F1. Miami 2025 Review

By Gavin Huet, Aiden McLaughlin, Graeme Woolf , Scott MacLean and Chelsea Wintle 

Driver of the Weekend

Chelsea: Oscar Piastri takes the weekend for me. If it weren’t for a fortuitous yellow flag, he would have won the sprint race, and he easily took care of the main event on Sunday. While Lando Norris’ performance off the start is vastly improved, he still can’t seem to keep his emotions in check when in direct battle with Max Verstappen. The contrast between the two McLaren drivers when gaining on and overtaking Verstappen was stark. Norris was almost in a flurry of urgency and panic, and there was a feeling that it could all go wrong at any moment. Piastri took his time, gained and retreated with confidence, and eventually took a clean lead. Norris might consider some hot yoga or valium before he reaches Imola to nip that overthinking in the bud.

Aiden: It didn’t take too long did it? Kimi Antonelli is starting to show his class. After taking pole position for the sprint races, he’s now the youngest driver in F1 history to take pole of any type. The race may not have worked out for him, but he bounced back well in qualifying for the main race and to take points from both races is a great return for the chosen one.

Graeme: I’m giving this award to Alex Albon this week. I’ve said a couple of times previously that Williams are a team on the up this year and to get another double points finish was a great result for them. Albon started 7th and finished 5th in Miami ahead of his teammate Carlos Sainz and also ahead of both Ferrari’s and the Miami Sprint Polesitter Kimi Antonelli. Albon drove a solid, consistent race and showed that he and Williams can kick it with the big boys.

Gavin: George Russell gets the nod from me this week. In the sprint race he qualified fifth and finished fourth, in the main race he qualified fifth and finished third. And it turns out he was ill during the main race too. A great effort all weekend long from him and his Mercedes team mate Kimi Antonelli who are the closest contenders to take the Constructors title fight to the all dominant McLaren team.

Scott: Gonna split this one. Oscar Piastri for obvious reasons; the way he set up Verstappen to pass him for the lead was pure excellence in racecraft. But a big nod to Kimi Antonelli for breaking Sebastian Vettel’s record and becoming the first teenager to take an F1 pole in the sprint race.

 

Talking Point

Chelsea: If I were to invent a Formula 1 drinking game I would surely include “Max Verstappen rats out another driver” on my card. The man is incredible – in the midst of battling for a race lead he seems to have nineteen eyes on the nineteen other drivers, as well as the capacity to dob in his competitors for moving under braking, being ahead of their starting positions, or speeding in the pit lane. No complaints here as all’s fair in love and race regulations – it’s just one of the many reasons to both love and hate Max Verstappen. The man’s capacity for information mid-race is mind-blowing.

Aiden: The Miami Grand Prix is now locked in until (checks notes) 2041! It was previously contracted all the way through to 2031 so it’s a 10 year extension to the Florida showpiece that debuted in 2022. It’s unclear if Danica Patrick has secured a similar deal with Sky Sports UK. That aside, it’s estimated Miami generated over US$1Billion of associated income over the first three years of the event so you can see why it’s here to stay. Oh, Mexico City also signed a more modest, low profile extension last week; three years to 2028…

Graeme: It’s not so much of a talking point, but one I thought was funny at the time. I hate to criticize the Sky commentators, Crofty and Brundle, as I think they’re excellent, but a funny moment happened on Lap 35 when Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz were in a battle for position. Lewis Hamilton was behind, and Alex Albon was a couple of places ahead and not involved. Brundle was referring to Sainz as Albon and Crofty was calling it correctly. This went on for a couple of minutes until the battle ended, with neither one conceding that anyone was wrong. All very confusing if you actually didn’t know who was who.

Gavin: I know Aston Martin have spent money on facilities and personnel but their form has really fallen off a cliff from those heady days when Fernando Alsono first joined and it appeared they could be title contenders. Whilst it is fine to say you are looking at next season with the rule changes there are no guarantees that their form will be any better relative to the other teams. And who knows what could happen in the drivers market – Fernando to Red Bull to replace Tsunoda? A lot of F1 is about momentum and Aston Martin seem to be teaching the team that they are not good enough and this may come back to bite soon.

Scott: Is the Miami layout as bad as some claim? Sure there’s a lot of corners, but there’s long sweeping straights to get the DRS out on and its technical enough to induce errors. The problem for me are the cars, which still produce too much downforce.

 

Gossip Time

Chelsea: I’ve taken part in a small handful of running events in my life, and even I know the golden rule – don’t change your nutrition on event day. George Russell, who’s about as far from a devil-may-care gadabout as one could get, blatantly disregarded this and decided to have avocado on toast with a flat white for breakfast on race morning. What an absolute madlad! While Russell admirably made it across the line in fourth place, his meal of choice left him pot-bellied and clenched-of-buttock through the post-race press throng. Bless you George, you are all of us.

Aiden: Poor old Jack Doohan. If the writing had ever been on the wall for an F1 driver it’s him. At the time of putting this column together, it seems inevitable that Flavio Briatore will be bringing in Franco Colapinto to replace him for the Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix. After six races, plus a couple of sprints, he wasn’t able to score a point, but he did outqualify teammate Pierre Gasly a couple of times. Sadly he also crashed a couple of times and that tendency seems to have sealed his fate.

Graeme: Lando Norris needs to grow up. I’ve hinted at this for a while but come on Lando! If he’s going to be a serious contender for the World Championship, its time for him to mature and be more patient. Again, he made a move that he shouldn’t have made, on the first corner of the race. And it cost him. He had great pace as evidenced by coming back to easily finish second. I think he threw away another race win in Miami by not playing the waiting game. He’s Verstappen Junior in some ways with the only difference that the actual Verstappen has multiple World Championships in his pocket. And no, he’s not my favourite driver. It’s just frustrating to see him make silly errors each week considering his undoubted talent.

Gavin: It looks like Jack Doohan at Alpine is surplus to requirements. Yuki Tsunoda has not been a huge upgrade on Liam Lawson. Liam Lawson has not delivered in the junior Racing Bulls team. If Helmut Marko had been doing his job properly there would be a couple of ready to race drivers to take over those Red Bull / Racing Bulls seats but it seems he has spent more of his time trying to undermine everyone else than develop drivers. Even Isack Hadjar has done a good job despite the Red Bull family not thinking he would be up to it so what do these people actually know? I think we will see a few more driver swaps before the end of the season though, in which case this could be the largest number of rookies in a season that we’ve seen for a while, hard to believe when last season looked the most settled the grid has been in ages.

Scott: Is Jack Doohan’s time up? The same outfits that reported the Lawson/Tsunoda swap are now saying that Franco Colapinto will take his seat for Imola. Another weekend of struggle and a first-lap exit when we whacked our Liam (and ruined his race as well) suggests if not now it won’t be long.

 

Looking Ahead

Chelsea: Lewis Hamilton’s teething issues at Ferrari continued this week, and his radio messages reflected an escalated level of frustration. Where in the first few races he was merely terse with engineer Riccardo Adami, this week he descended into the lowest (yet most hilarious) form of wit – sarcasm. It was fair enough, too – Ferrari’s dithering over strategy led them to ask their drivers to swap places not once, but twice. After the second swap, leaving Hamilton behind his teammate, came the gold. “Sainz is 1.4 seconds behind you,” Adami submitted helpfully. “What, do you want me to let him through as well?” retorted Hamilton. Time for Fred Vasseur to tighten up the mid-race decision-making, because it’s all feeling a bit Binnoto-era at the moment.

Aiden: Europe is next with a triple header starting in Italy and then heading to Monaco and Spain. All eyes will be on Ferrari at Imola, with a major upgrade package in store. The floor, the rear, brake drums and the front wing are all getting the treatment which on the face of it will be music to Lewis Hamilton’s ears. Apart from the sprint races, his frustrations have been all too apparent.

Graeme: Now it’s onto Europe and the more traditional tracks that diehard long time F1 fans know and love. I’m not one of them. I’m a Drive to Survive F1 convert. But still, if tracks like Monaco, Imola, Catalunya, Spa and Silverstone don’t get your juices going, then what are you doing watching? It’s going to be an intriguing European Summer for the teams. Some might swap out a driver, some will fade, some will surprise. Can’t wait!

Gavin: Lewis Hamilton is certainly getting the full Ferrari experience isn’t he? His radio messages to the team during the main race will make the Hall of Fame this year for sure. These results and strategy shenanigans are going to be putting the heat on Fred Vaseur and his team at Ferrari as the next race is in Italy at Imola. If Charles Leclerc thinks the Ferrari pace is unacceptable then just imagine what the tifosi will be thinking and saying if Imola is a repeat of Miami.

Scott: Two weeks until the start of the European season at Imola. It’s one of F1’s great tracks and favourite of mine, but you have to think the odds of another McLaren “Papaya Procession” looks high.

 

Bonus Picture

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