Oscar Pias-three secures the win in Miami

Unlike in Bahrain and in Saudi Arabia, the Aussie wasn’t as dominant this weekend, but excellent race pace and race craft in overtaking Verstappen for the lead helped him pull clear of the pack, beating teammate Norris by over 4 seconds at the checkered flag.

Piastri said, “A bit of argy-bargy at Turn 1 helped me a bit. I was aware enough to avoid Max coming through turn 1. From that point onwards I knew I had a good pace advantage and clearly the car was unbelievable.” Lando Norris, in comparison, struggled to overtake the Red Bull driver, saying in an interview after the race, “The way it is with Max, it’s crash or don’t pass. Unless you get it really right and you put him in the perfect position, then you can just about get there. I paid the price for not doing a good enough job today, but I’m still happy with second.”

Verstappen’s disappointing day from pole was compounded by a poorly timed virtual safety car, allowing the Mercedes of George Russell to leapfrog him into P3, a position he wouldn’t relinquish for the rest of the race. His Mercedes teammate, 18-year-old Kimi Antonelli, broke the record this weekend for the youngest pole sitter in Formula One history after finishing top in the sprint race qualifying session. Unfortunately, for the Italian, his fortunes didn’t fare so well during the races, with poor timing and luck seeing him finish P6 in the Grand Prix, over 7 seconds behind the impressive Alex Albon in the Williams car.

It was another weekend to forget for the Ferrari squad, with both Leclerc and Hamilton not showing the pace to match the likes of Albon in the Williams, with both drivers finishing almost a minute behind the leader. Hamilton's dissatisfaction was clear to notice, as when on fresher tyres behind his teammate, he wasn’t allowed past to try and chase down the Mercedes of Antonelli, stating over the radio that it was “not good team work” and by the time the change was made, radio aired of Hamilton saying “Have a break while you’re at it, come on!”

After the race, Hamilton clarified these statements, “I’m sure people didn’t like certain comments, but you’ve got to understand, it’s frustrating. People say way worse things than I said, so it was more sarcastic than anything. I’m not frustrated now. We’ll work internally, we’ll have discussions, and we’ll keep pushing.”

Besides Antonelli, it was a disappointing weekend for the rookies. Isack Hadjar, who has been extremely impressive so far this season, wasn’t able to extract enough performance from the car to reach the points, with teammate Lawson suffering significant damage on turn 1 after a collision with Doohan. As for Bearman, Bortoleto and Doohan, they all retired from the race, with two technical failures for Bearman and Bortoleto, with the Alpine driver suffering too much damage to continue after contact with Lawson at turn 1 on lap 1.

We now know that Jack Doohan has been replaced by Franco Colapinto in the Alpine Team, a switch which has been rumoured since before the season even started. Doohan, ever the professional, has said he “will keep my head down, keep working hard, watch with interest the next five races and keep chasing my own personal goals.” His time in F1 isn’t necessarily over, as Colapinto is being assessed over the next five race weekends to see how much he can achieve compared to the Australian. This announcement preceded the news on Tuesday evening that Alpine Team Principal, Oliver Oakes, has resigned from the team, with executive director Flávio Briatore taking over the role as Team Principal. Are these events linked? Most likely, but either way, uncertainty remains a constant at the Enstone-based outfit.

Formula One is already a quarter of the way through the 2025 season, and we are now heading into the European leg of the season, which sees races such as Imola and Monaco taking place before the end of the month. McLaren look set to continue their charge at the front of the field, but they’re not unbeatable. Antonelli has shown that they can be beaten in qualifying, so who will be able to take the challenge to them in the near future?

We’ll just have to find out!