George Russell admitted his Mercedes teammate and championship rival Kimi Antonelli has the "momentum" behind him after a third consecutive victory, but remains confident he can take the fight to the 19-year-old over the rest of the season.
Antonelli won Sunday's Miami Grand Prix by 3.2 seconds from McLaren's Lando Norris, extending his lead in the standings to 20 points over Russell.
The more experienced of the two Mercedes drivers struggled throughout the Miami weekend -- finishing Sunday's race in fourth position and 43 seconds behind Antonelli -- but used the example of Norris' late charge to title success last year as proof of how momentum can shift over a season.
"Cleary he's in a really great place at the moment and momentum is with him," Russell said of Antonelli. "But I've got enough experience myself with championships I've won to know how momentum swings -- also, in the championship [battle] last year.
"To be honest, I'm not even considering it. I just want to get back on the top step of the podium.
"The first three races, I had the performance to do that and this weekend I did not have the performance to do that. So I could be standing here now with three very different results from the first three races and this just being a one off, but obviously things worked out differently in China and Japan."
Asked if he had underestimated Antonelli this year, Russell said: "No, not at all. He's a fantastic driver. He's been exceptionally quick since Day 1.
"You don't win all of the championships as a youngster if you don't have the speed. But I've still got confidence in myself, and I've also been there, I've not forgotten how to drive. It's a little bit of a tricky run, but we're four races down, have a long way to go and we'll assess things over these next few weeks."
Norris, who was Antonelli's closest rival throughout Sunday's race in Miami, also praised the youngster's early season form.
"He's doing a very good job, hats off to him," Norris said. "At that age, second year in Formula 1 -- he's doing an incredible job, it's impressive.
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"To perform under pressure, to be beating his teammate who's been in it for a lot longer, he's doing all the right things so you can't really fault him at the minute. He got a lot of s---- 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 a good job."