F1 Review: Oscar Piastri Unstoppable, McLaren Masterful in Miami

Oscar Piastri started fourth and charged to the front with ease, passing Max Verstappen for the lead on lap 14 and cruising to the win in the Crypto.com Miami Grand Prix on Sunday (May 4th), his third consecutive win. Piastri became the first McLaren driver to win three races in a row since Mika Häkkinen did it in 1998.

“I won the race that I really wanted to,” said Piastri. Yesterday was a tricky day. Obviously, the Sprint was what it was, but qualifying was probably one of my trickiest sessions of the year. To come away with a win still on Sunday is an impressive result.

“Obviously, there was a bit of argy-bargy at Turn 1, which helped me out a little bit, and then I was aware enough to avoid Max coming through in Turn 1. From that point onwards, I knew that I had a good pace advantage and clearly the car was unbelievable today.”

Lando Norris, who challenged Verstappen for the lead at the start and dropped to fifth for his efforts, recovered to finish second, well ahead of George Russell, whose timely pit stop under a virtual safety car helped him claim third ahead of Verstappen.

Williams Racings’ Alex Albon was fifth, ahead of Mercedes’ Andrea Kimi Antonelli, who started third, followed by the Ferrari duo of Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton in seventh and eight, respectively. Williams’ Carlos Sainz was ninth and Red Bull’s Yuki Tsunoda finished 10th.  

In the driver standings, Piastri extended his lead over Norris from 10 to 16 points and leads 131 to 115. Verstappen is third with 99 points, just six ahead of Russell.

Increasing the lead out front! 👏

Here's how the drivers' standings now look after Miami 👇 #F1 #MiamiGP pic.twitter.com/yNApX3xpUs

— Formula 1 (@F1) May 4, 2025

In the constructor standings, McLaren’s dominance continued, and their lead is now 105 over Mercedes, 246 to 141. Red Bull is third with 105 points.

The Race

Verstappen was quick off the line at lights out and easily beat Norris into Turn 1, but Verstappen locked up his breaks, and Norris saw an opportunity. It backfired, as Verstappen closed the door on Norris, who backed off and lost three positions as Antonelli moved into second. Norris felt he was forced off the track by Verstappen, and the stewards began an investigation, as is often the case when Verstappen and a McLaren start on the front row. Stewards proffered a decision in rather quick fashion, and this time, Verstappen was off the hook.

A frenetic first few corners in Miami 😱

The Red Bull of Max Verstappen just keeps hold of his lead on the opening lap ⬇️#F1 #MiamiGP pic.twitter.com/e2GKtq9KM5

— Formula 1 (@F1) May 4, 2025

After a brief virtual safety car for Jack Doohan’s disabled Alpine, green flag racing resumed, and Verstappen took off, as Piastri snagged second from Antonelli. Norris blew by Russell on lap six and quickly closed on the other Mercedes of Antonelli. Norris moved into third on lap eight and now trailed the leaders by four seconds.

Colliding at the first corner! 🫣

This contact ended Jack Doohan's race prematurely 😢#F1 #MiamiGP pic.twitter.com/6MkrLTtPZ4

— Formula 1 (@F1) May 5, 2025

The threat of rain arose quickly, with forecasts calling for downpours between laps 14 and 20. The engineers seemed sure that rain would impact the race.

Up front, Piastri was pressuring Verstappen and was well within DRS range. Verstappen successfully repelled several attempts from the McLaren, and while those two battled, Norris took advantage and cut significantly into the deficit to the leaders.   

Piastri finally got by Verstappen on lap 14, and the Dutchman then found himself in the clutches of Norris, and Norris needed to clear Verstappen quickly if he had any hopes of keeping his teammate in sight, as Piastri zoomed away to a four-second lead by lap 16.

The lead changes hands! ⚔️

Piastri passes Verstappen in Miami#F1 #MiamiGP pic.twitter.com/TD63Va1Lhq

— Formula 1 (@F1) May 4, 2025

Lando ⚔️ Max

It was an intense battle out there between the McLaren and Red Bull pairing 👊#F1 #MiamiGP pic.twitter.com/ZJQbHlGVqY

— Formula 1 (@F1) May 5, 2025

Meanwhile, Piastri was blowing the race open, with a nine-second cushion on lap 20, and it seemed the only thing possibly standing in his way was rain or a safety car. Not surprisingly, previous weather forecasts were wrong, and now it seemed any significant rainfall would skirt the circuit. That was great news for McLaren, who were staring at a 1-2 finish and growing leads in both the drivers and manufacturers standings. 

A hydraulic issue forced the Haas of Bearman to stall, and brought about the second virtual safety car. Both McLarens pitted under the VSC and maintained their huge leads. Russell also pitted under the VSC and came out in front of Verstappen, who had pitted just before the VSC. 

LAP 29/57

🟡 Virtual Safety Car 🟡

Nooo! A mechanical failure on Bearman's Haas sees him pull over to the side of the track#F1 #MiamiGP pic.twitter.com/8BHz0gmbuQ

— Formula 1 (@F1) May 4, 2025

While Piastri maintained his sizeable lead over his teammate, Hamilton was stuck behind Leclerc and was exclaiming his frustration over the radio. When he radioed his team with the question “Do you just want me to sit here behind him (Leclerc),?” Hamilton was met with the textbook non-answer “We’ll get back to you.” Hamilton got his wish a few laps later as Leclerc finally acquiesced, and Hamilton was unleashed to attack Antonelli in sixth.  

A battle for the final podium spot was shaping up as Verstappen, in fourth, chased Russell, whose lead was 1.5 seconds with 12 laps to go. Up front, Norris had the gap to Piastri down to less than five seconds. Verstappen could not dent Russell’s lead, but Norris was 3.5 back with six laps remaining. Piastri was not worried.

Hamilton was instructed to let Leclerc by on lap 54, and Hamilton, as you would expect, was not happy, because Hamilton is not happy about anything. When told that Sainz was just 1.4 seconds behind him after the swap, Hamilton sarcastically responded with, “You want me to let him by too?”  

Piastri took the checkered flag with a cool four-second edge over Norris, with Norris well ahead of Russell by over 30 seconds.

The Good

The pre-race drivers parade featured 10 full-scale, fully drivable replicas of the 2025 cars made almost entirely out of LEGO, and also featured some of the best racing of the day, with the cars also able to make slight contact and not break into a million pieces.

Each car was made using nearly 400,000 LEGO bricks, unlike the actual Aston Martins, which seem to be made of real bricks.

When the outcome of a F1 race is decided well before the halfway point, it’s good to have something else going on during the race to keep viewers entertained. And that’s why we should all be thankful for Ferrari’s strategy decisions, as well as Ferrari’s radio transmissions.  

Only Ferrari would issue a team order to swap positions, then, a few laps later, issue a later team order to re-swap the positions. It’s almost comical. No, it is comical. And is the team actually issuing these orders? Because it sure seems like Hamilton and Leclerc are calling the shots, with the sass and attitude of two drivers who are very unhappy with their respective cars’ performance. 

The Ferrari drivers, Hamilton especially, are often downright rude to their race engineers. You could even say they bully their race engineers. The team dynamic at Ferrari is all out of whack. Leclerc and Hamilton would say the same about their underperforming cars.

best radio message of the season so far is from sir lewis hamilton😭 #MiamiGP pic.twitter.com/vCvJbc10gR

— 𝓬𝓱𝓵𝓸𝓮⁴⁴ ⸆⸉ (@xtorturedchloe) May 4, 2025

In any case, it seems like it’s a good time for Ferrari team principal Fred Vasseur to step in and take control of the situation. Vasseur is anything but boisterous, so maybe a calm, quiet approach to remedying the situation is needed, and the only logical way to do that is to place Post-it notes on Leclerc and Hamilton’s steering wheels that say “Shut up and drive.”

The Bad

Sky Sports commentator Danica Patrick showed up well prepared for the unpredictable Miami weather – by dressing in a shower curtain, albeit a stylish one, with a fashionable single strap. 

Danica Patrick Goes Viral In White Dress At Miami Grand Prix https://t.co/O2l4Nyd3WH pic.twitter.com/0iWSVhzmNF

— James Sears (@havemoremoney) May 4, 2025

Despite Patrick’s choice of clothing, and despite several teams forecasting rain midway through the race, it unfortunately did not rain, which is slightly disappointing because what this race sorely needed was rain. The sad aspect is that this race was about as exciting as watching rain dry. 

Aston Martin’s hot mess of a season continued as Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll finished 15th and 16th, respectively. That’s bad, but it gets worse. Both Aston’s finished a lap down, and the only cars they finished ahead of were cars that had retired. This race may be the lowest point of Alonso’s career: he’s a two-time world champion, yet is being outscored not only by Stroll, but also by three rookies (Antonelli, Oliver Bearman, and Issak Hadjar).  

At this point, I think Alonso would rather be hooked up to a lie detector and answer questions about his knowledge of 2008’s “Crashgate” scandal than be stuck in a 2025 Aston Martin.

 Grid Walk Moments

Martin Brundle began his grid walk by chatting with Jerry Bruckheimer, who was in Miami to promote the “F1” movie, of which he is one of the producers. And promote he did, in the most boring manner possible. Are we sure that it was that even Jerry Bruckheimer? It could have been discount Chuck Norris.

In any case, if you’re going to promote the “F1” movie, there is a cast of superstars better suited to do it. Like Brad Pitt, Damson Idris, Kerry Condon, or Tobias Menzies, all stars in the movie. Heck, even Javier Bardem, in full “No Country For Old Men” Anton Chigurh character, would make a better “F1” ambassador than Bruckheimer.

Brundle then talked with former heavyweight boxing champion Evander Holyfield and all 1 and 3/4’s of his ears. Brundle asked Holyfield if he watched British boxer Conor Benn’s latest fight, and Holyfield replied that he didn’t hear the question. Here was a perfect opportunity for Brundle to work in an “earpiece” comment, or at least speak his question directly into Holyfield’s ear, where he could get an up-close view of the damage inflicted by Mike Tyson back in 1997. Brundle could have even ended the interview by saying, “Well, Evander, I don’t want to talk your ear off, so let me move on to my next interview.”    

And then, in the coup de gras of the Miami Grid Walk, Brundle sent the legendary Sir Jackie Stewart on a quest to ask musician and actor Lisa if she could come over and talk to Brundle. And as we’ve seen in other Grid Walks, Sir Jackie has no qualms about interrupting someone on Brundle’s behalf, even if he or she has only one name. That may be why they call Sir Jackie “The Prying Scotsman.”    

The Driver

In the last two races, Piastri has made one thing clear — he has Verstappen’s number. In Saudi Arabia, Piastri forced Verstappen into a penalty. In Miami, Piastri methodically stalked the Red Bull, making a few overtake attempts until finally duping Verstappen into overbraking into Turn 1, after which Piastri easily slipped by on the inside. And with that the race was essentially over.

It’s not often that Verstappen makes an error, much less two in consecutive races, but Piastri has forged his way into Verstappen’s head, much as he has forged his way into the championship lead. In Saudi Arabia, Verstappen was served with a penalty; in Miami, he just got served. Verstappen is a brand-new father; his daughter Lily might not be saying “Daddy,” but Piastri seems to be having Verstappen say “Uncle.” 

  
The Results (Crypto.com Miami Grand Prix, Miami International Autodrome)

Jeffrey Boswell