Race Report: Kimi wins in Miami

Kimi Antonelli became the youngest F1 driver to secure three consecutive pole positions and converted those into wins at the Miami Grand Prix. Mercedes didn’t bring a tranche of upgrades this weekend and that win stings for McLaren and Ferrari who did.

Mercedes is waiting until Canada to bring their upgrades so nabbing a win in Miami against McLaren and Ferrari, who did bring upgrades, is a terrific result for the team. McLaren and Ferrari will be scratching their heads as to the missed opportunity to hammer Mercedes with their new upgrades.

Win

A big win for Mercedes and Kimi Antonelli for taking the win despite not bringing upgrades. Some wondered if Mercedes had been surpassed by McLaren and/or Ferrari and given the Sprint, you could make a valid claim. You can’t discount that the circuit may have been friendly to Merc so their lack of upgrades may have been slightly nullified but it’s difficult to know with certainty. Despite that, Mercedes celebrates a big win and Kimi Antonelli is rapidly becoming the team #1 much at the expense of George Russell. Kimi’s out lap was mega!

A win for McLaren despite the loss in the race. It is clear that McLaren’s upgrade have closed the gap to Mercedes as evidenced by the Sprint but the undercut from Mercedes and a slow pit stop with a sticky front right wheel for Lando may have cost him the win. Regardless, I think the you have to look at the entire weekend and see that a dual DNS in China and now being upset they didn’t win is a very good trajectory for the team.

While Max Verstappen finished in P5, I still think their upgrades were a win for the weekend to move them off the midfield malaise. Isack Hadjar created his own disaster, as did Max with his lap 1 spin, but the team do seem more competitive but not in the class of Mercedes and McLaren yet.

A big win for Franco Colapinto who had a terrific weekend on balance. The young driver has a lot of pressure on him but he’s delivered this weekend with a P8 finish even going wheel-to-wheel with Lewis Hamilton no less.

A much-needed return the points for Williams with Carlos Sainz and Alex Albon finishing P9 and P10 respectively. Carlos is very frustrated and you can hear it in his radio communication. If the team want to keep Carlos, they need their upgrades to work and they need to get back into the top 10 and fighting for best of the rest.

Fail

I am willing to think that perhaps this circuit is, or has become, unfriendly to Ferrari. They brought a raft of upgrades and yet Mercedes still won and both McLaren’s left the Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton duo down in P6 and P7 respectively. Ferrari seemed to really struggle on the long run despite their short run pace looking good. It seems that it could be down to tire management, once again.

A fail for McLaren for missing the opportunity to take advantage of Mercedes who did not bring upgrades. They got undercut and the slow stop may have been the decisive move of the race. It was relatively clear from the Sprint that McLaren had the pace and tire management but failed to execute. Who knows if Mercedes will bring net-positive upgrades in Canada but if they do, it may have been a real missed opportunity. Until McLaren’s next upgrade package at least.

Tough race for Racing Bulls. Liam Lawson’s altercation was not good and Arvid starting at the back was equally challenging. IF Red Bull has made big gains over the break, I wonder if Racing Bulls have missed the mark or is this just track specific?

Tough weekend for Pierre Gasly who was launched into the tire barrier by Lawson and that’s a shame as he looked good for points.

A tough home race for Haas F1 with both cars out of the points. What started as a strong initial start of the season, the development war may have already given Haas its first bloody nose at home.

WTH

Nice to see F1 move the race forward to avoid the rain instead of what they did at Belgium a few years ago.

The tweaks to the regulations helped but it’s now becoming a 3-pass transaction for the top runners. There is the pass, the re-pass and then the pass again for position. The yo-yo’ing isn’t really passing, it’s an artificial construct to the sport and one I am not fond of. DRS was frustrating enough but this is becoming even more frustrating.

DARIO MARRAFUSCHI – PIRELLI MOTORSPORT DIRECTOR

The race was very straightforward from a strategic point of view, despite the uncertainty over possible rain remaining right up to the last moment. The only real variable was the Safety Car on lap six, which allowed some drivers, including Verstappen, to pit early and differentiate themselves from the rest of the field. In the Dutchman’s case, this seems to have paid some dividends.

Beyond that, all drivers on the grid opted for the flexibility of starting on the Medium, with the majority replacing it within the window we had anticipated. The lower temperatures compared to previous days further reduced tyre degradation. A clear example was Verstappen’s final stint of 51 laps on the Hard, completed without any need to manage the pace. The same trio of compounds will be used at the next round in Montreal in three weeks’ time.

Miami GP Results: Note – Leclerc received a 20-second time penalty for leaving the track on multiple occasions without a justifiable reason. Verstappen received a five-second time penalty for crossing the white line at the pit exit.