George Russell says that he has been left “bamboozled” by his drop in pace following a promising start to the 2026 Formula 1 season.At Saturday’s Monaco Grand Prix qualifying, Russell’s Mercedes teammate Kimi Antonelli claimed his fourth pole position of the season, giving himself the best possible chance of winning his fifth race in a row.Meanwhile, Russell was four tenths of a second slower than Antonelli, finishing behind Red Bull’s Max Verstappen and the Ferrari duo of Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc in sixth.Russell, in his eighth F1 campaign, entered the season as one of the favorites for the title and won the opening race of the season in Australia but has not stood on the podium since finishing second in Shanghai in March.The 28-year-old claimed pole in Canada in the last grand prix but was forced to retire due to a mechanical issue while Antonelli went on to win the race, extending the gap between the pair at the top of the drivers’ championship to 43 points. That gap could grow further on Sunday, with overtakes notoriously challenging around the narrow streets of Monte Carlo.After Monaco qualifying, Russell lamented his sudden lack of pace across all sessions.“At the start of the year it was just easy,” he told Sky Sports. “Every lap I did in practice qualifying, it was P1, worst case P2, you know, every single session, Q1, Q2, Q3, the last three races, it’s just been nowhere.“Even Canada, it was a real fight to get a decent lap and then I just nailed it at the end of both of those sessions, but that was sort of like pulling something special out of a hat, and a little bit lucky to do it.”Russell suggested that the Mercedes car was not suited to his driving style.“Last year (the car) suited me just fine and this year it’s suited (Antonelli) perfectly well,” he said.”So either I need to adjust to this, and I’ll do my best to do that, but it still doesn’t answer why the start of the year was such a breeze, so, yeah, a bit bamboozled right now.”Mercedes CEO Toto Wolff described Russell as “robust and resilient” but added that the British driver lacked confidence in the car on Saturday.“There were a few races that went against him,” Wolff said. “Luck wasn’t on his side or he wasn’t there at the right moment and here I don’t think it’s so much the psychological side.“He just never had the confidence in the car. Qualifying started on a bad foot, you know, FP3 was still very OK. Once you start to run behind (on) the performance and you lose the confidence, it’s super difficult to catch up again.”