The Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, which is situated on the Ile Notre Dame in the St Lawrence Seaway alongside downtown Montreal, is a very different track from Miami.
Although still a street-style circuit, the weather is much cooler and the tyres do not suffer anywhere near as much from overheating. Russell feels much more comfortable when the tyres are working in their natural temperature window, rather than always on the verge of being too hot.
The 28-year-old won the first race of the season in Australia, and lost out on victories in China and Japan through bad luck. Miami was the first weekend of the year on which Antonelli had had a decisive advantage.
“I see my competitor as myself because I know if I take all of my boxes, I can be at the top, and in Miami that didn’t happen and I know my struggles on a track like Miami I just need to focus on that and that’s the approach I’ve had the last few years, against Lewis, against Kimi last year. At the moment, I’m just really focused on giving the most of myself and my team and the rest sorts itself out.
“It’s still so early days and I know how to deal with it. It’s not the first time in my career that I’ve had a bad race or two but in this sport it does change so quickly one week you have a tough race and the next week you come back and everything goes back to normal.”
Mercedes have a major upgrade on their car for this race, which Russell said they expected would be a “decent” step forward for their car, which has won all four grands prix this season.
Rivals McLaren, Red Bull and Ferrari all had major upgrades at the last race which brought them closer to Mercedes.
“We hope (it’s) as big as the upgrade was for the likes of McLaren and Ferrari in Miami,” Russell said, “but as we know there are no guarantees. We know what it says on paper I don’t see any reason why it shouldn’t translate but stranger things have happened.”
