Set to lose out on the title that appeared to be his for the taking, George Russell remains defiant.

Not for the first time, from the outset it appeared Mercedes had done the best job in reacting to a major rules overhaul.

Like his boss, Russell played down the advantage his team appeared to have, insisting that Ferrari and Red Bull were the real threat.

Claiming pole in Melbourne and converting it into a victory was the perfect start to his season, but from then on a new threat emerged.

Teammate Kimi Antonelli went on to win the next three races, and as the young Italian's confidence grew, Russell, not helped by various issues, gradually began to fall away. This weekend, with four (?) races still remaining, Antonelli can secure the title, Russell's only hope being to win all the remaining races while his teammate fails to add to his tally.

Some would be understandably broken, but Russell remains defiant.

"I've probably learned more about myself this year than I would have liked to, in all honesty," he told reporters in Mexico today. "The highs and lows you go through in sport are immense," he continued, "because we all care so much for what we're doing.

"But I remind myself, I'm 28 years old. I see Lewis still competing extremely well at 41 and Fernando at 44. Lewis won the majority of his titles in his thirties and this year is absolutely not going to define my career as a whole. It's not going to break me. If anything, it's going to make me stronger.

"I've been pretty proud of my resilience and how I've bounced back from very tough moments and actually, through my lowest points of this season, I've generally bounced back really, really strong, and then I had another bad race after the good one.

"So maybe it's something I need to analyse, because I always perform best after my worst races. Maybe it's just a coincidence, maybe there's something in it, but I've been racing more years of my life than I haven't and I've had more successful years than relative failures.

"I don't think any athlete, no matter how great, has every single year of their career performing at their highest level," he insisted. "Unfortunately, this year for me has come at maybe the time when I needed it most. But it's by no means the end of my journey, I've still got a good 12 to 15 years left in me."

It was pointed out that in 2015, Nico Rosberg won the final three races of the season, going on to win the title the following season.

"I think it is definitely important for me to try and gain some consistency," he admitted. "A couple of races ago, we were on pole by eight-tenths and won the race, then last week I finished in P8.

"I've never had a season like this in my career," he continued, "where the performance has fluctuated so much, and I know it's in there, because you can't deliver performances like that in Baku if you've so-called lost it.

"It's just that we're struggling to have a high hit rate. We don't know why that is, and we've never had it. I've never had it personally before in my career, and I guess that's probably the priority for me in these last few races."

Like a number of other, Russell has claimed that the new regulations don't suit his driving style, whereas his teammate has adapted far more easily.

"There's just a few factors with the cars this year that potentially favour or hinder a certain driving style," he explained. "I've always been a driver that focuses on the mid to the exit of the corners, which often means I'm on the throttle earlier than most. With these new power units, that means I am spending more energy and it is sometimes not the most efficient way to drive for the power unit.

"Secondly, the tyre pressures this year, especially on the rear, have been very, very high. Pirelli are taking a new PSI margin, especially in the rear axle. So again, that sort of has hindered me a little bit by pushing the exits. The rear tyre can't cope with it as well, and there's been a bit of a hindrance on the power unit side.

"So it was kind of these two factors that just really hampered my natural driving style, and I'd say that's probably been the biggest thing of the season.

"I came out of Monaco earlier this year and it was a very difficult weekend for me, I went to Barcelona and was quickest in every session and put it on pole. I went to Austria, the next race, I was on pole again and then a few races later I was qualifying down in P5 and P6.

"I feel in the years gone by I had a pretty high hit-rate of reaching the potential of the car and maybe at the end of the season there were four or five races I feel that were not maximised," he admitted. "I remember in 2022, we finished in the top five more than any other driver in the whole season, I think it was 19 from 22 races and that was the third-best car on the grid. This season we have the best car and I'm not able to achieve these results. So it's quite strange and certainly scratching our head a little bit and it's definitely not through a lack of trying."

Asked if his teammate's success this season has changed their relationship, he said: "On a personal level, Kimi is obviously a great guy and has lots of energy. We've had no reason this year not to continue a good relationship.

"I think a lot of these rivalries start because of on-track incidents or actions," he continued. "The truth is he's been at a higher level than me this year so we've not really been in that situation too often, we have had one or two races. When it comes to the race in itself, we sort of keep ourselves to ourselves and work with our individual engineers to try and get the most out of it."

As is the case with most drivers, Russell admits that second place is effectively the first of the losers.

"For every driver on the grid, there's only one position that matters, and it's P1. To be best of the rest is not really something you dream of as a kid. Of course, I want to finish as high as possible. I want win as many races as possible, but what's more important to me is to finish the season on a positive momentum rather than necessarily that final order.

"If I finish second, third, fourth, fifth, I will only lose sleep or gain sleep based on the performances as opposed to that. As long as it's not P1, in this sport, it's kind of that or nothing really."