{"id":254697,"date":"2026-05-01T23:58:33","date_gmt":"2026-05-01T23:58:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/254697\/"},"modified":"2026-05-01T23:58:33","modified_gmt":"2026-05-01T23:58:33","slug":"george-russell-surprised-by-mclaren-and-ferrari-performance-jump-at-miami-gp","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/254697\/","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

Read Also:<\/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

\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 <\/p>\n

George Russell, Mercedes<\/p>\n

Photo by: Guido De Bortoli \/ LAT Images via Getty Images<\/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

\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

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.\u00a0<\/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

Photos from Miami GP – Friday<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"Lando<\/p>\n


\n
\n Miami GP – Friday, in photos
\n
\n <\/a>
\n <\/p>\n

\"Max<\/p>\n


\n
\n Miami GP – Friday, in photos
\n
\n <\/a>
\n <\/p>\n

\"Dan<\/p>\n


\n
\n Miami GP – Friday, in photos
\n
\n <\/a>
\n <\/p>\n

\"Oliver<\/p>\n


\n
\n Miami GP – Friday, in photos
\n
\n <\/a>
\n <\/p>\n

\"Charles<\/p>\n


\n
\n Miami GP – Friday, in photos
\n
\n <\/a>
\n <\/p>\n

\"Charles<\/p>\n


\n
\n Miami GP – Friday, in photos
\n
\n <\/a>
\n <\/p>\n

\"Oscar<\/p>\n


\n
\n Miami GP – Friday, in photos
\n
\n <\/a>
\n <\/p>\n

\"Lando<\/p>\n


\n
\n Miami GP – Friday, in photos
\n
\n <\/a>
\n <\/p>\n

\"Lewis<\/p>\n


\n
\n Miami GP – Friday, in photos
\n
\n <\/a>
\n <\/p>\n

\"George<\/p>\n


\n
\n Miami GP – Friday, in photos
\n
\n <\/a>
\n <\/p>\n

\"Lewis<\/p>\n


\n
\n Miami GP – Friday, in photos
\n
\n <\/a>
\n <\/p>\n

\"Franco<\/p>\n


\n
\n Miami GP – Friday, in photos
\n
\n <\/a>
\n <\/p>\n

\"Isack<\/p>\n


\n
\n Miami GP – Friday, in photos
\n
\n <\/a>
\n <\/p>\n

\"Nico<\/p>\n


\n
\n Miami GP – Friday, in photos
\n
\n <\/a>
\n <\/p>\n

\"Racing<\/p>\n


\n
\n Miami GP – Friday, in photos
\n
\n <\/a>
\n <\/p>\n

\"Max<\/p>\n


\n
\n Miami GP – Friday, in photos
\n
\n <\/a>
\n <\/p>\n

\"Alexander<\/p>\n


\n
\n Miami GP – Friday, in photos
\n
\n <\/a>
\n <\/p>\n

\"Isack<\/p>\n


\n
\n Miami GP – Friday, in photos
\n
\n <\/a>
\n <\/p>\n

\"Lewis<\/p>\n


\n
\n Miami GP – Friday, in photos
\n
\n <\/a>
\n <\/p>\n

\"Lando<\/p>\n


\n
\n Miami GP – Friday, in photos
\n
\n <\/a>
\n <\/p>\n

\"Max<\/p>\n


\n
\n Miami GP – Friday, in photos
\n
\n <\/a>
\n <\/p>\n

\"Lando<\/p>\n


\n
\n Miami GP – Friday, in photos
\n
\n <\/a>
\n <\/p>\n

\"Charles<\/p>\n


\n
\n Miami GP – Friday, in photos
\n
\n <\/a>
\n <\/p>\n

\"Liam<\/p>\n


\n
\n Miami GP – Friday, in photos
\n
\n <\/a>
\n <\/p>\n

\"Andrea<\/p>\n


\n
\n Miami GP – Friday, in photos
\n
\n <\/a>
\n <\/p>\n

\"Lewis<\/p>\n


\n
\n Miami GP – Friday, in photos
\n
\n <\/a>
\n <\/p>\n

\"Max<\/p>\n


\n
\n Miami GP – Friday, in photos
\n
\n <\/a>
\n <\/p>\n

\"Oscar<\/p>\n


\n
\n Miami GP – Friday, in photos
\n
\n <\/a>
\n <\/p>\n

\"Lewis<\/p>\n


\n
\n Miami GP – Friday, in photos
\n
\n <\/a>
\n <\/p>\n

\"Oscar<\/p>\n


\n
\n Miami GP – Friday, in photos
\n
\n <\/a>
\n <\/p>\n

\"Alexander<\/p>\n


\n
\n Miami GP – Friday, in photos
\n
\n <\/a>
\n <\/p>\n

\"Arvid<\/p>\n


\n
\n Miami GP – Friday, in photos
\n
\n <\/a>
\n <\/p>\n

\"George<\/p>\n


\n
\n Miami GP – Friday, in photos
\n
\n <\/a>
\n <\/p>\n

\"Esteban<\/p>\n


\n
\n Miami GP – Friday, in photos
\n
\n <\/a>
\n <\/p>\n

\"Max<\/p>\n


\n
\n Miami GP – Friday, in photos
\n
\n <\/a><\/p>\n

We want your opinion!<\/p>\n

What would you like to see on Motorsport.com?<\/p>\n

Take our 5 minute survey.<\/a><\/p>\n

– The Motorsport.com Team<\/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":254698,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[110073,67509,31514,105304,110873,63812,22680,123,31515,125,124],"class_list":["post-254697","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-miami","tag-f1-miami-grand-prix-2026","tag-ferrari","tag-formula-1","tag-george-russell","tag-george-russell-surprised-by-mclaren-and-ferrari-performance-jump-at-miami-gp","tag-mclaren","tag-mercedes","tag-miami","tag-miami-gp","tag-miami-headlines","tag-miami-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/254697","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=254697"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/254697\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/254698"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=254697"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=254697"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=254697"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}