Nico Rosberg believes George Russell will currently be driven by a similar level of “insane motivation” to turn the tables on Kimi Antonelli as he was to get the better of Lewis Hamilton after recurring defeats.
Russell’s hopes of becoming world champion for the first time this year are increasingly slim with in-form Mercedes team-mate Antonelli opening an 81-point lead over him at the top of the standings.
Since winning March’s season-opening Australian Grand Prix, pre-season title favourite Russell has only twice finished ahead of Antonelli in the last 10 races they have both completed with the Briton seeing the young Italian take his seventh and eighth wins of the season across the Monza-Madrid double header.
Rosberg was asked after Sunday’s race, in which Russell finished fifth, on Sky Sports F1 about his experience of rebounding to win his world title in 2016 after being soundly beaten to the crown by Mercedes team-mate Hamilton the year before.
“I was driven a lot by the pain,” recalled Rosberg.
“Subjectively, it was painful to keep losing against Lewis and that just drove an insane motivation.
“George will be in a similar situation. He will be so damn motivated at the moment to try and find improvements.
“He’ll be working so hard because I know George doesn’t give up and he’s hating the situation of getting beaten over and over by Kimi.
“He’ll be working super hard but it’s a bit of a difficult one because it’s hard to understand where the pace has gone for him.”
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
Russell has been Mercedes’ top-scoring driver in three of his previous four seasons at the team, twice in three years against Hamilton (2022 and 2024) and once alongside a rookie Antonelli (2025), but he requires a major turnaround for that to be the case again this year with nine scheduled races left.
Rosberg believes the diligent Russell will keep working away to find a breakthrough with the W17 car, although says it is inevitable that the 28-year-old will be questioning himself too.
“I’m very impressed with George’s approach because he’s really a perfectionist and he tries to cover every aspect of his human performance,” added the Sky Sports F1 pundit.
“I know he’s doing everything he can, and I admire that.
“But, all the more, it’s tough for him because he doesn’t understand himself. He’s always been fast; he’s always been at least level with his team-mate and suddenly it’s gone away from him there.
“It’s really painful because you start to doubt yourself. It doesn’t matter how confident you are, it then comes [to questioning] ‘am I not good enough? Was I better in the past and I’m just doing something wrong now?’ It’s really difficult.”
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
‘Realistically I’m not in the fight’ – Russell all-but rules out drivers’ title win
Fresh from being beaten to victory by Antonelli the weekend before at Monza despite his team-mate starting a penalised 19th on the grid to fall 66 points off the pace, Russell conceded going into the Spanish Grand Prix weekend that he would “need some luck” to realise his title dreams this year.
That deficit grew to a season-high 81 points in a disappointing weekend for him at the Madring, which was compromised by a difficult Q3 in qualifying and then an early Virtual Safety Car in the race. That result led to Russell all but ruling himself out of contention on Sunday evening.
Assessing his approach for the forthcoming races, starting with the Azerbaijan Grand Prix on September 24-26, Russell told F1: “Just keep pushing along. It has been a more positive couple of races even though the result was far from great today.
“But it’s kind of story of the season. I just need to focus on the performance, keep trying to help the team.
“We’re obviously in a great place to win the constructors’, realistically I’m not in the fight for the drivers’, and that just allows me just to focus on race-by-race and trying to focus on getting some good results.”
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
‘We just have to unlock it’ – Wolff backing ‘top driver’ Russell to find breakthrough
His Mercedes team remain convinced Russell will rediscover his best form.
Asked what Russell was fighting hardest at the moment, Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff said: “I don’t know, because you can see the pace he had towards the end when he was catching Leclerc. He was fastest out on track.
“But after the tyre changes, the pace wasn’t there.
“I just don’t know where it is and we have to analyse it, because clearly it’s in him, it’s in the car, and we just have to unlock it.”
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
But Wolff has no doubt that, even if this title eludes him, Russell will “recover” and be a factor in many more world championship fights.
“When it comes to George, you can have good races, bad races, good years and bad years, but we’re talking about the driver that has won everything that he could have potentially won before,” added Wolff, who signed Russell to Mercedes’ junior programme in 2017.
“Every single karting championship, Formula 3 in his rookie year, Formula 2 in his rookie year, went into the Williams.
“I mean, we’re talking about a top driver. We need to find out what is it for him to be able to unleash that potential.
“And of course, there’s the psychological side. If you have a run like him this year, you’re taking a beating.
“But the great ones, they recover. And George has all he needs to fight for championships. Even if that one has maybe sailed, there will be more.”
Racing on a Saturday! The F1 season continues live on Sky Sports F1 as the Azerbaijan Grand Prix kicks off a triple-header of races from September 24-26, with the Baku race taking place on a Saturday. Stream Sky Sports with NOW – no contract, cancel anytime