Formula 1 arrives in the world’s fastest car park for round 6 of the 2025 championship, and the street-style Miami International Autodrome is paying big points this season.
Featuring the season’s second sprint race, a maximum of 33 points are up for grabs for anyone who can dominate the weekend.
Oscar Piastri is in the sort of form that could see him sweep the board.
Fox Sports, available on Kayo Sports, is the only place to watch every qualifying session and race in the 2025 FIA Formula One World Championship™, LIVE in 4K with no ad-breaks during racing. New to Kayo? Get your first month for just $1. Limited time offer.
He’s the first Australian to lead the championship standings in 15 years, and McLaren is the team to beat — and the hot and humid Floridian conditions should only exacerbate its advantage.
Lando Norris looms as the Australian’s biggest threat one year almost to the day of his maiden victory at this circuit. But the Briton is back in a very different frame of mind and facing a very different sort of challenge.
PIT TALK PODCAST: Lewis Hamilton’s Ferrari dream has turned into a nightmare, and the seven-time champion says he can’t see light at the end of the tunnel this season. How did it all go so wrong in just five grands prix? Plus Christian Horner and George Russell have reportedly sounded each other out over 2026 availability in an early start to the silly season.
CAN PIASTRI CONTINUE THE MOMENTUM?
Piastri arrives in Miami with a 10-point championship lead and on the best run of form for an Australian in almost half a century.
He also stands on the cusp of another minor piece of national history.
On a two-race victory streak after sweeping Bahrain and Saudi Arabia, a third successive victory would put him in rare air among his compatriots.
Not since Alan Jones won the 1979 German, Austrian and Dutch grands prix has an Australian claimed three or more victories consecutively.
Only Jack Brabham has gone one — and two — better, winning four races in a row in 1966 and five races in succession in 1960, both title-winning years.
Of course all those streaks were more significant in context, making up a far larger percentage of their shorter respective seasons. With 24 rounds on this year’s calendar, three straight race wins are less indicative of domination.
Just ask Max Verstappen, who holds the record at 10 straight wins in 2023.
But a third consecutive victory for Piastri would extend his advantage by at least seven points — sprint performance notwithstanding — and entrench him as a championship favourite and the man to beat as well as dealing teammate Norris another crucial blow.
“I quite enjoy being in the position of hunted, because normally that means that you’re doing something right,” Piastri said. “I’m pretty relaxed. The gap is very small, we’re only at round 6 now, so I’m not too concerned with that.
“But I’m very proud of the reasons why I’m leading the championship, because Melbourne was obviously a bit of a tricky start, and to have four very successful races since then is a great effort from myself and the whole team.
“I’m proud of the performances we’ve been able to put in to achieve that championship leader position rather than actually leading the championship.”
But Piastri, who was no stranger to the championship lead during his junior career, said top spot came with no mentality change, particularly so early in the year.
“To be honest, it doesn’t feel that much different,” he insisted. “I’m not really that concerned with that at the moment, I’m concerned with just trying to get the best performance I can every weekend, making sure I drive as well as possible and making the car as good as possible.
“The approach is exactly the same: go out and try to win the race. That side of things is no different.”
Coming into what was Piastri’s strongest part of the season last year — he would’ve won in Miami were it not for the unfortunate timing of the safety car — that approach could be very rewarding this weekend and in the coming months.
F1 extends Mexico GP for 3 more years | 00:26
OR WILL NORRIS HIT BACK ON VICTORY ANNIVERSARY?
The Miami Grand Prix triggers happy memories for Norris, who finally scored his maiden victory here last season, but he arrives back in Florida on the back foot. While he and McLaren have kicked on since last year’s constructors championship, teammate Piastri has taken the biggest step, and now Norris has lost the title lead after lacklustre weekends in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia.
Piastri is in the ascendancy, though Norris isn’t reading much into his good form.
“He’s doing a good job and he deserves it. Nothing more than that,” Norris said. “I don’t believe so much in the momentum stuff.
“It’s round 6 of 24. I’m not going to say that forever, but I know I need to get a move on and get into gear a little bit.”
After a weekend off to disconnect and digest the opening phase of the season, Norris is clearer than ever that qualifying is his one key weakness relative to his teammate.
Despite thrashing Piastri 20-4 in qualifying last season, this year Piastri’s had the upper hand, 3-2.
When Norris has qualified ahead, his average advantage is 0.058 seconds. When Piastri has started forwards, he’s done so with 0.25 seconds in hand.
Norris has been open about his struggles taking the 2025 McLaren to the limit, with the changes made to the car this year taking him out of last year’s comfort zone — and potentially having worked to Piastri’s advantage.
“It’s been clear that there have been differences from last year in how the car works, how it acts, and how I’m able to get lap time out of it and perform,” he said.
“It’s clear there have been some changes, and whether it’s just suited Oscar or Oscar’s way or is him doing a better job at adapting, that’s not for me to know or try and figure out or waste my time on.
“For me it’s also hurt me a little bit more and I’ve not been able to perform at the level that I was at the end of last season, which I think is the best level that I’ve been.”
For what it’s worth, Piastri denied feeling any significant differences between this and last year’s cars.
“I don’t think it really suits me more necessarily,” he said. “In the grand scheme of things it doesn’t feel too different from last year.
“I’ve certainly not changed my driving very much. I’ve worked on the things I wanted to work on, but I’ve not had to reinvent things this year.”
Whatever the case, the gap between the two is more about consistency at the limit than it is anything fundamental, and Norris remains confident he can crack the code.
“It’s certainly not because of a lack of speed or ability,” he said. “I’ve often led the way in Q1 and Q2, but always when I’ve got to Q3, then it’s not gone to plan.
“I’m working on my things, what to improve, and trying to figure out all the things behind the scenes on what I need to do better on.
“I’m doing the best I can every weekend at the minute trying to improve, but the speed is there, the pace is there, the race pace is definitely there.
“It’s just one thing I need to tidy up. It’s a difficult thing, but I’m confident I’ll get it.”
To do so this weekend on the anniversary of his maiden victory — to stop Piastri’s momentum, whether he believes in it or not — would be a significant statement.
Jones: ‘Weak’ Lando no match for Piastri | 04:39
CAN YUKI TSUNODA BUILD ON HIS RED BULL RACING TRANSITION?
While McLaren is the team to beat, Red Bull Racing has shown the most convincing signs of life so far this year.
Max Verstappen won with perfect execution in Japan, while in Saudi Arabia he had the pace to match Oscar Piastri but cost himself a shot at victory with his antics at the first chicane.
Of course the matter of the second car’s competitiveness is another question.
Yuki Tsunoda has been an improvement on Liam Lawson since their swap three rounds ago, but he’s yet to score the kind of result that would definitively mark the change as a success. After three grands prix he’s yet to qualify higher than eighth or finish higher than ninth.
In an effort to speed up his acclimatisation, Red Bull Racing organised a private test at Silverstone in its dominant 2023 car after Saudi Arabia to help him adjust to the way a Milton Keynes built machine works.
But it didn’t go to plan.
“I experienced the classic British weather,” he revealed. “We didn’t bring any wet tyres just because we didn’t want to waste any mileage.”
With testing laps for current full-time drivers limited by regulation, Tsunoda got in only a few kilometres late in the day when conditions dried, though he admitted they didn’t count for much.
But the Japanese ace says confidence isn’t his issue. Time is what he needs to find the limit of his machine.
“I’m happy with the progress so far. The confidence is there, but just when you push 100 per cent on the limit in qualifying, that’s where you kind of face it for the first time, because you don’t push 100 per cent until then.
“The starting point is always slightly below where I want to be or where I used to start with in FP1, so it takes a bit more time to build up on new tracks.
“In qualifying, most of the time so far I experience new behaviour from the car and I’m not always able to cope with it.
“I wouldn’t say the car is super difficult, it just needs more time to define where the limit is.”
The sprint format might work to his advantage here. Despite practice time being slashed to just one hour, Tsunoda will get two qualifying sessions in which to find the limit of the car — two chances to put together a clean lap in the pole battle.
Degradation also tends to be low here despite the tropical heat, which could then help convert any lofty qualifying position into bigger points by negating McLaren’s advantage on tyre life.
And while only so much of this circuit is expected to suit Red Bull Racing — the flowing first sector will help it to stretch its legs, but the rest will be more difficult — the team could introduce a new floor this weekend after testing but not racing it in Jeddah.
Last year Miami was the beginning of McLaren’s resurgence. Maybe this season Red Bull Racing can use the Floridian circuit to stabilise its own listing ship.
Doohan dismisses axing rumours | 01:53
HAS DOOHAN FINALLY PUT AXE RUMOURS TO REST?
You would’ve forgiven Aussie rookie Jack Doohan for muttering a quiet “cop that” as he swiped into the Miami Grand Prix paddock on Thursday.
This was the race he wasn’t supposed to attend. According to pre-season rumours, Doohan should have been replaced by reserve driver Franco Colapinto this weekend, ending his career early.
But basking in weather reminiscent of his home state, the 22-year-old Queenslander stood defiantly in the Miami paddock, his Alpine seat still his to wield.
“To be honest, the worst of it [the speculation] was in Jan, pre-season, when there was the most noise,” Doohan said, per ESPN. “[There was] nothing else going on. It was the talk of the town.
“Very quickly as well I knew what was irrelevant and what wasn’t true and just focused on my job.
“To be honest, on top of everything, even in the difficult times, I didn’t really ever feel affected by it.
“I had a good group of people around me. The team were also very supportive. I never had that or felt that on the back of my mind.
“There’s always going to be noise, but I was more just focused on being as focused as I can in the car rather than thinking about anything external.”
It became increasingly clear as the opening five rounds rolled along that the rumours of Colapinto’s supposedly imminent ascension were coming largely from Argentina, though Alpine management must take some blame for allowing them to fester, with team principal Oliver Oakes noncommittal when responding to questions about those reports.
But subsequently noteworthy was that Argentine media also reported Colapinto was in the frame to replace Tsunoda at Racing Bulls after the Japanese driver took Lawson’s seat at Red Bull Racing. It was later reported that no talks ever took place between the two parties.
It’s now unclear whether Colapinto is still expecting to drive at Alpine this season. In any case it’s unlikely the team would consider any changes before the mid-season break.
It gives Doohan some space to continue growing into his role as a full-time driver in search of his first championship points, and the Aussie is optimistic that the sprint weekend could provide an opportunity for the hit-and-miss Alpine car.
“I’m optimistic about this weekend,” he said. “I’m keen on the sprint format, to be honest. I’m hoping we can roll out of the garage strong and that that can put us in a good place for sprint qualifying and doesn’t give an opportunity for the other midfield teams to gather their equipment together over practice sessions.
“I’m just cracking on with my job, focusing on how I can be a faster driver and work with the team better. That’s literally all I can do.”