George Russell laments 40 points down the drain following pointless races in Monaco and Canada

Russell leaves Monaco third in the 2026 Formula 1 Championship and 68 points behind his teammate and leader, Kimi Antonelli, with Lewis Hamilton now splitting the Mercedes drivers.

Russell was off the pace in Monaco and to make matters worse, nothing went his way in the race as well. He was hit with a 5s time penalty for speeding in the pit lane, a penalty which was bizarrely dished out in abundance on Sunday afternoon in the principality.

While some drivers with the same penalty made use of the Safety Car that came out when Lance Stroll crashed and served theirs in the pits, Russell did not when he pitted and, as a result, was slapped with a drive-through penalty, which he served after the restart, which ended any hopes of scoring points for the Briton after a podium finish was possible.

Commenting on the penalty he and many drivers received in Monaco, Russell said: “Firstly, I’m not too sure why we got a penalty because I was on the pit limiter before the line.

"I released it after the line, but clearly there’s a problem in the software, and many drivers got penalties.

“Ok, five seconds, not ideal but not the end of the world. And then in the pit stop, just major confusion and getting a drive-through [penalty]—the punishment doesn’t fit the crime. So, P3 down to P14.

“I just asked, 'Can we review it afterwards?’ Because I said, 'If I serve the drive-through now, the race is done.’

“And I was willing to serve the five-second penalty on the following lap. I had a 20-second gap behind me to Gasly. I probably gained a tenth of a second through the pit lane with that software glitch and ended up losing 12 positions because of it. [They said] the rules are the rules; if you don’t serve the penalty, it’s a drive-through.

“I don’t really know what to say. It’s two races in a row—could have won the race last week, could have maybe been P3-P4 today; it’s 40 points down the drain for things outside of my control," Russell concluded.

Mercedes boss Toto Wolff is aware of the tough situation Russell finds himself in after two races with no points.

"We just need to keep going," he said. "This is a long championship. Last year everyone said it was [Oscar] Piastri's, then it swung.

"Montreal was a drama because we let him down, and that was a possible 25 points, but it's a long championship," Wolff maintained.

As for Russell's penalty mess, the Austrian explained why Mercedes didn't make him serve his penalty during the pit stops under the Safety Car when the team double-stacked their drivers.

He explained: "We were not completely ready to have him in. We had a bit of confusion ourselves on the strategy.

"Then he came in and we didn't hold him for five seconds. We missed out on a P3 or P4; it's a shame," Wolff concluded. (Source: Sky Sports F1)