{"id":641784,"date":"2026-05-01T23:08:19","date_gmt":"2026-05-01T23:08:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/641784\/"},"modified":"2026-05-01T23:08:19","modified_gmt":"2026-05-01T23:08:19","slug":"george-russell-surprised-by-mclaren-and-ferrari-performance-jump-at-miami-gp","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/641784\/","title":{"rendered":"George Russell surprised by McLaren and Ferrari performance jump at Miami GP"},"content":{"rendered":"

George Russell<\/a> has said he was \u201csurprised\u201d by the size of the performance jump\u00a0McLaren<\/a> and Ferrari<\/a> made after sprint qualifying for the Formula 1 Miami Grand Prix.<\/p>\n

After Mercedes<\/a> 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\u00a0Lando Norris<\/a> stormed to sprint race pole in Miami, beating Russell\u2019s Mercedes team-mate Kimi Antonelli by 0.222s.<\/p>\n

Advertisement<\/p>\n

Read Also:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

F1 Miami GP: Lando Norris beats Kimi Antonelli to sprint race pole with upgraded McLaren <\/a><\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Both\u00a0McLaren 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.<\/p>\n

Advertisement<\/p>\n

\u201cPretty surprising how big a jump\u00a0McLaren 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,\u201d Russell said after sprint qualifying.<\/p>\n

George Russell, Mercedes\"George<\/p>\n

George Russell, Mercedes<\/p>\n

Russell also conceded his sprint qualifying wasn\u2019t optimised as he was struggling with overheating his tyres through the slow-speed middle section of the Miami International Autodrome.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy 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,\u201d he explained.<\/p>\n

Advertisement<\/p>\n

\u201cI was just overheating my\u00a0tyres 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read Also:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

F1 Miami GP: Charles Leclerc tops practice as Mercedes engine issue hits Kimi Antonelli <\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

McLaren\u2019s ‘new car’ upgrade raises hopes of Mercedes fight at Miami GP <\/a><\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Advertisement<\/p>\n

\u201cI’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,\u201d he said. \u201cI want to get off the line hopefully don’t lose any more positions and see what we can do.\u201d<\/p>\n

To read more Motorsport.com articles visit our website<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"George Russell has said he was \u201csurprised\u201d by the size of the performance jump\u00a0McLaren and Ferrari made after…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":641785,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[441],"tags":[49,48,3025,578,930,576,577,3024,25251,591,590,6390,91538,82,139498,20517],"class_list":["post-641784","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-formula-1","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-charles-leclerc","tag-f1","tag-ferrari","tag-formula-1","tag-formula1","tag-george-russell","tag-kimi-antonelli","tag-lando-norris","tag-mclaren","tag-miami","tag-miami-grand-prix","tag-sports","tag-sprint-qualifying","tag-sprint-race"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/641784","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=641784"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/641784\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/641785"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=641784"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=641784"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=641784"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}