Business of Speed Podcast - Is George Russell Cracking Under Kimi Antonelli's Pressure?

Episode Date: June 11, 2026

Monaco delivered more off the track than on it. Vincenzo and Lali break down whether the race was actually worth watching, what Kimi Antonelli's win means for the rest of the season, and why George Russell's post-race comments say more about his headspace than his car. Plus, Barcelona predictions are on the table, and the answer might surprise you.

Welcome back to another episode of the Business of Speed podcast. The quick, quick episode. The quick, we have to call it a name for it. Like the quick episode. The quipisode. I don't know. The quipisode. Ooh.

I like that. The quipisode. It's a quip. Quipy. Hola, Lali. Hola, Vincenzo. How are you? I'm recovering still from that Monaco Grand Prix weekend,

which I know we're going to talk about a little bit today, but also because we've got some fun guests coming up. This week, we're going to drop an episode with Karun Chandak. And then next week, we have Alwyn Springer. So looking forward to getting those episodes out into the world. They're in the can now, getting worked on. But yeah, let's talk a little bit about Monaco because we are probably a couple of days late on that already.

But it's okay. I think it's evergreen at this point. I want to know what you thought about it. Just what do you think about the race? Was the Monaco... I ask this on Twitter all the time. Was the race, X race, a good race? Was the Monaco Grand Prix a good race, Lali?

I think personally it was. And you can at me all you want, people out there on the interweb. I liked it. I thought it was exciting. We had a red flag. Yes, the pole winner won the race. Okay, so we already know this about Monaco. This isn't a surprise.

We're not going to see somebody come from last and win the race, right? but it was very exciting because I think it cemented Kimi Antonelli as not someone of the future he is the now he is the present I know you're really happy about that as you like to call him Andrea Kimi Antonelli Andrea Kimi Antonelli so I enjoyed the Grand Prix I'm sorry yeah the haters are gonna hate but I enjoyed the Grand Prix there you go listen I would have liked it even better if it was both Ferraris on the podium and Kimi I don't think the racing was good there was a part where I'm like wow we've got another 40 laps of this there it's interesting because it was one of those races where like there's a lot happening but there's also nothing

happening at the same time nothing happening in terms of racing true but there's like all these random penalties which come to find out was just like almost a miscalculation error but we're not going to talk about that should just be a simple speeding I didn't hit x speed so I didn't speed in the pit lane but also when you're going slower through a pit lane you're trying to take little corners right like lewis did to get to your box quicker or more efficiently anyway that was that was a little bit of you know i think idiotic i love that isaac got on the on the podium we had a podium where lewis hamilton was older than the combined ages of the other two finishers very very crazy crazy i think lewis thought that stat was pretty wild to himself because he

he said something about it it overall like not the absolute worst possible piece of entertainment but again like you said we already know what to expect with monaco saturday is the best day uh qual you know quali and quali did put on a show the opulence of monaco seemed to be i don't know about you but i saw a lot of people non-motorsport f1 folks who suddenly stumbled upon monaco this year because there was a lot of different like instagram accounts that have nothing to do with formula one there was a lot of different like news outlets in general that were like the monaco grand prix the place to be and the the the shot of all the yachts out moored way out you know this is the monaco grand prix like where is all this money coming from as

if people like just discovered this race i thought that was really interesting i don't know did you see any of that i heard i i heard you talking about it i saw some things you posted i personally didn't i think your algorithm perhaps is different than mine i didn't see that as much i saw more of like depressed george depressed george russell accounts so a lot of that and a lot of a lot of kim kardashian so i think my algorithm was based on that but but i just want to say something that and we should be happy. So, so Ferrari is looking genuinely competitive, right? Like they are sort of coming back. Mercedes seems a little bit unstoppable now. They won every Grand Prix this year, but I'm really starting to feel hopeful about Ferrari, about Lewis. I think that

that's why I enjoyed the race too, because I really love to see Lewis do well. It makes me really happy. It makes my heart sing. I think he deserves like success in that red car. So I think that was exciting for me but also as we know maybe we can talk about that a little bit this this track isn't a great test of these cars this week coming up barcelona that will be a very true test of the cars of what we have of the package that we'll see for the rest of the season right so i'm looking forward to that yeah so two questions for you well one question for you what do you think about george russell's comments and we'll start there what do you think about george russell's comments he made a few comments one of them being about the car is suited to Kimi when you know four races

ago he's talking about how much he loves the car now suddenly it's oh well the car is suited to Kimi and he also made comments around you know just like I think he made something about the setup in general I forget the exact words but what what's your take so so so my take is this first of all the cars wasn't meant wasn't created to suit anybody because it's a brand new car george so it wasn't it wasn't it's not like the max for stopping thing where you know universally the red bull creates a car that suits max this is a well-known fact this is a brand new car from scratch so it wasn't made to to suit kimi in any way and so my my initial thought was like well yeah kimi is younger so he's probably better at video games than this car has been known to be a

little video gamey so maybe that's why it's it suits kimi more i i do think that that george can be a little bit whiny and i think or as a british says whingy and i think that perhaps yeah he was when he was doing great he didn't care when everybody else was complaining about the car he was loving the car so I just think it's a little bit of of him starting to get frustrated with himself with the situation and I also think that they say heated things in heated moments and things come out and we get the soundbite so I wouldn't read so much into it we'll see what he says after Barcelona little there was a comment he made about in in reference to Andrea Kimi Antonelli where he said if I was in Formula One five years earlier I would have

been a double world champion already or something along those lines and I think well so I'll say two things there's two thoughts around this on I think he's trying to play mind games which Kimi picked up on and said like you know he's not really falling for it I think George is trying to play mind games which listen you know what any competitor would do especially hey let me try and break my my this is the one comp this is the one person that you have a true test for sure against in formula one right well number one against yourself but number two against your teammate george is having issues on both right now so how do you do that what do you do you play mind games right nico rossberg played mind games with lewis like they tried to play mind games prost and senna

played mind games like it goes every teammate if there's competition there right if one is not clear in a way below you know blowing the other one out like you try to play mind games so i give him credit for that but i will say i also think he's being a very very he it's very telling to show where he is his mindset is because now he feels like my contract's coming up he's going to be fighting for a seat next season right he's not gonna want a seat back at a lower end team there's no seats available to him truly at the top flight teams unless like lewis retires and federati wants to go that route which i can't see right now but who knows so he's also in a position where he's kind of fighting for his f1 life and i think the whining is going to turn off a lot of

people that's my take it's funny you just made me think of something like very interesting that I'm just inventing right now if let's say George Lewis is his seat what do we what do we think about Toto buying out Lewis's contract and Lewis ending his career back at Mercedes no I don't see it happening I see him going harder on Verstappen if anything I can't see I don't see him wanting to reopen that not wound but like reopen that chapter I just don't see that happening also buying out a contract like there's a that's that's a lot no i know and i'm dreaming so just quickly to recap barcelona we have fast straights fast corners you think mercedes is going to do great again i think we'll see if the mercedes package truly is what it is and if you know supposedly

there was that loophole that got closed off or whatever loophole that they were they were they had figured out early in the year it had shut off at monaco so now we are in barcelona and we're going to see the true test of that I do think they likely have the best package I wouldn't be surprised by Red Bull either though like I think Red Bull does have a really good power unit and I'd like to see how they handle it I don't think they have the best chassis package but I think we'll get a better look at their raw power I think that Audi's going to struggle because I don't think that they are that we don't I know that the speed isn't there right that the top end speeds so i i think mercedes does end up kimmy antonelli ends up taking this one again

and quite frankly i i okay give me your i don't see end on this game we've never done this top three give me your top three kimmy antonelli lewis hamilton max verstappen i like that mine was going to be very similar so i'm going to throw in a wrench in there i'm going to say george is going to have a great weekend i'm going to say george is going to be on the podium p1 P2 is going to be Kimi Antonelli, and P3 is going to be Lewis Hamilton. I think George ends up in a wall this weekend. I do. We will see.

When you're battling yourself and your teammate in your head more than you are on track, right? Because quite frankly, Kimi is miles ahead, and George is fighting this battle against himself. You end up getting stuck in traffic or around cars are lower on the grid than than you should be and you know you're you're you're pressing you're pressing a lot harder I mean look at look at LeClaire this past weekend right you're pressing because you think you should be further up and instead of taking the third place you

ended up with nothing I think that's I think something similar happens to Georgia I don't even think we've reached a bubbling point yet with that situation so this could be the first of of many i i do see it i do see this as a not a great george weekend okay maybe i'll be wrong hopefully for george and his mental health yeah well that that's that's to be seen we'll see if he spirals out a little bit more hope you enjoy our faster episodes here uh we're gonna we are gonna be doing more race related or real-time content uh in between our larger interviews please join along with us on your favorite podcast player wherever that may be and be sure to leave us a rating because it helps us out. So until next time, ci vediamo. Ciao for now.