Ever since Lewis Hamilton landed a podium finish in Melbourne, the pressure on George Russell to replicate it has been immense. The junior Mercedes driver has undoubtedly delivered some excellent performances given the limitations of the W14, but the podium even after 5 races remains elusive. Even in Miami, Russell failed to make his way into the top 3. However, instead of raising questions to his own team, he preferred to take a dig at Ferrari’s situation.

Charles Leclerc, after a series of disappointing outings, grabbed pole position twice in Baku. That is, for the Sprint as well as the Main Race. In each of those races, the Monegasque even finished on the podium. Looking to carry the momentum in Miami, he pushed the car a bit too much in qualifying and ended up in the barriers. Starting from P7 in the race, Leclerc failed to make any improvements. Carlos Sainz, on the other hand, had a more balanced race. The Spaniard avoided crashes, but again, the SF-23’s lack of performance failed him.

George Russell takes a swipe at Ferrari’s ongoing struggles

Sainz, after a P3 finish in qualifying, fell prey to Ferrari’s lack of race pace. Forget about gaining a place or two in the main race, he ended up losing 2 places and finished P5. The man who stole a place from him was none other than Russell himself.

Looking back at his Lap 37 overtake on Carlos, Motorsport-total quoted the Mercedes driver as saying, “We finished fourth on our own and overtook the Ferraris, that was really satisfying and I couldn’t have done more.” [Translated using Google]

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“Today was a more normal day for us after the challenges of qualifying. But we still have work to do to at least get ahead of Aston Martin and close the gap to Red Bull.”

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Struggling Mercedes drivers overtaking the resurgent Ferraris was certainly a blow to the Tifosi. However, it was a different challenge that presented itself in Miami that was much more embarrassing.

Charles Leclerc points out some major shortcomings in the SF-23 after an embarrassing new challenge presents itself

Firstly, it was a big achievement for Haas when Kevin Magnussen made his way through to Q3 on Saturday. Then, the red flags after Leclerc’s crash ensured the Dane would start the race from P4, which was a serious case of them punching above their weight. Magnussen may have only managed a P10 finish eventually in the race but he posed a major challenge for the start Ferrari driver. Magnussen defended heroically against Leclerc until the Monegasque got his chance in the later stages of the race and made the move stick.

Looking back at his race in one of the post-race interviews, Leclerc said, “We have a lot of work to do. We need to find something now.”

“We are struggling in the race since a little bit of time now, we need to find solutions.” He added, “We have a lot of work to do, and we need to find something. That’s all I can say.”

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Mercedes are ready to make their first amendments to their car ahead of the next race in Imola. Will those changes be enough to put them in the same league as Red Bull? Or is that still a distant dream for the team in Brackley?