George Russell made it clear that Kimi Antonelli's current advantage in the drivers' standings is far from a threat to his own championship hopes, describing it as "not even a consideration" at this point in the 2026 Formula One campaign. The young Italian, who is just 19 years old, sits nine points ahead of the Mercedes veteran after three rounds, and he is aiming for a third consecutive race victory as the series heads to Miami for a weekend that includes a Sprint race. Antonelli's position is historic: at 19 he is the youngest driver ever to lead the Formula One championship.
Despite this remarkable achievement, Russell reminded everyone that neither he nor his teammate have been in a genuine title battle this season, and the gap in experience between the two drivers remains significant. When asked if Antonelli's lead had altered the internal dynamics at Mercedes, Russell responded with a calm analogy involving the London Marathon. He explained that when a marathon runner has only covered three miles, the finish line feels distant and irrelevant; similarly, with the season only in its fourth race, the championship picture is still very much in flux. "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," Russell said.
"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 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 also emphasized that he has extracted the maximum performance he can from his car given the circumstances handed to him this season. He reflected on his junior career, noting that early successes did not come from winning every single event.
"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." He added that even a modest result on a tough weekend would be satisfactory: "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." Looking ahead to Miami, the five‑week hiatus since the previous Grand Prix has given every team time to develop upgrades.
Ferrari, McLaren and Red Bull have introduced substantial new components, while Mercedes has opted to spread its development over the next two events – Miami and then Canada. Russell expressed mild surprise at some rivals bringing their upgrades to Miami, suggesting they may have been intended for earlier races such as Bahrain or Saudi Arabia. "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," he explained.
Antonelli, returning to the circuit where he secured his first Formula One pole in the Sprint qualifying session a year earlier, expects the competition to be fiercer than in the opening three rounds. "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." The weekend schedule is packed with action across both Formula 2 and Formula 1. On Friday, May 1, fans can watch F2 practice at 2.35 pm, followed by the Miami GP practice session at 5 pm, F2 qualifying at 7.25 pm, the team bosses' press conference at 8.10 pm, and the Sprint qualifying session beginning at 9.30 pm.
Saturday, May 2, features the F2 Sprint at 2.55 pm, the build‑up to the Miami Sprint at 4 pm, the Sprint race itself at 5 pm, and then the main Grand Prix qualifying sessions later in the evening. Sunday, May 3, concludes with the F2 feature race at 5.25 pm, the build‑up to the Grand Prix, and finally the Miami Grand Prix start at 9 pm, followed by post‑race analysis and commentary. All of this will be broadcast live on Sky Sports F1, with the option to stream via NOW without a long‑term contract. Viewers are advised to use a Chrome browser for the most accessible video player experience.
As the 2026 season resumes in Miami, the narrative will revolve around whether Antonelli can sustain his historic lead, how Mercedes' upgrade strategy will play out against the larger packages from rivals, and whether Russell can leverage his experience to keep his championship aspirations alive despite the current points deficit. The weekend promises drama, technical intrigue, and the ever‑present possibility of a surprise that could reshape the early season standings.