Can Russell beat Verstappen? Mercedes has hope!

Mercedes did not end up on the podium in Jeddah after Russell finished fifth with rookie Antonelli in sixth. However, the team says they have no complaints.

Resta said, "We had a very positive weekend to start with, quite a promising qualifying pace, but then we struggled a little bit more with the pace in the race. But there's still a very good mood in the team going into Miami,"

He continued, "If you look at this year against last year, we’ve got about double points than the year before and also already three podiums. So it's quite a promising start of the season. We are just trying to learn and improve for Miami."

Resta was asked if Mercedes expects to have the same issues with tyres overheating as they did in Jeddah. He replied, "We’ll have the same tyre compounds on a track that is expected to be quite hot so there will be potential similarities between Jeddah and Miami condition even if the speed is a bit less stronger in Miami. Miami is going to also be quite a peculiar weekend because it’s going to be another sprint weekend so not much time to learn before we start racing in the sprint race."

In fact, he believes that Miami will bring its own challenges.

He added, "It has been a very good start for this car. The car has been competitive everywhere so far. So we expect to be competitive, fight for podium like we have done in the initial races and try to improve from what we've seen in Jeddah."

Could Mercedes continue to creep closer to McLaren? Or can Russell bridge the gap between himself and Verstappen?

This article was written in collaboration with Hoefnagel.