George Russell has insisted that the "pressure's off" in his Formula 1 drivers' title bid, which has taken a severe dent in recent rounds.
Since winning the season opener in Australia, Russell has suffered considerable bad luck and poor results, largely due to factors outside of his control.
Already this season, the Briton has endured a technical issue that severely impacted his pole and victory hopes in China, an unfortunately timed safety car in Japan, a power unit failure while leading in Canada, and a questionable penalty in Monaco.
As a result, he remains on just one victory this season, with Russell having not finished on the podium since the second round in Shanghai. To add to his frustration, he has failed to score a point in either of the last two grands prix.
On the other side of the Mercedes garage, Kimi Antonelli has gone from strength to strength, winning five races in a row and building a 66-point lead over Lewis Hamilton in the drivers' standings. Due to his recent form, Russell has slipped to third and is a further two points adrift.
It has effectively led the 28-year-old to rule himself out of the championship fight this season, with him instead adopting a fresh approach of enjoying each race as it comes heading into the Barcelona-Catalunya Grand Prix.
Addressing how he has digested the most recent disappointment of the season in Monaco, Russell explained to media, including RacingNews365: "Yeah, it has been very tough, of course, dealing with the outcome.
"But honestly, when I've sat down and thought about this season as a whole, if it had just been a clean season — not a season where I had good luck, but just a neutral season — I think I'd have had three more podiums to my name. It would have been five out of six races on the podium, maybe a couple of wins, and two out of three sprint race victories.
"I still think I'd probably be slightly behind Kimi in the standings, but the picture would be totally different. I'm now just going into every race trying to control the controllables.
"I can't do anything about the engine breaking down, I can't do anything about bad safety car timing, or this pit lane infringement situation that is out of my control now.
"The pressure feels off, to be honest. I'm just going to try and enjoy every race, not even thinking about a championship. It's so far out of reach right now that it's just about going and enjoying the races, having fun, driving fast, and doing what I know I'm capable of doing, and what I've done my whole Formula 1 career. Yeah, that's what I'm excited for."
Originally published by RacingNews365 —
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