George Russell says Kimi Antonelli’s championship lead is “not even a consideration” at this stage of the 2026 F1 season.
Italian teenager Antonelli has a nine-point lead over Russell and will be aiming for a hat-trick of race wins as F1 resumes with a sprint event in Miami this weekend.
Antonelli, F1’s youngest ever championship leader at 19, is only in his second year of an F1 campaign, but neither Mercedes driver has ever begun a serious title fight in the sport.
Asked whether Antonelli leading the standings had changed Mercedes’ dynamic, Russell said: “No, it hasn’t changed at all. I was asked this morning and we were talking about the London Marathon and it got me thinking.”
“If you’re running the London Marathon, you’re not thinking about the finish line after you’ve run three miles, because there’s 23 miles left. And we’re in race four. You don’t even have to consider that. Of course, he’s done a great job so far this year.”
“Last race was a little disappointing for me, but these things go one way one weekend and then go the other way later in the year. I have enough experience to understand how the championship works and it’s going to be a long time.”
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George Russell says he expects Mercedes to remain at the top after the FIA adjusts new regulations ahead of the Miami Grand Prix
Russell believes he has performed to the best of his ability so far this season given the circumstances presented to him, pointing to a season in his junior career where he did not win every weekend.
“The championships I fought and won when I was younger, I wasn’t winning every weekend,” he said.
“Some weekends you have a car breakdown, some weekends you have an incident, some weekends you have bad luck. It’s the same with the guys who were competing for the championship last year.
“Difficult weekends like this always come. Every difficult weekend, I hope, like we did, we get second in China or fourth in Japan. If it’s a difficult weekend for me, that’s pretty bad, but I’m happy with that. So I just want to have a smooth weekend. I know if we have a smooth weekend, we can win.”
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Jenson Button doesn’t think Kimi Antonelli’s two-race win will sway World Championship-bound George Russell
Mercedes has a different upgrade plan than its rivals
The five-week gap since the last F1 race means each team is bringing upgrades to Miami, but some are bigger than others.
Ferrari, McLaren and Red Bull have some major new parts, but Mercedes plans to split its next development into the next two rounds in Miami and then Canada.
“I’m a little surprised that some people brought the upgrades to Miami. They probably intended to bring them to Bahrain or Saudi Arabia,” Russell said.
“We expected a lot of teams to bring upgrades to Montreal. We’re hoping for a little bit more of a big upgrade in Canada. Obviously after Miami, there’s still two weeks until Canada, so we’ll see. Let’s hope they’re not too caught up.”
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David Croft and Martin Brundle discuss whether Kimi Antonelli could pose a real challenge to senior Mercedes team-mate George Russell?
Antonelli, who returns to the venue where he took his first F1 pole position in Miami sprint qualifying 12 months ago, expects Mercedes’ rivals to be more competitive compared to the opening three races.
“It’s going to be a very interesting weekend for us. To be fair we haven’t brought anything, just little things, while other teams like Ferrari and McLaren have brought big upgrades,” he said.
“Red Bull too, they are going to bring an upgrade, so let’s see what we do. Certainly they will come even closer and we may have to fight quite a bit more this weekend.”
“But we’re going to do our best and keep our heads down. And for my part, we’re going to try to maximize the performance of the car and we’re going to try to do our best and we’ll see what the results are.”
Sky Sports F1 Miami GP Schedule
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The Miami Grand Prix is a unique experience. Check out some of our favorite moments from the past few years.
Friday, May 1st
2:35pm: F2 practice
4:30pm: Miami GP Practice 1 (session starts at 5pm)*
7:25pm: F2 Qualifying
8:10pm: Team boss press conference
8:40pm: Miami GP Sprint Qualifying (session starts at 9:30pm)
Saturday, May 2nd
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 Qualification Notes*
Sunday, May 3rd
5:25pm: F2 Feature Race
7pm: Miami GP Build-up: Grand Prix Sunday*
9pm: Miami Grand Prix*
11pm: Miami Grand Prix reaction: Checkered flag*
12am: Ted’s Notes*
*Also held at Sky Sports Main Event
F1 is celebrating a sprint weekend in Miami as the 2026 season resumes. Watch the Grand Prix live on Sky Sports F1 from 9pm on Sunday. Stream Sky Sports now – cancel anytime with no contract
