George Russell is a racing driver competing in the 2026 FIA Formula 1 World Championship for Mercedes, car number 63. Eleven rounds in, he is third in the championship with 160 points and two wins — the season-opener in Melbourne and a dominant Spielberg — making him the only driver besides team-mate Kimi Antonelli with multiple victories in 2026.
The Quiet Contender
Russell's route to the front was the slow build. Three seasons at Williams from 2019 yielded one famous footnote — second place in the rain-shortened 2021 Belgian Grand Prix — and little else on paper, but his one-off stand-in drive for a COVID-struck Hamilton at the 2020 Sakhir Grand Prix, a race he famously nearly won, had already announced him to the paddock. Promoted to Mercedes in 2022, he won that first season and has since stacked wins at a steady two-per-year rate in 2024, 2025 and now 2026, with seven career victories from 163 starts. He turned 28 in February — old enough to have banked seven full seasons in the sport, young enough for a decade more at the front.
2026 is his strongest championship challenge yet. The Melbourne win launched his year, and victory at Spielberg plus podiums in Shanghai, Barcelona and Silverstone kept Mercedes' charge rolling even as Antonelli took over at the top. The twist in the season so far: his retirement at Spa while fighting at the front was the race that handed his teenage team-mate control of the title fight.
2026 Season Log
| Rd | Race | Result | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Melbourne | P1 | 25 |
| 2 | Shanghai | P2 | 18 |
| 3 | Suzuka | P4 | 12 |
| 4 | Miami | P4 | 12 |
| 5 | Montreal | Retired | 0 |
| 6 | Monte Carlo | P12 | 0 |
| 7 | Barcelona | P2 | 18 |
| 8 | Spielberg | P1 | 25 |
| 9 | Silverstone | P2 | 18 |
| 10 | Spa | Retired | 0 |
| 11 | Budapest | P7 | 6 |
Career by the Numbers
| Season | Team | Starts | Wins | Podiums | Best |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 | Mercedes | 11 | 2 | 5 | P1 |
| 2025 | Mercedes | 24 | 2 | 9 | P1 |
| 2024 | Mercedes | 24 | 2 | 4 | P1 |
| 2023 | Mercedes | 22 | 0 | 2 | P3 |
| 2022 | Mercedes | 22 | 1 | 8 | P1 |
| 2021 | Williams | 22 | 0 | 1 | P2 |
Career stats via the Jolpica/Ergast API, updated after Round 11 (Budapest). Pole totals include sprint-shootout poles, per site methodology. Starts count race entries from 2019.
The 2026 Season So Far
Five podiums and two wins put Russell third on 160 points, nine behind Hamilton and 59 behind Antonelli — close enough that a clean run of Sundays changes the whole picture. The zero columns are what hurt: a retirement in Montreal, twelfth in Monte Carlo, the Spa DNF and a quiet seventh in Budapest. Consistency, not speed, is the gap to his team-mate; see whether a flawless run-in can close it with our championship calculator, or catch up on the story so far in the mid-season review.
The team backdrop could hardly be stronger: Mercedes lead the constructors' championship on 379 points, 72 clear of Ferrari, and Russell's 160 make it a Mercedes one-two in the drivers' table alongside Antonelli's 219. Third-highest scorer in the field, in the dominant car, with the best win count outside his own garage — on paper, few have a better platform for the run-in than Russell.