George Russell reckons his Mercedes team-mate Kimi Antonelli is more competitive than him at this weekend’s Formula 1 Miami Grand Prix due to the track being very low on grip.
Antonelli stormed to his third consecutive grand prix pole on Saturday and qualified four tenths above Russell, who only mustered fifth having been second best to his stablemate throughout.
It started in sprint qualifying when Antonelli took second with Russell sixth, before the 19-year-old crossed the line in fourth and one spot above the series veteran.
Although a post-race five-second track limits penalty then dropped Antonelli to sixth, the championship leader still clearly has the edge over Russell ahead of Sunday’s grand prix.
“I just made a mistake on my last corner, last lap, I was about three tenths up,” said Russell. “A little bit annoyed, but this is a track I’ve always struggled with.
“Kimi was [sprint] pole last year, I was P5, today he’s pole and I’m P5. It’s just very low grip here, you’re sliding around a lot, [the] tarmac’s hot.
“Similar to Brazil [2025], Kimi again was more competitive than me there. Whereas I much prefer the high grip conditions, where the tyre and the car is more connected with the ground.
“So, yeah, I just want to get through this weekend, really.”
Andrea Kimi Antonelli, Mercedes
Photo by: Icon Sportswire via Getty Images
Russell heads into the grand prix seven points behind Antonelli in the standings with the F1 sophomore searching for his third, consecutive Sunday victory.
But this is arguably the first time he’s truly had the edge over Russell in 2026, as bad luck on the Briton’s side cost him in the last two rounds after winning the Melbourne opener from pole.
Speaking more on Miami not suiting him, Russell told Sky Sports: “I’m quite a smooth, precise driver, and that’s always been my style, and on these tracks you’ve just got to be happy with the car just sliding.
“I like the car on the edge, but this is like you’ve got a set of 200 lap old tyres on your car, and you go around and it’s just sliding understeer and oversteer.
“That’s the same for everybody, for what it’s worth, it’s so hot, tyre pressures are high, the grip’s really low, so it doesn’t actually feel that pleasant, whereas you go to tracks like Saudi, and the grip’s super high, and it feels mega to drive, and that’s why.”
His Mercedes boss Toto Wolff even held a rather interesting tennis analogy as to why Russell has been struggling this weekend.
The Austrian told Sky Sports: “George said to me that there are drivers who struggle with certain tracks and here the asphalt is very smooth. It’s almost like a player that is good on clay and another one that is better on a hard surface.
“But through qualifying he made it and made it up in the times and it’s just a smidge missing to P3. So I’m really happy also to see that his development over qualifying on a track that he’s not 100% comfortable.”
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