He said: “A lot has changed. The year of experience itself played a massive role – making your own experiences, understanding what is good and not good for you during the weekend and outside the weekend.
“The experience, being able to come back into the weekend and having done it the year before plays a massive difference. You know better the track evolution and so on and you are able to balance your energies in a better way so you feel better in the car in terms of energy.
“You become more aware of your potential and you know better the team, it’s all little things that play a massive role.”
Antonelli said that so far the pressure of competing for the championship had not affected him.
“I am not really worrying about it,” he said.
“Of course I know the opportunity that is on the table and of course I want to make the best out of it.
“But at the same time I don’t want to drive or race thinking about that.
“I want to really focus on the process and what I have to do and enjoy as much as possible the weekend and drive as fast as possible and then we will see where we end up at the end of the year.”
Russell said he feels that with “neutral” luck, he would “probably be slightly behind Kimi in the standings” but “it would have been, you know, five out of six races on the podium, maybe a couple of wins”.
He added: “Now I feel the pressure feels off, to be honest. I’m just going to try and enjoy every race, not even thinking about a championship.
“It’s so far out of reach right now that it’s just go and enjoy the races and have fun, drive fast and do what I know I’m capable of doing and what I’ve done for my whole career in Formula 1 and, yeah, that’s what I’m excited for.”