivers' Championship despite trailing Mercedes team-mate Kimi Antonelli by a commanding 81 points with just nine rounds of the season remaining.

The British driver arrives in Baku sitting second in the standings behind the young Italian, who claimed his eighth victory of the campaign at the Madrid Grand Prix last time out. Russell could only manage fifth place at the Madring and, in the immediate aftermath of that race, admitted he felt he was "not in the fight" for the title with so little of the season left.

But speaking to media on Wednesday's media day ahead of the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, Russell struck a more defiant note, insisting he will not give up on the crown until the numbers say otherwise.

"I'm going to keep fighting every single race until it's mathematically impossible," Russell said. "It doesn't change how I go about my job. I want to try and win every single race and put it on pole every single race.

"That's my goal, that's what I'm working towards every single weekend and what happens thereafter will be. There's obviously a huge deficit but it's not even a consideration right now. The performance is the biggest priority.

"I don't think I was really putting pressure on myself before from a championship standpoint. I was putting pressure on myself from a performance perspective. I'm in this position in the championship because the performance hasn't been strong enough.

"It's been the case for a while where the pressure has come from trying to improve the performance, rather than thinking I need to fight for this championship because you can only fight for a championship if you've got the performance."

Pace since the summer break offers encouragement

Russell has not taken a win since the Austrian Grand Prix back in June, but he revealed he has been encouraged by his pace across the last three Grands Prix, which have yielded two podiums despite the results not always reflecting his underlying speed since the summer break.

"I've been pleased with that progress since the summer break," he added. "The race pace, which was a weakness, has been substantially better and has been in the mix every race since the break.

"I now feel more comfortable that I can fight for great results. Let's see from now until the end of the season how the points could fall."

With the title battle at Mercedes now an internal affair between Russell and the increasingly dominant Antonelli, the focus for the senior driver remains squarely on closing the performance gap rather than the scoreboard — at least until the mathematics finally rule him out.