George Russell says Kimi Antonelli sitting top of the standings is not something Mercedes are worrying about as the 2026 Formula 1 season resumes in Miami.
The 19-year-old Italian, now the youngest championship leader in F1 history, holds a nine-point advantage over Russell after three races and is hunting a hat-trick of wins. But Russell played down the significance of the early lead.
“No, not at all,” he said when asked whether Antonelli at the top changed the dynamic at Mercedes. Russell used a London Marathon analogy to make his point: after three miles you are not thinking about the finish line because there’s still 23 miles to go. “We’re in race four. It’s not even a consideration. Of course, he’s done an amazing job so far this year.”
Russell acknowledged his own recent misfortune but said swings are part of a long championship. “The last race was a little bit unfortunate from my side. But these things, they go one way one weekend and then they swing back later in the year. I’m experienced enough to know how a championship works, and [there’s] a long way ahead.”
He also defended the consistency of his own performances given circumstances and recalled the ebb and flow of his junior career. “The championships I fought and won as a youngster, they weren’t winning every single weekend,” he said. “You have weekends where the car breaks down, you have a weekend where you have an incident, you have a weekend where you’re unfortunate. You’re always going to have these difficult weekends. I hope every difficult weekend results in either P2 in China, like we had, or P4 in Japan. If that is my difficult weekend, I’m pretty bad, happy with that. So I’m hoping just to have a smooth weekend, and I know with a smooth weekend, I can win.”
Mercedes are also taking a different upgrade approach to some rivals. While Ferrari, McLaren and Red Bull have brought significant parts to Miami after the five-week break, Mercedes are splitting their development: smaller items for Miami and a larger upgrade planned for Canada.
“We’re a bit surprised some people have brought their upgrades to Miami,” Russell said. “We expected a lot of teams to be bringing their upgrades to Montreal. We’ll have a slightly bigger upgrade we hope in Canada… Hopefully they haven’t caught up too much.”
Antonelli, who returns to Miami where he took his first F1 pole in Sprint qualifying last year, expects the field to close up and is keeping a cautious mindset. “It’s going to be a very interesting weekend for us. We’re not really bringing anything, to be fair, just very small things, whilst other teams are bringing big upgrades, such as Ferrari and McLaren. Also Red Bull, they’re bringing an upgrade. So, let’s see how we’re going to do. For sure they’re going to get closer, and we might have to fight quite a bit more this weekend. But, we’ll do our best, we’re going to keep our head down. And on my side I’m going to try to maximise the performance in the car and going to try to do my best, and then we’ll see what the result will be.”
Sky Sports F1 Miami GP schedule:
Friday May 1
– 2.35pm: F2 Practice
– 4.30pm: Miami GP Practice One (session starts at 5pm)
– 7.25pm: F2 Qualifying
– 8.10pm: Team Bosses’ Press Conference
– 8.40pm: Miami GP Sprint Qualifying (session starts at 9.30pm)
Saturday May 2
– 2.55pm: F2 Sprint
– 4pm: Miami GP Sprint build-up
– 5pm: MIAMI GP SPRINT
– 6.30pm: Ted’s Sprint Notebook
– 8pm: Miami GP Qualifying build-up
– 9pm: MIAMI GP QUALIFYING
– 11pm: Ted’s Qualifying Notebook
Sunday May 3
– 5.25pm: F2 Feature Race
– 7pm: Miami GP build-up: Grand Prix Sunday
– 9pm: THE MIAMI GRAND PRIX
– 11pm: Miami GP reaction: Chequered Flag
– 12am: Ted’s Notebook
Formula 1 returns to Miami for a Sprint weekend; watch live coverage on Sky Sports F1, with Sunday’s Grand Prix at 9pm.