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George Russell clears Mercedes of blame after F1 title dream disaster: ARTICLE: George Russell has absolved his Mercedes team of any fault as his title dream derailed in 2026. George Russell has emphatically rejected the idea that Mercedes has 'let him down' following his 2026 F1 title defeat to Kimi Antonelli.  Russell entered the first season of F1's new technical regulations as the overwhelming favourite to be crowned world champion, and underlined this status in the opening round of the season by winning the Australian Grand Prix from pole position.  …… "I don't think the team have let me down, honestly, because these things do happen," Russell told media, including RacingNews365. "Nobody intends for it to happen. We're all trying our best to deliver the best, and last year we had an extremely reliable car, and you know we only finished fourth in the championship.  "This year, we have a car that's extremely fast, but has been unreliable. So, which one do you prefer?  "We weren't satisfied last year, and then of course, even though the team will win both championships, they're still not satisfied with this season.  "And then, as for my own championship, it's difficult to put a number on how much it's impacted the championship because it's often about momentum.  "When we started the season, we had the issue in China with the failure in qualifying. We had the issues in Japan. We had the engine failure in Canada and the drive-through penalty that wasn't a drive-through penalty in Monaco. These things compound." Was Russell overdriving? Russell then added that another factor in his struggles could possibly lay in the fact that after his setbacks, he was trying to "overachieve" with his driving to ensure Antonelli did not get too far ahead in the points table. "If you're in the championship fight or you're within touching distance, you feel like you're having to catch up [after the setbacks]", he added  "And maybe that contributed towards overdriving and trying to overachieve. Maybe not.  "You can't answer it, and I'm not looking to answer it. Just, altogether, it just hasn't been the year I wanted." 🫶🩵