Miami Grand Prix
Venue: Miami Worldwide Autodrome Dates: 2-4 Might Race begin: 21:00 BST on Sunday
Protection: Stay commentary of observe and qualifying on-line and BBC Radio 5 Sports activities Further; race on BBC Radio 5 Stay and dwell textual content updates on BBC Sport web site and app
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Components 1 heads to america this weekend for the Miami Grand Prix, the sixth spherical of the 2025 world championship.
Final day trip in Saudi Arabia, McLaren’s Oscar Piastri received his third race of the season to take the lead within the drivers’ standings.
A 12 months in the past, Miami was the scene of Lando Norris’ first F1 victory.
Earlier than this 12 months’s race, BBC Sport F1 correspondent Andrew Benson solutions your newest questions.
Would it not be honest to say Lando Norris is quicker than Oscar Piastri, however Piastri is a greater racing driver? – Rob
The comparability between McLaren team-mates Norris and Piastri – as drivers, and as personalities – is
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That is as a result of they’re such contrasting individuals. Piastri is the epitome of solidity. Nothing appears to faze him. Even the weekends when he’s a little bit off Norris’ tempo he appears to absorb his stride. As
Norris, then again, wears his coronary heart on his sleeve. He appears to be a little bit extra prey to the twisting fortunes of life. He beats himself up about his weaknesses. And he appears extra susceptible to small errors that may have an effect in a title marketing campaign.
That was taking place final 12 months, and it is nonetheless taking place this.
Final 12 months, the query requested above would have been thought-about honest remark. Norris was definitively quicker than Piastri in 2024. He out-qualified him 20 instances to 4, at a median of 0.147secs. And he received 4 races to Piastri’s two.
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But Piastri’s race-craft was plain for all to see – for instance in his very good overtaking transfer on Norris on the primary lap in Monza, or to take the lead and ultimately win towards Charles Leclerc in Baku.
However this season? Piastri has three wins and two poles and Norris considered one of every. Piastri is 4-2 forward in qualifying at a median of 0.185secs a lap.
And he is main the championship regardless of his unlucky escapade on the moist grass in Melbourne, which dropped him to ninth on the flag having been difficult Norris for the lead from the beginning.
Norris is extremely quick. However there has by no means been any doubt that Piastri’s highs had been no less than nearly as good because the Briton’s.
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Australian Piastri got here into this season setting himself a goal of accessing them far more persistently.
To date, he’s bang on the right track. Add that to his robustness, and he’s going to make a tricky title rival for anybody.
Do you suppose Max Verstappen can maintain his wonderful run in a automotive that some have labelled as “fourth quickest” or has he been helped by the traits of the tracks visited up to now? – Steve
Only a few individuals in F1 doubt that Verstappen is the all-round greatest driver on the grid, and that is as a result of his performances have been so sturdy for thus lengthy.
The Purple Bull driver has been working at a constant degree of excellence since, principally, the race he lastly ironed out the collection of errors that blighted his begin to that season. So there isn’t any purpose to imagine that is about to alter.
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He merely at all times appears to get the very best out of his automotive, aside from on the odd events when he permits tangles with different drivers to get the higher of him, equivalent to in Mexico and Hungary final 12 months.
As for the Purple Bull automotive, on common qualifying tempo, it is second quickest to McLaren by 0.177secs up to now, and forward of the Mercedes and the Ferrari.
In fact, Verstappen’s performances are a consider that statistic – it is his automotive that’s the quickest Purple Bull. However is he definitively quicker over one lap than Charles Leclerc and George Russell?
He could also be, a bit. He might not be. However would he be, for instance, persistently 0.135secs a lap quicker than Leclerc in qualifying – the hole between Purple Bull and Ferrari this 12 months? Nobody is aware of for positive. And the reply can solely be subjective. However few doubt Leclerc’s tempo over one lap.
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To date, the Purple Bull has been a quick automotive, in Verstappen’s palms, on sure varieties of observe. It’s fast in high-speed corners, and gradual. Nevertheless it lags behind McLaren in lengthy, medium-speed corners, which emphasise its usually inconsistent steadiness.
That is why Verstappen was fast in Australia, Japan and Saudi Arabia, however not so in China and Bahrain.
Purple Bull imagine they will repair their points with some upgrades which can be due quickly, maybe for the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix in two races’ time.
However McLaren are hardly prone to stand nonetheless by way of growth.
Verstappen will get the easiest out of the Purple Bull, and keep within the title struggle so long as he can.
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However as Fernando Alonso identified not too long ago, it is very tough to maintain a season-long title problem with a automotive deficit.
Can Ferrari flip this season round and be in competition for both championship? – Laura
After 5 races this season, Ferrari have a dash victory in China, courtesy of Lewis Hamilton, a single grand prix podium end, due to Charles Leclerc in Saudi Arabia, and lie fourth within the constructors’ championship, already 110 factors behind leaders McLaren.
Their automotive is the fourth quickest on common on uncooked efficiency – 0.312 seconds a lap slower than McLaren in qualifying.
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It is honest to say that is considerably under their expectations.
Staff boss Frederic Vasseur predicted over the winter that this season could be as open as final 12 months, that the benefit would swing between the highest 4 groups from race to race. And there’s no secret that Ferrari had been anticipating to begin the season in a aggressive place and mount a title problem from the off.
Vasseur believes they will flip their season round. He has repeatedly pointed to final season, and the truth that they had been in a much less aggressive place on the similar level in 2024 however remodeled their automotive and got here near successful the constructors’ title on the finish of the 12 months.
In addition they made an efficient job of creating the 2023 automotive, which was vicious firstly of the season, however significantly better by the tip of it.
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An improve is due quickly, though Ferrari haven’t stated at which race.
The complication for Ferrari is that they’ve two sizeable issues.
The primary is the efficiency of their automotive. The second is the efficiency of Hamilton, which may flip into a significant distraction if the seven-time champion can not enhance after three dismal races in Japan, Bahrain and Saudi Arabia.
If neither of these enhance quickly, the stress will begin to mount.
Lewis Hamilton described his Saudi Arabian Grand Prix as “horrible” after ending seventh, 31 seconds behind team-mate Charles Leclerc [Getty Images]
Why do the laws change simply when the sector is starting to shut up in competitiveness? The brand new regs for 2026 appear to be a lottery for groups who both nail or fail them, resulting in a dominant staff and people lagging behind. Steady regs = aggressive racing. – Matt
F1 has at all times modified its laws infrequently. It is an inevitable and essential a part of the game.
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Usually up to now, it has been as a result of the governing physique felt the necessity to intervene ultimately.
Maybe as a result of the automobiles had been getting too quick or harmful, equivalent to on the finish of the final ground-effect period in 1982, or when Ayrton Senna was killed in 1994. Or to alter a side of racing that was now not thought-about fascinating, equivalent to when refuelling was banned for 2010. Or so as to add a side that was felt to be missing, equivalent to when wider, quicker automobiles had been launched in 2017.
And the engine guidelines have additionally usually modified, once more for numerous causes.
This time, the start line was the engine guidelines. F1 and the FIA wished to make the game extra enticing to new producers. So that they arrange some working teams involving the producers and got here up with the 2026 guidelines.
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These retain 1.6-litre V6 turbo hybrids, however simplify them by eradicating the MGU-H, which recovers vitality from the turbo and is extremely advanced and was thought-about a barrier to new suppliers.
They’ve additionally upped {the electrical} capability in order that about 50% of the overall energy output will come from {the electrical} a part of the engine, and can run on 100% sustainable gas.
It has labored. Audi got here in – which was the concept behind altering the principles. Porsche ultimately didn’t. However Ford has come again, in partnership with Purple Bull. Honda is staying when it was going to drag out. And Common Motors is getting into subsequent 12 months, too, though its engine will not be prepared till 2029.
There was already a need to refine the chassis guidelines, to repair a number of the points which have arisen with the 2022 ground-effect regs. However the brand new engine guidelines required additional adjustments.
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It grew to become clear that recovering adequate vitality to produce the batteries was going to be an issue. So the rule-makers turned to moveable aerodynamics, lowering drag on the straights so the automobiles had been within the braking zones for longer.
Wrangling remains to be happening about this subject, though the principles will not be anticipated to alter considerably – for instance by limiting {the electrical} deployment in races, as some are pushing for the time being – as there’s a blocking majority stopping it.
Sure, this may open up the sector, however that usually occurs with new guidelines. However it would shut once more. It additionally supplies alternative for a shake-up of the aggressive order, which is commonly considered a constructive.
Seeing as Mercedes dominated the primary eight years of the engine laws when the V6 engines got here in, do you see them constructing that type of dominance once more from the brand new laws? – Keegan
Simply because Mercedes nailed the final new engine guidelines in 2014, doesn’t essentially imply they’ll achieve this once more in 2026.
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Mainly, Mercedes achieved that as a result of they invested extra money and assets sooner into these guidelines than their rivals. The opposite producers have discovered from that have.
Having stated that, the phrase in F1 is that Mercedes are presently greatest positioned for the brand new guidelines.
Many imagine that what’s motivating the present debate in regards to the engine guidelines – whether or not it’s or – is based within the considerations of Mercedes’ rivals – particularly Purple Bull – that they might face a aggressive deficit subsequent 12 months.
One attention-grabbing angle to emerge in current weeks is that senior sources say that the FIA’s single-seater director Nikolas Tombazis is telling groups and producers that the governing physique would not need engines to be a efficiency differentiator sooner or later.
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However that raises a significant philosophical query. Why not? Engines have at all times been a efficiency differentiator. It is referred to as motorsport, in any case. Automobiles do not transfer with out engines.
And who determined this? Was this agreed with the opposite stakeholders first?
It seems not.
This can doubtless run for some time.
