George Russell says Kimi Antonelli’s championship lead is “not even a consideration” at this stage of the 2026 Formula 1 season.
Italian teenager Antonelli is nine points ahead of Russell and is hunting a hat-trick of wins as F1 returns this weekend in Miami with a Sprint event. The 19-year-old is the youngest championship leader in F1 history and is only in his second campaign, while neither Mercedes driver has yet mounted a serious title fight.
Asked whether Antonelli leading the standings changed the dynamic at Mercedes, Russell said: “No, not at all. I got asked the question this morning, and we were talking about the London Marathon, and it made me think. The guy who’s running the London Marathon, after three miles, you’re not thinking about the finish line, because you’ve got 23 miles to go. And we’re in race four. It’s not even a consideration. Of course, he’s done an amazing job so far this year.
“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.”
Russell believes he has maximised his performance so far given the circumstances and pointed to seasons in his junior career where he did not win every weekend. “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. That’s the same with the guys who were fighting for the championship last year.
“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 with different upgrade plan to rivals
The five-week gap since the last race means many teams have brought upgrades to Miami, with Ferrari, McLaren and Red Bull introducing major parts. Mercedes, however, are splitting their next developments across Miami and Canada.
“We’re a bit surprised some people have brought their upgrades to Miami. I think that was probably more they were meant to have brought it to Bahrain or Saudi,” 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, because obviously there’s still two weeks after Miami before Canada. Let’s see, hopefully they haven’t caught up too much.”
Antonelli, who returns to the venue where he took his first F1 pole in Sprint Qualifying in Miami last year, expects rivals to be more competitive. “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,” he said. “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’s 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 is in Miami for a Sprint weekend as the 2026 season resumes; watch live on Sky Sports F1 with Sunday’s Grand Prix at 9pm.