George Russell arrives in Malaysia with something he has spent much of 2026 searching for: confidence.
In Baku last time out, the Mercedes driver ended his long wait for a Formula 1 victory, producing a commanding weekend that not only delivered his third win of the season but also slashed Kimi Antonelli’s championship advantage to 66 points.
Now Russell has an upgraded W17 underneath him – and he believes the timing could hardly be better.
Mercedes is bringing its first major package since the Canadian Grand Prix in May to Sepang, giving Russell a potentially important weapon as he attempts to keep his title challenge alive with a third of the season still remaining.
Russell finally feels ready to fight
For much of the campaign, Russell has struggled to extract the same level of performance from the new-generation Mercedes that he had become accustomed to producing.
That uncertainty has gradually disappeared, however, with Baku providing perhaps the clearest indication yet that he has found his way back to the front.
“I’ve never really felt in a position to fight for the victories because my performances weren’t strong enough,” Russell said ahead of the home race of Mercedes’ title sponsor Petronas.
“But now finally I feel I’m in a place I can fight for victory week in week out. Of course there is a big deficit in the championship, but there is a third of a season to go and still so much can happen. I am just going to go race by race.
“I feel more at one with the car and hopefully this upgrade will play into my favour a bit more. So bring it on.”
That last sentence is perhaps the clearest indication of Russell’s current mindset. Rather than treating the upgrade as something that must rescue his championship campaign, he sees it as an opportunity to strengthen a package he is finally beginning to understand.
The Baku breakthrough was particularly significant because Russell no longer appeared to be wrestling with the car. After months of trying to adapt himself to the machine, the Briton believes the relationship has finally begun to work in both directions.
From ‘lost’ to instinctive
Russell entered 2026 with expectations of mounting a serious title challenge, only to spend much of the season struggling to consistently find the right operating window.
That has changed in recent races.
“The thing that’s changed is I feel my performances are strong enough to fight for victory week in week out,” Russell explained. “I know what I need from the car and myself and I don’t really feel lost any more.
“Confidence is back and it’s growing again and it’s all coming a bit more naturally, which is how it has been for most of my career and not how it’s been for most of the season.”
The key has been a long process of repeatedly modifying his driving approach. What once required conscious effort is now becoming instinctive, leaving Russell free to concentrate on extracting outright performance.
“I went through a few races where I was having to think how to make those adjustments, whereas now it’s all just a bit more intuitive and a bit more natural,” he added.
“So what I set out to achieve, in terms of getting the car [into] a slightly better window, I’m now achieving without having to think about it as much. So I can just focus on driving fast.”
That could make Mercedes’ latest upgrade particularly interesting. Russell is no longer searching for the basic answers to make the W17 work for him; he now has the opportunity to discover what he can do with a car that may offer a broader performance window.
And with Antonelli holding a 66-point advantage after a difficult Baku weekend, every opportunity matters.
The Italian conceded that Baku represented his weakest weekend of the season, although he insisted the experience offered important lessons.
“Last weekend was probably there worst weekend from me of the season,” the 20-year-old said.
“But still good learning from the weekend and was also a very strange race for me in Baku because it was one of those races where I consciously tried not to take any risks and just drive under the limit which was very weird but it was what I needed on Sunday. I needed a clean result after a very disrupted weekend.
“I wasn’t happy after the race but I learned the most important learning was I need to be always 100% because if I don’t try to do everything right in my power then nothing is going to come my way.”
The championship gap remains substantial, but Russell is no longer approaching the remaining races simply hoping for a breakthrough.
The Briton arrives in Malaysia believing he can fight for wins again – and Mercedes is about to give him another version of the W17 with which to do it.
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