George Russell has said he was “surprised” by the size of the performance jump McLaren and Ferrari made after sprint qualifying for the Formula 1 Miami Grand Prix.
After Mercedes dominated the opening three rounds of the season, taking every pole position and race win, its control on the new campaign has been loosened as Lando Norris stormed to sprint race pole in Miami, beating Russell’s Mercedes team-mate Kimi Antonelli by 0.222s.
With McLaren’s Oscar Piastri in third and Charles Leclerc in fourth – plus Max Verstappen fifth for Red Bull – it pushed Russell back to sixth in sprint qualifying, 0.624s off the pole time set by Norris.
Both McLaren and Ferrari delivered significant F1 car upgrade packages in Miami, while Mercedes arrived with modest updates as part of its long-term development schedule. The team was bracing for its rivals to make gains, but Russell admitted he was surprised by the size of the jump.
“Pretty surprising how big a jump McLaren and Ferrari have made, so that’s pretty damn impressive. We knew they’d probably close the gap but they’ve been quicker than us,” Russell said after sprint qualifying.
George Russell, Mercedes
Photo by: Guido De Bortoli / LAT Images via Getty Images
Russell also conceded his sprint qualifying wasn’t optimised as he was struggling with overheating his tyres through the slow-speed middle section of the Miami International Autodrome.
“My side I have been struggling today, Miami’s not a track that I love to be honest, especially with these hotter conditions but it’s only sprint qualifying so let’s see what tomorrow brings,” he explained.
“I was just overheating my tyres a lot in that twisty section in the middle I was struggling to get the right balance with the car. Not much more to say than that really. As I said just quite surprised by the progress of the others but another day tomorrow.”
The British driver has mixed feelings going into the Miami sprint race given his lowly starting position, but the all-action sprint race held in China earlier this year and increased overtaking means he hasn’t given up on a fightback.
“I’m not in a great starting position, sprint races generally don’t offer that much, but obviously China was a bit more interesting this year which gives an opportunity to have a bit of a race,” he said. “I want to get off the line hopefully don’t lose any more positions and see what we can do.”
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