The Mercedes driver dropped a rare, unvarnished admission after Sunday’s race in Sao Paulo. He had moved up to fourth and was within 10 seconds of race leader Andrea Kimi Antonelli when he dived into the pits for slicks and spun at the pit exit, scattering his afternoon in an instant.

“I probably just took too much risk, because I was seeing an opportunity to go for the win at that point, but it happened,” Russell told Formula1.com.

Russell had started seventh after a five-place grid penalty for an engine change, and had climbed into contention on pace alone. His stop on the switch from intermediates to slicks was the moment the race was there to be won; instead, the car snapped away from him on the painted pit exit line.

A spin that strangely saved his race

The irony is that the spin may have kept him in the points fight. Because he had already taken his slicks, Russell stayed out when rain returned later in the race, while others pitted again. He recovered to finish fourth, one position ahead of Antonelli, who had led before spinning off and dropping to fifth.

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To PlanetF1, Russell was blunter about the gamble: “I went quite high risk because I smelt an opportunity and paid the price.”

The win went to Lando Norris, with Max Verstappen second and Isack Hadjar completing the podium for Red Bull, Sky Sports reported.

Mercedes clinch the title anyway

Russell’s fourth place was enough to seal the 2026 Constructors’ Championship for Mercedes with three rounds still to run. It is the team’s ninth constructors’ title and its first since the 2014 to 2021 run of eight in a row.

That softened the sting of a race he knew should have been better. He said his weekend pace on the soft tyre had been the quickest in the field, a point he was keen to stress given a season in which raw speed has often been his sharper edge over results.

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With the title settled at Interlagos on Sunday, November 8, 2026, three rounds of the season remain for Mercedes and Russell to close the campaign.

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