In Antonelli, Russell may have met his match — and F1 may have its new superstar

MIAMI — Mercedes prodigy Kimi Antonelli continued his progression toward Formula One megastar with his third straight victory at the Miami Grand Prix, one that extended his fairytale championship lead.

The Italian teenage sensation, who only turned 19 last August, took control of the early stages of the championship race in his second F1 season. For most observers, this was an unlikely situation: many fans and pundits believed the start of the season would be dominated by his much more experienced Mercedes teammate, pre-season favorite George Russell.

Russell even reinforced that feeling by winning the opening race of 2026, the Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne, but Antonelli has now won three in a row and leaves Miami 20 points ahead of the Englishman.

It’s just the start of a championship that spans 22 races and ends in early December, but Antonelli’s performance on Sunday in Miami was a powerful statement, denying reigning world champion Lando Norris a victory. It hasn’t been perfect – even by his own admission – and he clearly still has a lot of work to do when it comes to his starts, but Antonelli has been error-free when it counts and showed the blistering pace that Mercedes predicted he would eventually maintain in his phenomenal karting and junior Formula 1 career.

It turned out to be a weird race: it took place three hours earlier than planned because of a storm that never happened anyway. Whatever your view on F1’s highly controversial new cars and the new form of yo-yo racing they have created, Antonelli has fought his own battles for position perfectly – especially after appearing to falter as he has in every start so far this year.

“The start still wasn’t great, plus I made a mistake, and then I was lucky to see how things went despite the mistake,” Antonelli said. “And then, yeah, obviously we fought, me, Charles and Lando, and then I got passed by Lando, I made a little energy mistake, and then I was chasing. And then luckily the undercut worked really well, and then we found ourselves getting chased. But it wasn’t easy because Lando was fast and he was putting a lot of pressure. And I just knew I couldn’t make any mistakes. [after that]”.

When asked if he expected to be in such a position so early in his career, Antonelli replied: “No, I didn’t expect it. And yeah, I mean, obviously we’re in such a good time. The season is still very long and there’s so much that can change. George will definitely be super strong in Canada; he’s always been really strong there, so he’s definitely going to be back at the top.”

On the other side of the Mercedes garage, the pressure on Russell is mounting. He has finished fourth in his last three races – the Japanese Grand Prix, the Miami Sprint and the Miami Grand Prix – and the Canadian Grand Prix at the end of the month already appears to be a crucial moment in his season. Although he may have had reason to be nervous, he put on a brave face after Sunday’s race.

“No, not at all,” Russell replied when asked if he had underestimated Antonelli in any way. “He’s a fantastic driver. He’s been exceptionally fast since day one. You don’t win every championship when you’re young if you don’t have the speed. But I still have confidence in myself, and I’ve been there too, I haven’t forgotten how to drive. It’s a bit of a tricky course, but we’re four races behind, we have a long way to go and we’ll evaluate things over the next few weeks.”

Three in a row: Can Antonelli be stopped?

Antonelli’s current journey is truly special. The Italian put himself in legendary company throughout the two days of the weekend. On Saturday, he took pole, meaning his first three career Grand Prix pole positions came in three consecutive races. The only other drivers to achieve this goal are Ayrton Senna and Michael Schumacher. Then on Sunday he won, meaning his first three career victories came in three consecutive races. The only other drivers to achieve this are Damon Hill and Mika Hakkinen.

Two of these four men claim to be the greatest drivers in the sport, while the other two have both been great world champions. Comparisons with the past become more impressive. Of the 23 drivers who achieved three consecutive victories, 20 became world champions. Amazing stuff for someone who wouldn’t legally be able to buy a beer in the US to toast their most recent victory.

When this fact was presented to him, he responded to it as one would expect from a 19 year old. “It’s an interesting statistic, but I don’t want to think about it too much,” he said Sunday afternoon. “I’m just going to enjoy the moment, but I know at the same time we’re just going to get back to work sooner because obviously we have another break, let’s say, which is not ideal.

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Norris: McLaren must be happy with its performance in Miami

McLaren’s Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri speak after the Miami Grand Prix.

“But yeah, I’m just going to try to prepare Canada the best way possible to come back even stronger. But yeah, it’s cool, I guess.”

Antonelli is the epitome of cool right now. He speaks and runs with the air of someone brimming with confidence. His recent run is a far cry from rookie Antonelli, who has struggled for long stretches of 2025. The contrast in performances between the inconsistent Antonelli and Russell, who has been one of the stronger drivers throughout the season, has only reinforced the pre-season narrative that the latter would comfortably walk away this year.

In fact, Antonelli’s turbulent season had been so alarming at times that it wasn’t hard to find people in the paddock who felt like Mercedes boss Toto Wolff had made a spectacular blunder by giving a teenage driver a car that had belonged to Lewis Hamilton when the sport’s most accomplished driver left for Ferrari. Wolff’s philosophy on Antonelli, while sometimes erratic, has always been the same, and he echoed it again in Miami.

“It seems like a lot of the speed has always been there; it’s all about getting down to the smallest details,” Wolff said. “It’s easier to slow someone down, to calm down someone who is wild, because you won’t be able to speed up a donkey, so for me it was his best race so far. It reminds me of his karting or Formula 4 days, there were no mistakes today.”

Obviously, Antonelli is not an ass. Even while struggling as a rookie, his blazing pace was still there. Things seem to have gone well this season, which often happens when a very talented driver is finally given a top car. Reigning world champion Norris – who lost out in Sunday’s fight for victory with the Mercedes driver – alluded to Antonelli’s rookie year when praising the Italian’s start to the season.

“He’s doing a really good job, hats off,” Norris said. “At this age, his second year in Formula 1, he’s doing an incredible job, it’s impressive. Performing under pressure, beating his teammate who’s been there a lot longer, he’s doing all the right things, so you can’t really blame him at the moment. He had a lot of crap last year, but he’s proving a lot of people wrong, so I’m very happy for him. He’s a very nice guy… and he’s also annoying, because I want to beat him. But he’s doing good. work.

Perhaps Norris could sympathize with the situation his old friend Russell now finds himself in. There are remarkable similarities between the start of 2026 and the start of 2025. Like Russell this year, Norris entered last season as favorite and, like Russell, won the Australian Grand Prix. Last year, Antonelli’s role at Mercedes was played by Oscar Piastri at McLaren, who took the lead in the races that followed and completely reshaped the narrative. Norris would eventually defeat his teammate (and Max Verstappen for good measure) in a topsy-turvy season, but his struggles early in the year were a major talking point.

Similar attention will now be paid to Russell and how he reacts to Antonelli overturning the first prediction so early.

Miami was particularly important because Russell had no answer to Antonelli’s pace. When asked by ESPN if he was worried about the splits, even this early in the season, Russell shrugged his shoulders and shook his head. “To be honest, I don’t even think about it,” he said. “It’s just that I want to get back on the top step of the podium. In the first three races I had the performance to do it. This weekend I absolutely didn’t have the performance to do it. So I could find myself here now with three very different results from the previous races, and then this one is just an isolated case. But obviously things went differently in Japan and China, so yeah, that’s how it happens sometimes.”

Anyone who has followed the 2025 season knows that May is far too early to declare a driver champion: Piastri led Norris by 34 points in September and still hasn’t won the title, after all. The Mercedes car also appears to be strong enough to propel Antonelli and Russell to wins all season, so we have to assume that Russell will find himself fit again at some point. McLaren could well end up being a factor, with Norris’ performance throughout the weekend a surprise, certainly, but a welcome one.

Even if all of these things are true, Antonelli is the man of the moment, and Russell’s biggest task now is to elevate his game to match them. Miami was always going to be one of Antonelli’s strongest venues – he won the sprint pole there 12 months ago – but Canada is a Russell circuit, where he has always performed exceptionally well, and it looks to be a key location for the Englishman to get Antonelli’s freight train on its tracks.

“Obviously he’s in a really good position right now, and the momentum is with him,” Russell said. “But I myself have enough experience with the championships I have won to know how the momentum moves – also in the championship. [battle] last year.”