F1: Miami Grand Prix: Race team notes – Mercedes

Kimi Antonelli took victory in Sunday's Miami Grand Prix with George Russell battling hard to P4.
After a four-week hiatus, F1 returned to action in Florida with the race start time shifting forward by three hours due to the threat of thunderstorms. Whilst there were the occasional drops of rain, the Grand Prix ran in dry conditions with Kimi starting on pole position and George P5. Kimi lost position on the opening lap to the Ferrari of Charles Leclerc and, as the pair battled in the early stages, the Italian was also challenged by the McLaren of Lando Norris. The Safety Car was deployed due to accidents for Hadjar and Gasly, with Kimi in P3 and George P4, having gained position on the McLaren of Oscar Piastri. Unfortunately, George lost that position on the restart but a successful undercut on lap 20 saw him move ahead of Leclerc who had dropped back, leaving Kimi and Norris fighting it out at the front. A similar undercut opportunity presented itself to Kimi meanwhile and he took it to pass Norris for the lead. From there, he worked hard to keep the McLaren at bay and managed it successfully. George battled hard too and passed the early stopping Verstappen in the closing stages before taking P4 from Charles Leclerc on the final lap.
The team now holds a 70-point lead over Ferrari in the Constructors' Championship with Kimi continuing to lead the Drivers' standings.
Kimi Antonelli: That was not an easy race at all but I'm so happy we were able to bring the victory home. My start wasn't as bad as in the Sprint, but we still lost a position. I then lost a place to Lando (Norris) before the Safety Car, but we were able to fight back. Our pace was strong, I was able to stay close, and then the team did a brilliant job with the strategy. The undercut worked out just about perfectly and, despite the McLaren coming out just ahead, we were able to get past with our tyres being up to temperature.
Despite our great start to the season, we are not getting ahead of ourselves. This is just the beginning of the season and there is a long year ahead. We are working super hard and the team is doing an incredible job at the moment. Without all the men and women at Brackley and Brixworth we wouldn't be in this position. We're going to continue to work hard, bring performance to the track, and aim for another good weekend in Canada.
George Russell: That was a tough afternoon for us out there. The early laps felt OK and I thought that we were in the fight, but my pace wasn't strong on the Hard compound. We did make some changes near the end of the final stint which helped but this place has never been my favourite, and it showed. We gained a couple of positions at the end at least so the result was potentially better than it could have been. Kimi did a great job and showed that the car could challenge for victory. Congratulations to him; it's more great points for the team.
I am looking forward to going to Canada for the next race. It's a circuit I like and have gone well at in the past. From Montreal onwards, we have seven races in a short period of time up until the summer break. Those will be really important for us so I'm looking forward to getting back in the groove.
Toto Wolff: That was a fascinating and exciting race in Miami today. We knew coming into this weekend that our competitors were bringing large upgrade packages. We therefore knew we were likely to be a little on the back foot and face a real fight if we wanted to be in with a chance of winning. It wasn't easy for us at all this weekend, but we made some great strategic decisions, and that helped Kimi take the victory.
It was a tougher race on George's side of the garage. He's not a big fan of this circuit and hasn't been as happy as Kimi in the car this weekend. He's a real fighter though and that showed as he still managed to get good points by coming home in P4. I am sure he will bounce back strongly next time out in Canada.
We have seen this weekend that the season will be a true development race. We need to work hard as a team to continue to progress, not stand still, and bring performance to the track. We've had a solid start to the year but that can change very quickly. We won't be easing up, and we're excited for the challenge ahead.
Andrew Shovlin: Congratulations to Kimi on his third win of the season and the whole team on our fourth to start this campaign. After a tough Friday, everyone has rallied together to bounce back, and it is testament to those efforts that we come away from Miami with another P1 trophy. It was certainly a hard-fought win; strategically, the team made the right decisions and with some swift work in the pit lane, that helped Kimi get ahead of Norris and George ahead of Leclerc. Kimi showed good pace to keep the McLaren at bay and take a well-deserved win.
For George, whilst he has said that he underperformed this weekend, we will work hard in the coming days to understand why we weren't able to get his car into a better window for him. We know that George has much more pace than he was able to show here in Miami and he will come back stronger in Canada.
Coming into this weekend, we knew that our competitors would close the gap to us, but it has been eye-opening to see just how much performance they were able to bring. We now have two weeks before we head to Canada, and we will be redoubling our efforts to head there with a chance of making it five wins in-a-row to start 2026.
