Formula 1 makes its first of three trips to the United States this weekend for Round 6 of the 2025 season at the Miami Grand Prix with Oscar Piastri hoping to continue his fine form, and Lando Norris looking to bounce-back from recent struggles.
The Australian has won the last two races to take over at the top of the drivers’ standings from McLaren team-mate Norris with the Briton struggling to extract 100 percent from the car.
But with the second sprint weekend of the season upon us, who will prosper and who will falter?
Having just one practice session before sprint qualifying may have been just what Norris doesn’t need after the last three races. Second in Japan was followed up with struggles in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia as Piastri excelled.
Can Norris rebound?
In fairness to Norris, the limited damage done across the two Middle Eastern races means that they were far from disastrous but concern does linger over whether he will rapidly get on top of his struggles. The weekend break will have helped him go over things with the team at the Woking factory but having one practice session to get things right puts pressure on his shoulders.
Norris is presented with a return to Miami, the scene of his first F1 victory last year, but with Piastri in full flow, it will be a battle to take that off him.
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Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton is another who may be dreading the thought of only getting one practice session under his belt before competitive action resumes as he contends with pace issues in the SF-25.
He has been soundly beaten by Charles Leclerc in recent races and the seven-time champion’s post-race media offerings have been very similar to Norris’: downbeat and self-deprecating.
A green shoot is that he won the sprint in China from pole position, so this could also offer an opportunity, and while Ferrari still finds itself off the pace compared to the leaders in McLaren and Red Bull’s Max Verstappen, Leclerc seems to be taking things in the right direction.
The Scuderia will run in a special livery this weekend to celebrate the anniversary of its partnership with HP, and there could be an addition to that if the team marks the death of Pope Francis with a black nose cone, as it had done with the death of Pope John Paul II.
Team principal Fred Vasseur wants the team to carry on the “progress” of the past two weekends, though it needs Hamilton to get on par with Leclerc sooner rather than later. Whether it will be at the venue that “probably ranks at the bottom of my favorite circuits”? We will find out this weekend.
Mercedes has been the surprise of the season given its struggles in the past three years but George Russell has been on the podium multiple times this season and has been backed by the bright start to Kimi Antonelli‘s fledgling career.
While Saudi Arabia saw Mercedes drop back behind Ferrari’s Leclerc in the order, team principal Toto Wolff is expecting an improved showing this weekend: “With temperatures high and the same tyre compound range as in Jeddah, we have plenty of learnings we can take into the weekend.
“We are therefore hopeful of a more competitive showing.”
Whether that will see Russell back on the podium or whether it will simply be putting the Silver Arrows as best of the rest behind McLaren and Verstappen is tough to tell especially as higher temperatures have been the thorn in Mercedes’ side.
And with Red Bull’s inconsistency, being best of the rest behind McLaren will be all Russell or Antonelli need for third. Verstappen was at his best to take pole in Saudi Arabia, putting to rest the struggles of Bahrain.
Those issues came after victory in Japan, which in turn followed a lack of pace compared to the McLarens across the Chinese Grand Prix weekend.
Miami and Jeddah do present similar challenges so it is hard to rule out a strong performance from the Milton Keynes-based outfit. Verstappen will be out to avenge what he saw as an unjust penalty in Saudi Arabia which ultimately cost him the chance to beat Piastri.
Yuki Tsunoda had a scrappy weekend last time out but still had the pace for points as he continues to adjust to life at Red Bull, but his race-ending crash with Alpine’s Pierre Gasly means both drivers have wrongs to put right.
