Miami GP Takeaways: McLaren's perfect weekend

While McLaren's Lando Norris won the Sprint Race with Oscar Piastri coming home second, the latter took over for the main race on Sunday, leading his teammate for a dominant one-two for their team.

As for the aforementioned blemishes, those were due to Kimi Antonelli crashing the party by taking the Sprint pole while Max Verstappen once again delivered one of those laps in qualifying for the Grand Prix to take his third pole of the season.

But in the end, McLaren maximized the results as a team, and now lead Mercedes in the 2025 Formula 1 constructors' championship by a whopping 105 points as their drivers are starting to edge away from Verstappen in the drivers' title fight.

Aside from that, Red Bull did not have the best of weekends, while Ferrari, once again, were finding creative ways to shoot themselves in the foot.

Williams, on the other hand, impressed with their form, as the blue cars were fighting with Ferrari at one point and with a Mercedes at another, and on merit.

In the end, Piastri took another step towards consolidating his status as McLaren's favorite driver to deny Verstappen a fifth driver's crown, winning a third race in a row, something McLaren have not achieved since 1998 with Mika Hakkinen.

Miami was a Sprint weekend and we can thank the weather for promoting the Sprint race from a glorified practice session into a proper race. I can't believe I am saying this, but the Sprint was fun, while the on-track fights in Sunday's Grand Prix were simply fantastic.

So let's delve into McLaren's perfect weekend stateside and come up with some Takeaways from the 2025 Miami Grand Prix.

Miami is the place where Norris took his first-ever F1 win back in 2024, so naturally he should have a boost of morale whenever he races there.

This season, the race in Miami came at a time when the Briton was struggling to keep up with his teammate, who has been on a strong run of form, so it should've been the perfect opportunity for Norris to bounce back.

Norris was the faster McLaren driver in Miami, and while he got a bit lucky with the Sprint win, it was good for him in the buildup of the weekend.

Granted he was beaten by Verstappen in qualifying, but Norris was better than Piastri, who was only fourth, which put him in the best position to take the fight to the #1 Red Bull, making use of the formidable race pace of the McLaren MCL39.

But then there was that Lap 1, Turn 1 incident with Verstappen that showed Norris did not learn anything from his 2024 battles with the reigning F1 champion. That cost him track position while Piastri grabbed the opportunity.

Piastri chased Verstappen and passed him despite some serious defending from the latter, and while Norris caught up as well, he spent too much time trying to pass, which gave his teammate to drive into the distance, building an insurmountable gap and taking the win.

Piastri is slowly approaching the point when McLaren will decide he will be the one to back for the drivers' title fight.

And by the way, Norris' demeanor in the post-race interviews and those in the media pen showed how much the situation was weighing on him.

Russell has successfully settled into the Mercedes team leader role since Lewis Hamilton left for Ferrari as Antonelli developed his craft in the other car.

The Italian has shown that he has got what it takes to race in the top flight, delivering solid performance since his debut in Melbourne, but then he arrived in Miami, and for some reason he seemed to enjoy that track.

Antonelli was the better Mercedes driver in Miami and stunned the competition by taking Sprint pole and then went on to outqualify Russell in qualifying, as the Briton was vocal about his struggles with his car from the moment he hit the track in FP1.

However, Antonelli's battle with Piastri on the first lap of the Sprint showed his lack of experience, and you can't hold that against him. He was also unlucky in the Grand Prix, while Russell used his experience to take third with a bit of luck from the Virtual Safety Car.

Antonelli proved last weekend that he is a serious talent that, when or if well developed, will be a serious threat to Russell's status, especially since logic means he is the future of the team.

With Russell's contract running out at the end of the season and all that noise surrounding Verstappen's future at Red Bull, the stakes couldn't be higher.

Verstappen arrived in Miami as a new dad, and while there is some kind of consensus that an F1 driver gets slower after having kids, the Dutchman showed early signs that will not be the case with him. Maybe it is too soon to be sure, but Max is a unique beast... He should be fine...

Again, he was playing catch-up with McLaren, and his Sprint Race was a disaster as he didn't have the pace, and more worryingly, due to another Red Bull pit stop mess as they sent him out in the path of Antonelli, their driver ultimately receiving a ten-second time penalty, which meant he didn't score points.

But an angry Max is a dangerous Max. A few hours later, he bounced back in style, taking pole for the Grand Prix after another magical Verstappen lap.

Earlier forecasts that it may rain in the race would've been music to Verstappen's ears, as it was clear his RB21 was no match for the MCL39s of Piastri and Norris in race trim in dry conditions, but the rain never arrived.

As such, the four-time F1 champion was in the thick of it from Lap 1 after Norris' attempt into Turn 1, but he dealt with him before having to defend from Piastri, something he did valiantly until he succumbed to the laws of physics and the Aussie passed.

Verstappen gave Norris a harder time before letting him go, but in all his battles, the Red Bull ace was sublime in his defense, and we can thank him and the McLaren duo for the great show we got.

However, Max now leaves Miami having fallen further behind in the drivers' championship, with the upcoming races—Imola and Monaco—expected to be a challenge.

Those tweaks to the flexi wing rules in Barcelona can't come soon enough for Red Bull and Verstappen.

Ferrari did not have the pace in Miami, and as if that was not enough, they didn't do themselves any favors in the way they managed their weekend.

On the way to the Sprint Race grid, they sent Charles Leclerc out on Intermediate tyres when full wet tyres were the right choice, and as a result, he aquaplaned and ended up in the wall. Race over before it even started.

As chaos prevailed over the Sprint, Hamilton did manage to get on the podium, but that was due to a perfectly timed pitstop switching to slick tyres a decision the seven-time F1 champion made sure everyone knew was his.

Hamilton then went tumbling down in qualifying as he was out from Q2, while Leclerc was eighth.

The Scuderia then delivered a pathetic pit wall performance during the Grand Prix when Hamilton demanded Leclerc move out of his way, as he felt he had more pace with a chance to catch Antonelli further up the road.

Ferrari hesitated and took their time, and when they finally asked Leclerc to move aside, Hamilton's tyres were probably too damaged for him to attack and, as such, could not build a gap over Leclerc, who started demanding that he get the place back.

The positions were switched again, and Leclerc and Hamilton finished seventh and eighth, respectively, after some really "enjoyable" radio exchange, especially between Hamilton and his engineer, as the driver did not hold back, resorting to sarcasm, telling his team to have a "tea break" as they mulled their decision.

It was great to see Lewis stamping his authority, but it would've been even better if he caught and passed Antonelli. We will never know whether Ferrari's decision or the fact that he didn't have enough pace was the reason why that didn't happen.

What was worrying was Fred Vasseur's insistence that his team executed the team orders well... Denial at its best...