George Russell daunted by improving Mercedes rivals. Kimi Antonelli frustrated after Miami Sprint

McLaren and Ferrari basically brought totally new versions of their Formula 1 cars this weekend in Miami, while Mercedes kept their W17 basically unchanged with an upgrade planned for the next race in Canada.

Mercedes struggled from the get-go in Miami while some reliability issues made their situation trickier, but Antonelli managed to qualify second for the Sprint Race with Russell sixth.

However, as usual, Antonelli had a bad start and dropped down and ended up racing his teammate in the Sprint with a five-second penalty for exceeding the track limits too many times, dropping him to sixth while Russell was fourth.

“On my side for once, I did everything right with the procedures," Antonelli said after the Sprint Race. "We need to check what happened. The grip was very low, probably lower than we expected.

“After that, I was really frustrated and didn’t even drive well. I did a lot of mistakes and got track limits, which is something I need to avoid.

“This weekend has been more difficult, but it was expected with everyone bringing big upgrades. We just need to maximize the result and now focus on qualifying," Antonelli concluded.

As for Russell, he was struggling more with the car in Miami and had other worries related to how McLaren and Ferrari improved.

"Not much happier [with the car], to be honest," the Briton said. "As I said yesterday, I struggle on this track. It’s very low grip.

"There’s a couple of tracks on the calendar that are a bit like this—Brazil, Zandvoort. I don’t know what it is; I just sort of struggle when the cars are four-wheel sliding.

"P4, two places forward, but obviously the improvements from McLaren, Ferrari, and also Red Bull are a little bit daunting. That’s the main thing," Russell concluded.

Mercedes boss Toto Wolff defended Antonelli's start, insisting it was not his fault. He explained: “We knew we were out of sync with our upgrades, which are coming for Montreal.

“We were hoping we would be able to hold on in terms of pure lap time, but if you have such a bad getaway, which was not at all Kimi’s fault—it was a glitch on our side—it's difficult.”

Quizzed on whether regulation tweaks have hurt Mercedes, the Austrian responded: “No not at all.

"It’s going to be a development race through the year, and whoever brings a few tenths earlier will have the advantage," he concluded. (Source: Sky Sports F1)