Formula 1 visited the United States for the first of three American races this past weekend for the 2025 Miami Grand Prix set against the unique backdrop of the Hard Rock Stadium.
F1’s second Sprint weekend of the year offered up changeable weather, history-making and a cascade of Lego bricks as Oscar Piastri took further control of the title race.
News came in that Miami is here to stay until 2041, which some motorsport purists may fear, but there was enough action and talking points to keep Motorsport Week entertained in the Sunshine State.
So, what were the narrative threads pulling the F1 circus through Miami?
Has Kimi Antonelli arrived?
Andrea Kimi Antonelli has impressed, for the most part, ever since the very beginning of the 2025 season, but, in many ways, it felt like that Miami was perhaps his real coming of age moment.
On Friday, Antonelli became the youngest-ever driver to take a pole position, grabbing top spot for the Sprint Race, in which he finished seventh through no real fault of his own.
His first-corner tussle with Piastri and being the victim of an unsafe pit stop release by Red Bull contributed largely to the disappointing result, but it did not deter him from grabbing third in Grand Prix qualifying.
His lap was just seven hundredths off the pole time set by Max Verstappen, showing his one-lap pace was no fluke.
The race saw him eventually finish sixth, but it was overall a truly memorable weekend for all the right reasons, vindicating Toto Wolff’s decision to hire him further.
Piastri’s title challenge gathers further pace
Another stellar weekend from Piastri saw him increase his lead in the Drivers’ Championship by six points to 16 over team-mate Lando Norris.
Missing-out on Sprint victory was overturned by another Grand Prix that would see the Aussie cement his credentials as a World Champion in waiting even further.
Piastri now has a strong platform on which to build as F1 makes its way into the European season, where he could inch further ahead in the frantic month of racing ahead.
Is Norris back on form or a work in progress?
Despite leaving Miami in a weaker position in the championship, Norris did look like a driver who had overcome some of his own personal battles that he had when he arrived.
An impressive performance in the Sprint was followed-up by a strong Sunday showing, finishing second behind Piastri, just four seconds adrift at the finish.
Whilst he would’ve liked to have been able to claw back the deficit, Norris must surely be happy that he has been able to make it through a Grand Prix weekend without any major errors.
But a question mark lingers over his handling of Verstappen at lights out and his prolonged efforts to pass the Dutchman later on, which ultimately cost him victory.
The McLaren missiles
2025 has already seemed like a papaya wave, but Miami saw another stunning display from McLaren.
A Sprint win and a Grand Prix from each of its drivers is, on the face of it, dominant enough, but when you end the latter a whole half-a-minute ahead of anyone else, the is even more impressive.
Whenever its rivals appear to be getting closer, whether it be in one race or one qualifying session, somehow the MCL39 just finds an added bit of pace to demoralise the competition.
The Constructors’ Championship looks like its name will have it engraved on again this season, and miracles will surely be the only thing to prevent the team from going one further and adding a Drivers’ title to its collection.
Can anyone reel in the Woking-outfit’s nigh-on perfect tyre management advantage?
Is Williams the real deal?
Whilst the Sprint Race did not yield the result that it wanted, the full Grand Prix saw Williams go full steam ahead in its midfield battle with a double points finish.
Alex Albon led the charge with fifth, ahead of both Ferraris, with team-mate Carlos Sainz taking ninth, right on the Scuderia’s tail.
The British squad always appeared quietly confident with itself prior to the season starting, and it has backed this up with some fine performances and results so far.
It leaves the team fifth in the Constructors’ Championship, 17 points ahead of Haas, proving its name being in the mix of the midfield battle was not unrealistic.
With both drivers on song and a car performing well, 2025 looks to be a fine return to better form for the Grove-based outfit.
Furthermore, with the wind tunnel focused fully on 2026, better days could be on the horizon for the former GP titans.
Ferrari disaster or over-dramatised?
It’s needless to say that Ferrari’s pace in Miami was well below the Italian squad’s expectations.
Seventh and eighth in the GP was not what Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton signed up for and the sting was keenly felt with four rival teams finishing ahead.
A driver swap saga in the closing phase of the race that seemed to please neither Leclerc nor Hamilton was the major storyline haunting Ferrari this past Sunday.
Fred Vasseur once again criticised F1’s handling of radio messages, and downplayed the significance of how his team handled swapping its drivers around.
Still, neither Leclerc nor Hamilton was overly impressed with the decision-making, but the biggest issue lies in the SF-25’s lack of performance.
Can every driver parade be done with Lego?
Lego arrived in Miami with 10 life-sized F1 replicas and on Sunday stunned the watching crowd with the revelation they were powered, moving designs.
Two-seaters, capable of 20km/h and comprised of several thousand Lego bricks apiece, the 10 cars were used for the Miami GP driver parade.
Cue the slowest, but most entertaining lap of the weekend as each team laughed and raced their way around the Miami International Autodrome.
Crashes, overtakes, Lego bricks everywhere and millions of social impressions meant this will likely go down as the most memorable driver parade in F1 history.
It was so good, we’d love to see the Lego F1 cars every weekend!
READ MORE – Oscar Piastri completes hat-trick of wins with F1 Miami GP victory
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