Photo: Jen_ross83 / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0
The stat: After the São Paulo Grand Prix, George Russell has 262 points and Lewis Hamilton has 261. One point separates third place in the 2026 Formula 1 drivers’ standings, and Max Verstappen sits only 17 clear of them in second with 279.
That is a tight order behind a champion who is not part of the fight. Kimi Antonelli has 390 points, and Mercedes wrapped up the constructors’ title in Brazil. What is left to settle is the runner-up spot and the pecking order of the drivers chasing it.
What the one-point gap reveals
Mercedes finished São Paulo 140 points clear of Ferrari in the constructors’ table, 652 to 512. In the drivers’ table, though, Mercedes’ second car and Ferrari’s lead driver are level in all but name. Antonelli has scored 390 of Mercedes’ 652 points, about 60 percent. Russell’s 262 is the other 40 percent, and Hamilton’s 261 means the team gap is almost entirely a story of one driver, not two.
Put another way, the 128-point gap between Antonelli and Russell is far bigger than any gap in the runner-up fight. It is also why Russell’s “not meant to be my year” comment landed the way it did: he has the same car as the champion and is still being chased by a Ferrari.
Who is still in range
Second place is within reach for both. Verstappen leads Russell by 17 and Hamilton by 18, and Lando Norris, who won in São Paulo, is next on 246, only 16 behind Russell and 15 behind Hamilton. Three races are left, with 129 points still on offer, so a single bad weekend or one engine penalty can reshuffle the order. That is exactly how Ferrari’s engine penalties set a trap in Brazil, and how the earlier 16-point spread across second to fifth has kept this fight alive.
The competitive read is simple. Russell holds third by the thinnest margin possible, and Hamilton needs only to outscore him by two points over the remaining rounds to flip it, while both also have Verstappen in sight. With the title decided back in Mexico City, as covered in our look at Antonelli’s title margin, the runner-up fight is where the remaining points matter most.
Bottom line
A 140-point constructors’ gap and a one-point drivers’ gap can both be true at once. Mercedes owns the season, but behind Antonelli the order of its second driver, Ferrari’s Hamilton and a rebounding Norris is anyone’s to take.
Standings per RacingNews365, cross-checked against Crash.net and GPblog.
Featured image credit: George Russell at the 2025 Imola Grand Prix. Photo: Jen_ross83 / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0.
Inline image credit: Lewis Hamilton at the 2025 Singapore Grand Prix. Photo: Liauzh / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0.
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