Tag: oscar-piastri

Preview of the Miami Grand Prix

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.

F1 Australian Grand Prix 2025 Review Part 1

We are finally back! After testing in Barcelona and two weeks of testing in Bahrain we are back racing and what a weekend it was. Heartbreak, excitement, disappointment and so much discussion about those new cars.

The Heartbreak of a nation As 137,000 F1 fans were getting drinks and food 20 minutes before the start of the grand prix, Australia’s own Oscar Piastri lost control of his car and crashed it into the wall. He was driving it to the grid. All the hope and excitement of the nation down under was over before the race had begun. From the footage Piastri had hit the curve and then lost control of the car. Piastri spoke to the F1 media about the incident after the race and difficulties of these new cars.

”Unfortunately a combination of factors, including cold tyres, being up on that curb, and then having more power than in Quali [qualifying]”.

There were positives to come out of the weekend with Piastri qualifying ahead of his teammate Lando Norris. Piastri was also at the top of the second practice session.

Brilliant weekend of the Silver Arrow. At the last race of the 2025 season Abu Dubai as Lando Norris celebrated his first world championship all the talk in the paddock was Mercedes would be hard to beat in 2026. After two weeks of testing in Bahrain it appeared that prediction could be wrong as Red Bull, McClaren, Ferrari were all in the mix to compete with the Mercedes.

Halfway through qualifying everyone in F1 knew those predictions were exactly right. Mercedes would be the one to beat at the beginning of the season. Mercedes Team Principal Toto Wolf looked at the camera with the biggest smirk on his face, he knew he had a fast car. His drivers George Russell and Kimi Antonelli qualified in one and two respectively and this is where they would finish the race. They didn’t have it all their own way with Russell battling with Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc for the lead over the first twelve laps. The two drivers continued to overtake each other before the first safety vertical safety car. Mercedes decided to pit Russell with Ferrari keeping Leclerc out. After the vertical safety car Russell wasn’t challenged for the win. After the race Russell spoke about the race win with the F1 media.

”This wasn’t a straight forward afternoon, but this win feels very sweet! Congratulations to the whole team; they’ve done an incredible job and this victory is for them.”

Kimi Antonelli’s Saturday started in despair with crashing during the final practice session. The only reason Antonelli made it into qualifying was because Red Bull’s Max Verstappen crashed and the qualifying session was red flagged. This gave the Mercedes mechanics enough time to finish fixing the car and getting him out in Q1.

Antonelli started the race in second but was down to seventh after the first lap. He worked his way through the cars ahead and finished the race in second.

”Coming to the grid, I had a lower battery level so the start was very stressful! We obviously made a slow launch but from there our recovery was good and our pace was strong” he said.

F1 Saudi Arabia Qualifying Review Part 1

Verstappen back on top in Qualifying After struggling throughout last weekend’s race in Bahrain, Bed Bull’s Max Verstappen demonstrated that he is a genuine contender here in Saudi. After finishing sixth in Bahrain Verstappen will start tomorrow’s race in pole position. Verstappen finished fastest in each part of qualifying.

During his press conference after qualifying Verstappen spoke about his result.

“I definitely didn’t expect to be on pole her after FP3 as well and looking at whole weekend was. But yeah, the car came alive in the night. We made some changes and it was a lot more enjoyable to drive. “

“I think tomorrow in the race it will be tough to keep them behind, but where going to give it a good go.”

All four races this season have been won by the driver on pole position.

Piastri the biggest threat? McLaren’s Oscar Piastri is one of the in formed driver in Formula 1. He has won two of the last three races in China and Bahrain and finished third in Japan. Throughout the race in Japan he was quicker than his teammate Lando Norris who finished in second. He continued that fine form in qualifying putting the car on the front row.

In an interview after qualifying Piastri spoke about his chances in the race.

“I’m feeling confident in what we’ve got. There’s a lot of DRS zones around here which is a nice difference to Suzuka. So yeah, let’s see if we can make some progress.”

Piastri sits in second position in the championship three points behind Norris.

Norris has it all to to do in the race tomorrow. McLaren’s Lando Norris leads the world championship but it hasn’t all gone to plan for the Englishman. In the last race in Bahrain Norris only qualified his car in sixth and had difficulties throughout the race but finished on the podium after passing Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc in the final laps.

Here in Saudi Arabia Norris was impressive in the three free practice sessions, finishing quickest in two of the three. It all came undone for Norris in Q3 (third part of qualifying) when he hit the kerb on the exit to turn 4, crashing into the barrier on the opposite side of the track. Norris hadn’t recorded a time in Q3 before his crash and will start the race in tenth.

Speaking with F1.com after qualifying Norris said he was disappointed but determined for the race tomorrow.

“It’s been such a smooth, positive weekend so far, so we’re disappointed to have such a big setback but I’ve got to take it on the chin. I apoligised to the team, to my mechanics and the engineers and try and go again tomorrow.”

Russel continues his impressive form. Mercedes’s George Russell has been underrated in the F1 garage in 2025. Norris, Piastri and Verstappen have been getting the plaudits this season but the British driver has been consistent in the first four races. He has finished on the podium in three of the races and sits in fourth in the championship, only 14 points behind Norris who leads the championship. He qualified for tomorrow’s race in third position.

Belgium F1 Grand Prix

The McLaren is quick, really quick.

McLaren are having an impressive season. They sit second in the constructor’s championship, both their drivers Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri have won races this year and they continually finish on the podium.

It was another podium finish at the Belgium Grand Prix with Piastri finishing second after the disqualification of Russell.

After 32 laps Piastri sat in fourth spot and over three seconds behind Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc. In three laps he was half a second behind the ferrari and the next lap he passed the Leclerc with ease.

With eight laps left Piastri was four and half seconds behind Mercedes Lewis Hamilton in second and by the end of the race it was less than a second.

Piastri was interviewed after the race about the result.

“I’m happy with the result. I think we managed the race very well and I don’t think we could have have done much more today. We did a lot of things right and gave ourselves the best opportunities. But in the end, it wasn’t quite enough” he said.

Norris’s race was ruined on the first corner going onto the gravel and losing three positions on the grid. He went from fourth to seventh. Norris did show genuine pace throughout the race and passed Red Bull’s Sergio Perez. He was within a second of Perez’s teammate Max Verstappen for the last eight laps of the race. Norris finished the race in fifth.

Lando spoke about his first lap mishap.

” A disappointing race today. I think we managed the race and it cost me a good position on the grid which was difficult to recover with the lack of overtaking opportunities.”

McLaren’s Team Principal Andrea Stella said it has been a positive start to the season.

“Overall a very strong part of the season for McLaren. We are even closer to the top of the constructor’s championship and we look forward to the second part of the season.”