George Russell warns of ‘daunting’ performance from rivals
George Russell has termed the pace improvements from rival teams as 'daunting'.
George Russell has labelled the performance gains found by his rivals as “daunting” after finishing fourth in the Miami GP Sprint.
Russell was never a factor in the battle for the Sprint win, the 19-lap encounter dominated by Lando Norris as the McLaren driver delivered Mercedes its first race defeat of F1 2026.
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Norris qualified on pole for the Sprint with Kimi Antonelli alongside him on the front row.
A poor getaway saw the Mercedes driver fall into the pack at race start before engaging in a tussle for fourth with Russell in the early stages.
The duo, who had Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen for company in a four-way scrap, quickly dropped away from Norris, Oscar Piastri, and Charles Leclerc ahead.
Russell started the race sixth but got ahead of a slow-starting Verstappen before his duel with Antonelli.
Behind his Mercedes colleague at the chequered flag, a post-race penalty for Antonelli saw Russell promoted to fourth.
“I struggle on this track,” Russell lamented to Sky Sports.
“It’s very low grip. There’s a couple of tracks on the calendar that a bit like this. Here was a little example.
“I just don’t know what it is, sort of struggle when the car’s four-wheel sliding.”
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Compounding Russell’s concern was the pace shown by McLaren and Ferrari.
Through the opening three races of the season, Mercedes was firmly in control. Russell won in Australia while Antonelli took line honours in both China and Japan.
Piastri led the opening stages in Suzuka and proved a serious threat for victory until an ill-timed Safety Car handed the initiative to Antonelli.
It was only in the Miami Sprint, however, that Mercedes was finally toppled.
That prompted Russell to describe the pace gains from McLaren, Ferrari, and even Red Bull as “a little bit daunting.”
On Friday, he’d suggested the gains Mercedes’ rivals have made were “pretty damn impressive.”
He then added after qualifying for Sunday’s race, once he’d had more time to reflect on his performance: “I was pretty pleased with the race this morning.
“My pace was good and obviously, maybe if I did think slightly different, I could have held position when I initially overtook Kimi.
“It’s just qualifying I’ve been struggling with this weekend.”
While Antonelli will start Sunday’s race from pole, Russell will start fifth.
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