After five long weeks the Formula 1 is officially back this week. After races in Saudi Arabia and Bahrain were cancelled due to the ongoing conflict in the middle east this will be the first race since the Japanese Grand Prix. There will be so many questions as the cars hit the Miami streets for the first time on Friday.
Is Kimi Antonelli a genuine championship contender? As the teams began packing up their garages at the end of Australian Grand Prix it was clear that Mercedes were the front runner and their driver George Russell was the championship favourite. Russell dominated qualifying and apart from the first 15 laps controlled the race.
Since the Australian Grand Prix it has been Russell’s team mate at Mercedes Kimi Anonelli who has dominated, winning in China and Japan. Antonelli is only 19 and in his second year in Formula 1 but has proven that he is ready to take the next step. In China he qualified at the top of the grid but after losing it to Russell on the opening lap of the race he retook it on the second and wasn’t challenged for the rest of the race. He became the youngest ever Formula 1 winner.
In Japan Antonelli qualified first but slipped down to sixth after the first lap. Antonelli was fortunate though as all the drivers ahead of him on the track including Russel had pitted before Haas’s Ollie Bearman crashed causing a safety car. Antonelli was able to pit during the safety car and came into the lead. The Italian driver wasn’t challenged for the rest of the race, winning his second in a row.
Russell on the other hand had a battle for third with Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc. The two drivers battled back and forth before Leclerc performed a brilliant move on Russell claiming third. Russell displayed his displeasure of our pit stop situation on the team radio saying “unbelievable”.
Antonelli leads the championship by nine points over Russell. Antonelli is the youngest world championship leader.
Will McLaren continue to rise at Miami? The first two races were difficult to say the least for McLaren. Home town hero Oscar Piastri crashed his car in Melbourne, breaking the hearts of the massive crowd around the track. Cold tyres, hitting the curb and more power than he expected were the cause of the accident. At China, both Piastri and his team mate Lando Norris were unable to start the race due to electrical issues but the cars had separate electrical issues.
At the Suzuka circuit, McLaren demonstrated they were getting in control of their electrical issues with Piastri and Norris qualifying third and fifth respectively. On the opening lap Piastri was able to pass Antonelli and Russell to take the lead. He was able to hold onto the lead until the safety car with Antonelli taking the lead. As the safety came in and racing resumed Piastri was unable to keep up with the speed of the Mercedes but would complete the race in second. Norris started the race and finished in fifth.
McLaren sit in third in the championship with 46 points, 28 points ahead of Haas in fourth.
Where to from here for Red Bull and Max Verstappen? Throughout the first three races weekends of the season it would be hard to find positives for Max Verstappen. It started with the first Saturday of the season with qualifying. In Q1 Verstappen crashed out and start the race at the back of the grid. He was able to get the car up to sixth but was unable to match the pace of Norris in the battle for fifth.
China was a complete disaster for the Red Bull driver, out of the points in the sprint race and in the race he had to retire with cooling issues. In Japan he finished the race in eighth, he had a battle with Alpine’s Pierre Gasly for seventh but was unable to pass him. Verstappen only has 12 points for the season already 60 points behind championship leader Antonelli.
Verstappen is not impressed by the new configurations of the cars in 2026 with 50/50 split between electrical combustion and internal combustion. After the Chinese Grand Prix Verstappen said during a press conference he doesn’t enjoy driving the cars and the racing between the cars.
“If someone likes this, then you really don’t know what racing is about, it’s not fun at all. This is not Mario Kart, it’s not racing.”
Vertappen has continued with this view in most of his press conferences. This has now caused speculation about his future in the sport.
“I mean I really don’t want to leave, I wish had more fun for sure but I’m also doing other stuff that is a lot more fun.”
“It’s conflicting, I don’t really enjoy driving the car, but I do enjoy working with all the people in the team” he said during an interview.
There will be more change for Verstappen with his race engineer at Red Bull Gianpiero Lambiase will be leaving for McLaren in 2028. Lambiase has been Verstappen’s race engineer since 2016 when Verstappen joined Red Bull. They have won four world championships together.
Verstappen is contracted until the end of 2028 but F1 website The Race is reporting that there are clauses in his contract that state that Verstappen must be in the top two by the summer break. Verstappen is 51 points behind second place.
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