George Russell identifies 'fair' points deficit after slashing Kimi Antonelli lead

George Russell believes a gap of "10 to 30 points" to Kimi Antonelli is representative of the F1 season so far, with the Briton currently 25 points adrift of his Mercedes team-mate.

Yet the 28-year-old insists he needs to up his own performances, having played second fiddle to the young Italian for much of the campaign.

Muddying the waters further is the resurgent form of Lewis Hamilton and Ferrari, which has vaulted the seven-time F1 drivers' champion to within seven points of Russell — and the 106-time grand prix winner was even ahead of him following the Monaco Grand Prix.

When asked about the looming threat of the Scuderia, the Mercedes driver was adamant that he had other things to be focusing on, like his own form.

"I'm not even thinking about it, to be honest, because I've got my own things I need to deal with and improve upon on my own side," Russell told media, including RacingNews365.

"I left Monaco three races ago 68 points behind, and I leave here 25 points behind. So yeah, I would take it, but it won't continue like that forever unless the results, the performance, gets better."

Russell endured torrid luck during the early part of the season, but in the past few rounds, the scales of justice have begun swinging back in his favour, with Antonelli on the other side of the Mercedes garage experiencing his own fair share of misfortune.

That has levelled the playing field between the pair — and let Hamilton into the equation — and Russell believes that whilst the correct picture is debatable, the current deficit falls into the right ballpark.

"Whether the luck has balanced out or not, I'm not sure," the seven-time grand prix winner added.

"However, based on my performances and based on his performances over the course of these nine races, I think probably a 25-point gap is in his favour, is probably correct.

"He has done a better job than me this year to this point, so he deserves to be ahead of me.

"Whether it should be 25 points, whether it should be 10 points, whether it should be 35 points is a debate, but in that ballpark between, you know, I obviously lost 15 points as well in Monaco with the drive-through penalty.

"I think anywhere from 10 to 30 points behind is probably about fair."