Five Winners, Five Losers: Miami Grand Prix
- Peter Johnson
- 6 days ago
- 8 min read
Formula One ended its five-week spring break in Florida with an action-packed Miami Grand Prix that saw a mix of fortunes across the field. Here are DIVEBOMB’s winners and losers from the fourth round of the season
Winner: Kimi Antonelli
Possibly the standout moment of Kimi Antonelli’s rookie campaign was his sprint pole position in Miami 12 months ago, and his pace throughout this weekend underscored his genius around this circuit.
The last three race weekends have become a question of what records the young Italian will break next, and he added a couple more to his collection in the Sunshine State.
Antonelli became just the third driver after Ayrton Senna and Michael Schumacher to take his first three poles in succession, and the third after Damon Hill and Mika Häkkinen to take his first three race victories on the spin. Nobody has ever previously converted their first three pole positions into victory, either.
What’s more about his weekend in Miami is that there is no caveat of misfortune for George Russell. The Brit’s mechanical issues during qualifying in Shanghai or the Safety Car a lap after he pitted in Japan left the question of how Antonelli would cope in a straight fight unanswered.
In Miami, despite dropping a couple of points to his teammate in the sprint, Antonelli beat Russell fair and square on Sunday, extending his championship lead to 20 points.
Team Principal Toto Wolff even went so far as to describe the teenager’s win in Miami as his “best race yet”.
As long as the Italian keeps this run going, even the persisting theme of his poor starts is yet to become a real cause for concern.
Winner: Lando Norris
He may have been understandably disappointed to finish second on Sunday, but Lando Norris and McLaren enjoyed a huge forward step in performance in Miami.
A smattering of upgrades for the Constructors’ Champions and a huge weight reduction catapulted the car towards the front of the field, with Norris even winning Saturday’s sprint.
The world champion was yet to finish a Grand Prix higher than fifth in 2026, but showed excellent racecraft in the main race to pick off Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc and Antonelli prior to his pit stop.
As it happened, Antonelli, who boxed a lap prior to Norris, was alongside the Briton as the McLaren exited the pits and managed to squeeze ahead through the Esses of Sector 1.
Norris reflected on the Mercedes driver’s undercut as the pivotal moment of the race, where his chance of victory ultimately went begging.
He said: “We should have boxed before. Maybe he [Antonelli] still would have overtaken me, but we could have done more to defend for the win.
“We take it on the chin, but it’s still a positive weekend altogether.”
Winner: Franco Colapinto
Whatever it was that Franco Colapinto had on his cornflakes on Saturday and Sunday in Miami, he could do worse than having the same breakfast every Grand Prix weekend for the rest of the season.
The Argentine has generally struggled during his first 12 months at Alpine, but was well worthy of his highest-ever career finish in Florida.
A thoroughly decent eighth place in sprint qualifying became 10th in the race, before another eighth place in Saturday’s qualifying showed that his pace throughout the sprint sessions was no flash in the pan.
Colapinto was fortunate to come away unscathed from his opening-lap collision with Lewis Hamilton, both in terms of damage and penalties, but from that point on drove a mature and rather lonely race to take the chequered flag in the position he started.
Following Leclerc’s post-race 20-second penalty, the Argentine found himself elevated to a career-best seventh place with a six-point haul that takes Alpine fifth in the Constructors’ standings.
Winner: Max Verstappen
It was far from Max Verstappen’s finest weekend behind the wheel of a F1 car, but the four-time world champion certainly seemed to have rediscovered some of his mojo.
There is perhaps no more thrilling spectacle in F1 than watching Verstappen drive with nothing to lose, as the Dutchman proved once again that he is the sport’s great entertainer.
Despite a tussle with old foe Hamilton, Verstappen’s sprint was nothing to write home about, starting and finishing the 19-lap dash in fifth. It did at least demonstrate a step forward in performance for the team from Milton Keynes.
Verstappen, who was the only driver to have led all four previous Miami Grands Prix, provided a masterful touch in Saturday’s qualifying to reach the front row of the grid, but things did unravel on Sunday.
A slightly desperate lunge and heavy lockup at the opening corner gave way to an uncharacteristic spin, as Verstappen looked unusually flustered by the fast-starting Ferrari of Leclerc.
Dropping 11 places, the Dutchman scythed his way aggressively — perhaps even too aggressively, at times — through the field, reaching P9 before his team called him in during the early Safety Car.
Out of sync with the rest of the rest of the leaders, Verstappen dropped through the field at an increasing rate towards the end of the race, crossing the line fifth and less than a second behind Russell.
A post-race five-second penalty for crossing the white line while exiting the pits was inconsequential, and Verstappen could enjoy his best finish of the year in a much-improved Red Bull.
Winner: Williams
A common trope from Team Principal James Vowles throughout 2025 was that Williams had committed rather early to the new regulations, putting all its eggs in its 2026 basket.
A series of poor results in the opening three rounds, which overall left Williams as the third-slowest team ahead of Cadillac and Aston Martin, was clearly a huge disappointment, not least for drivers Carlos Sainz and Alex Albon.
The pair rallied in Miami, though, collecting the Grove outfit’s first double points finish since the Monaco Grand Prix on 25th May last year.
Only Ferrari (11) and Cadillac (nine) brought more upgrades to Florida than Williams’ seven, and based on the improved showing in Miami, Vowles’ squad finally looks to have arrived to this year’s midfield battle.
Loser: George Russell
In the five weeks since his Japanese Grand Prix unravelled following that ill-timed Safety Car, Russell could console himself with the fact that the points he had dropped to Kimi Antonelli were down to bad luck.
The same cannot be said for Miami, though, where Russell was soundly beaten by his younger teammate. Granted, he clawed a couple of points back during the sprint race, but was simply not in the same class thereafter.
While the Briton was locked in battle with Oscar Piastri for much of Sunday’s race, Antonelli fought then pulled clear of the other McLaren more than 20 seconds up the road.
Now 20 points behind Antonelli in the championship, Russell has some serious self-reflection to do.
Loser: Ferrari
Clearly the second-fastest team in Australia and China, Ferrari slipped back into the clutches of McLaren in Japan but looked to respond by bringing 11 upgrades to Miami, more than any other team.
The developments, which included the “macarena” rear wing first seen in Bahrain during pre-season, did not produce the desired performance boost, with the Ferrari arguably the fourth-fastest car across the weekend.
Leclerc claimed a reasonable third place in the sprint, with Hamilton down in seventh, but the Briton suggested Ferrari understood how to take a step forward for the main race.
Starting third on Sunday, Leclerc took the lead, while an opening-lap collision with Colapinto took a chunk out of Hamilton’s floor and led him to a lonely race off the back of the leading group.
Even while fighting at the front, though, Leclerc did not appear at one with his car, with two identical snaps of oversteer at Turn 8 losing him track position to both Norris and Antonelli. Several wide moments at the hairpin of Turn 17 also pointed to the Ferrari’s balance not being quite right.
Fast forward to the final lap, and Leclerc spun and clobbered the barrier while fighting Piastri for third place. Crawling around the final lap with broken suspension and skirting across every run-off area in sight, the Monégasque was handed a 20-second penalty which dropped him down to seventh, behind Hamilton.
Not every weekend can be a good one, but Miami was clearly Ferrari’s worst of the year so far.
Loser: Isack Hadjar
It has generally been a positive start to Isack Hadjar’s Red Bull career, particularly given the Frenchman is widely considered to have the hardest job in F1.
While he didn’t have a glowing weekend in Japan, the Miami Grand Prix was the first time he has seemed particularly out of his depth, with Verstappen clearly more comfortable with the upgraded Red Bull than his young Parisian counterpart.
The changes to the regulations probably fell in Verstappen’s favour, too, with Hadjar arguably having adapted better to the demands of the 2026 cars in the first three races.
Across Friday and Saturday, it was the first time this season that there has been a chasm between Hadjar and his teammate. He qualified ninth for the sprint, a full second down on Verstappen, and was eight-tenths down on Saturday.
His disqualification from qualifying was a technical fault on the part of the team with his car deemed too wide, so the Frenchman can bear no responsibility for that.
What he was culpable for, though, was his careless accident on Lap 4, when he clipped the inside wall at Turn 14 and was out of the race on the spot with broken suspension.
It is Hadjar’s first blip this season, and hopefully he can adapt both to his upgraded car and the amendments to the regulations sooner rather than later.
Loser: Audi
Audi have started their debut season in F1 quietly, generally slipping under the radar and only rarely breaking into the top ten but running well overall.
Miami, however, was just not it for the team.
All was well in sprint qualifying, with Gabriel Bortoleto and Nico Hülkenberg landing 11th and 12th respectively, which is par for the course for the team in 2026.
It began to unravel from there, though, with Hülkenberg failing to take the start with an engine issue. Bortoleto crossed the line 11th, but shortly thereafter was disqualified for a technical infringement, likewise concerning his engine.
Bortoleto was the slowest in the field in Saturday’s qualifying session, although a good drive would elevate him to 12th 57 laps later. Hülkenberg, meanwhile, retired on Lap 7 with a mechanical issue.
The moral of the story is that Audi clearly has multiple issues with its power unit, which the team will need to rectify before the next race in Canada.
Loser: Aston Martin
There are few more embarrassing statistics in F1 than the one which befell Aston Martin after Friday’s sprint qualifying, as both Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll failed to post a lap on Friday afternoon faster than even the slowest time in the Formula 2 qualifying session.
Alonso, the faster of the Aston pair, completed a tour of the Miami International Autodrome in his AMR26 in 1:41.311, two-tenths slower than Cian Shields, who was 22nd and last in the F2 session.
The veteran Spaniard’s famous “GP2 engine” rant at the 2015 Japanese Grand Prix comes to mind, with Honda’s under-powered engine providing the same misery McLaren suffered a decade ago.
Come race day, Aston were again well off the pace, albeit not by as much, and Alonso and Stroll were setting lap times slightly more befitting of F1.
On a genuinely positive note, the engine vibrations that plagued the team in the first three rounds seem to have subsided somewhat, but otherwise it was another embarrassing weekend for Aston Martin.
Edited by Meghana Sree
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