George Russell said he is treating his battle for the Formula 1 world championship with Mercedes teammate Kimi Antonelli like a marathon.
As the schedule resumes with Sunday's Miami Grand Prix, Italy's Antonelli holds a nine-point lead over England's Russell, with Monaco's Charles Leclerc of Ferrari another 14 points back in third place.
"It made me think – the guy who's running the London Marathon after three miles isn't thinking about the finish line because he's got 23 miles to go. We're in race four of the season, so it's not even a consideration," Russell said Friday when asked about trailing his teammate.
"Of course (Kimi)'s done an amazing job so far this year. The last race was a little bit unfortunate from my side, but these things go one way one weekend and swing back later in the year. I'm experienced enough to know how a Championship works and there's a long way ahead."
After Russell won the 7 March season opener in Australia, Antonelli finished first in both China on 15 March and Japan on 28 March before the next two races in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia were canceled due to ongoing conflicts in the Middle East.
Russell, 28, said the main thing is to keep both Mercedes running at the front.
"It's pretty clear – we fight each other hard, but we fight each other fair," he said when asked about the team's approach. "Right now, there's lots of talk about the fight between Kimi and I, but we also need to make sure that we continue being the ones to beat."
Russell said it would be a mistake to overlook Mercedes' rivals.
"Last year it was Oscar (Piastri) and Lando (Norris) and from nowhere, you had (Max) Verstappen come. Charles is doing a great job, Lewis (Hamilton) is fast and McLaren are bringing their upgrade this weekend. I'm sure Red Bull won't be in this position forever as well, so we can't take it for granted.
"I'm just going about my business as usual. I want to be on pole, I want to make a good start, I want to at least be at the first corner in the position I started and fight for victory."