McLaren reigns supreme in this week’s winners and losers of F1’s Miami GP

There was real dominance from McLaren once more on F1’s fourth visit to Miami’s Hard Rock Stadium, with Oscar Piastri comfortably grabbing his fourth win in six races. Williams enjoyed its day in the sun, too, while questions will be asked at Red Bull and Ferrari over their lacklustre race day performances. The rest is up for this weekend’s ‘winners and losers’ debate.

Winner: Piastri collects another win, stretches championship lead

Oscar Piastri, McLaren

Photo by: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images

Now that is what a title run looks like. Piastri was unlucky to lose a sprint win on Saturday, and then made a mistake in qualifying to lose a pole shot. But he did everything right on Sunday and showed team-mate Lando Norris how to fight Max Verstappen, employing a cunning mixture of patience and decisiveness until he forced a front-locking Verstappen deep into Turn 1. From then on captain Piastri switched on the autopilot, got comfortable and emerged from his cruise to land a straightforward enough fourth season win.

As it happens, Piastri is the first McLaren F1 driver since Mika Hakkinen to clinch three consecutive victories (back in 1998). All credit to McLaren for its utterly devastating race pace, putting 37 seconds on George Russell and 40 seconds on Verstappen. Yikes.

Loser: Red Bull still has a lot of work to do

Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing

Photo by: Red Bull Content Pool

McLaren’s superior race pace and tyre management shows there is still a lot of work ahead for Red Bull, even if it can give Verstappen a car to contend for pole positions while Piastri and Norris struggle to wring the full potential out of their machine.

As soon as questions are being asked from the rear tyres, though, Red Bull is well adrift and it will need a lot more than the added downforce from its modest Miami floor update. Those upgrades are on the way, with another batch expected in Imola, but McLaren won’t sit still either.

In hindsight you could argue Verstappen didn’t have to ask so much from his tyres in his futile attempt to aggressively fend off the McLarens, but who is brave enough to go and tell him that? Such is his never-say-die DNA. In the other Red Bull Yuki Tsunoda finished where he started in 10th, behind the four cars from Williams and Ferrari, so he also hasn’t hit his stride yet.

Winner: Williams’ rollercoaster weekend

Alexander Albon, Williams

Photo by: James Sutton / Motorsport Images

Williams went through a rollercoaster of emotions after seeing Alex Albon lose his fourth place in Saturday’s sprint due to a harsh penalty for a safety car speed violation. Those may well be costly points by the end of the season, but at least the Grove squad got its ‘just rewards’ on Sunday with what may well be its strongest race pace display in years. Albon defeated both Ferraris and also looked good to mix it up with the Mercedes cars, with Russel’s cheap VSC pitstop putting him out of reach.

Carlos Sainz had a less successful race to ninth, revealing he started on used tyres due to an operational mistake before picking up slight damage at the start. The Spaniard was unlucky to lose out to Lewis Hamilton due to the latter’s VSC stop, but all in all Williams will happily bank 12 points as it aims to build up a buffer before midfield teams can out-develop it, with James Vowles’ troops already shifting on 2026.

Loser: Ferrari’s missed opportunity and orders

Lewis Hamilton, Ferrari

Photo by: Steven Tee / Motorsport Images

Ferrari had a real shocker, then, both in terms of pace and race management. Charles Leclerc cut a hugely frustrated figure after both qualifying and the race. Not because he felt he could have done better, but because he actually couldn’t. Leclerc felt he delivered a great lap, and then found out it was only good enough for eighth behind both Williams cars. That scenario repeated itself on long run pace, with Albon and Mercedes’ Andrea Kimi Antonelli having the measure of Leclerc as he finished seventh ahead of Lewis Hamilton.

Perhaps Antonelli could have been within reach, but Ferrari was slow to pull the trigger on swapping Leclerc and Hamilton around, with the latter faster at the start of his second stint on his softer medium tyres. By the time a frustrated Hamilton was finally let by, that window was already closing and in the end, he reacted sarcastically to Ferrari ordering Leclerc past once more. Hamilton endured another disappointing qualifying session, but his great strategy call for slicks in the sprint at least handed him a third place on Saturday. Nevertheless, Ferrari will be banking on its reportedly large Imola upgrade package to deliver some real progress. It’s sorely needed.

Winner: Russell gets a boost of confidence

George Russell, Mercedes

Photo by: Steven Tee / Motorsport Images

Russell was delighted with third, which is a real result after the difficult weekend he has had. He struggled for confidence in the Mercedes over one lap, seeing rookie team-mate Antonelli trump him with a sprint pole and third on the grand prix grid. But the Briton has really hit his stride this year to deliver consistent results on race day, initially protecting his position despite starting on the slower hard tyres before inevitably having to let Norris through.

Russell was fortunate with the timing of the mid-race VSC call to be able to vault up the order to third, although starting on the hardest compound does put you in a larger window to capitalise on such things. He then held off Verstappen, albeit it miles away from the leading McLarens, which will be a concern to Mercedes as much as it is to Red Bull. Even without the VSC Russell would have likely finished ahead of team-mate Antonelli, who is still mastering the art of Pirelli tyre management.

At the time of writing Red Bull has protested against Russell’s result for allegedly failing to slow for yellow flags. It may swap him and Verstappen around, but it won’t make a big difference to Russell’s outlook on the weekend.

Loser: Aston Martin’s struggle saga continues

Fernando Alonso, Aston Martin Racing

Photo by: Glenn Dunbar / Motorsport Images

There have been some positives, with Lance Stroll showing his wet-weather aptitude again with an opportunistic and commendable fifth place in Saturday’s sprint. But on the whole, Aston Martin was truly at sea in dry conditions and never looked like it was ever challenging for points, with Fernando Alonso and Stroll finishing a lap down in 15th and 16th respectively.

Somehow Alonso is still left without points finishes after six races, having missed a chance to mimic Stroll on Saturday by being brought in too late for slicks and then crashing out. His odd spin in the main grand prix completed a dire weekend for the two-time world champion.

It is going to be a long season for the hyper ambitious Silverstone squad, but thankfully every race completed is also one step closer to the 2026 rules reset which Aston hopes to capitalise on with talismanic Adrian Newey poring over the designs. It better be worth the wait.