Miami Grand Prix: Kimi Antonelli steps up his level this season in dramatic fashion

For Russell, this cannot be an easy moment in his career. This man, himself under the auspices of a Mercedes, had been waiting for this moment for eight years; Mercedes’ best car.

Last year he was easily the better driver of the two; Antonelli was rarely able to get the better of him. Thus, he gained the status of favorite for the pre-season championship.

The 28-year-old Briton did just that when he won the first race of the season in Australia from pole position, but things have gone against him since then.

A technical problem deprived him of pole position in China and he handed it over to Antonelli, who turned it into his first win. In Japan a safety car was deployed to give victory to Antonelli, without which McLaren’s Oscar Piastri or Russell would have likely won.

But there was no doubt that Miami would win. Antonelli put him on the post. Russell finished fifth on the grid, behind the improved cars of the Red Bull, McLaren and Ferrari teams.

For the sixth time in a row, Antonelli had a poor start and lost ground. However, he remained calm, fought and took the victory from McLaren’s Lando Norris during the pit stop period.

Norris initially thought this was McLaren making a mistake by allowing Mercedes to pit first and not wanting to go too early due to the threat of rain.

However, McLaren team principal Andrea Stella said the team had the margin to stay ahead of Antonelli when they stopped three laps after him but a series of events conspired against them.

First, there was the time gained by the first lap, which Stella called “huge” after Antonelli exited the pits. This ensured he was still within striking range of the McLaren, despite running the risk of overheating his tires, which he would later have to deal with.

Norris then made a few mistakes on his lap and came to a slow stop. Putting all this together, it was enough to put Antonelli on Norris’ tail when McLaren came out of the pits. The Mercedes raced past him and Antonelli held off Norris for the remainder of the race.

Russell puts things in perspective, recognizing that there are still 18 races to go and a lot can happen.

“Obviously he’s in a great place right now and the momentum is there,” Russell said. he said. “But having enough experience in the championships I’ve won and how the momentum has changed throughout the year and looking at last year’s championship, I honestly don’t even think about it.”

“I just want to get back to the top step of the podium. I had the performance to do that in the first three races, but I definitely didn’t have the performance to do that this weekend.”

“So I might be standing here now with three very different results in previous races, it was a bit of a one-off situation, but of course things turned out differently in Japan and China, but that happens sometimes in Formula 1.”

Russell admitted that “the pace was really poor from my perspective” and that he never adapted to the Miami track, its low-grip surface and slow corners.

But Hill said: “You can’t have that, you can’t have a part of you that you don’t fit in with. You have to be good at everything. George now needs to regroup, look at where he is and what the new paradigm is.”