Kimi talented in Miami qualifying, Ferrari can hope for the race

Signs of life in Miami Formula 1 is showing signs of life and revival starting from Miami. Qualifying offers uncertainty until Q3, with an alternation of favourites. McLaren, dominator of the Sprint, does not shine as it has done so far. The greater suspension stiffness of the long race set-up seems to put the single-seater a little more in crisis, just as the wind seems to create a particularly marked aerodynamic imbalance. The new aerodynamic system brought to the track by the Woking team certainly works, but it still doesn’t seem to have all the stability and high energy requirements needed to dominate in all conditions and in the end Norris had to settle for fourth place. Kimi fabulous Mercedes is back on pole, and for the third time in a row it is Kimi Antonelli’s. But if the Brackley car is certainly going strong, there is a lot of the Italian driver in this pole. Even four tenths given to Russell, only fifth in the standings, only one attempt made and a session lived in crescendo and with great personality, in addition to the ability to place the best lap when it really counted, i.e. in Q3. The young Italian then appeared calm and more disappointed about the final lap lost due to pushing too hard than happy about the pole. These are all signs of an increasingly aware and determined Antonelli, who truly pulled off a remarkable feat of talent, also delivering a significant slap to his teammate, as well as an antagonist in the title race. The road for Antonelli is still very long and will probably involve a wet race and a start that he will have to find a way to make work, but in any case it can’t be better than starting from pole. Verstappen as in 2022 For the first time this year, however, Antonelli will not share the front row with George Russell, but with a rediscovered Max Verstappen. The updates on the RedBull are working and the heat made the session more selective also from the point of view of tire exploitation. The general balance of the car has definitely improved, with a suspension set-up that appeared softer than the competition, helping a lot in the slow section of the track. The new energy rules, combined with the favorable track in Miami, then gave importance back to the ability to break away, and Verstappen (together with Leclerc) immediately emerged. As already mentioned previously, the impression is of a Verstappen who once again has a well-balanced car in his hands and who is able to take it to the limit despite having less aerodynamic load than his competitors to manage, as we have seen him do many times in his career, but especially in the first half of 2022. Ferrari good behavior but lacks “extra gear” As far as the Maranello team is concerned, Leclerc remains a beacon in every session. We saw the Monegasque’s data show some suffering throughout the qualifying session in the very slow section, but right at the beginning of Q3 Leclerc found one of his “magic” laps, ending up excelling in both the twisty and fast sections. The car’s responses seemed more unpredictable, even listening to Leclerc’s words, but this also goes hand in hand with a stiffer suspension set-up to compensate for the weight of fuel in the long race. Ferrari’s real problem continues to be the Power Unit, with Leclerc himself speaking of the competition saying “they arrive in Q3 with another gear and we don’t have this extra gear… for now”. The graph clearly shows the need for Leclerc to harvest, like Verstappen, in the first sector, but without returning enough energy to excel compared to, for example, Verstappen. Again from the data, the impression is also that Norris mismanaged the energy of the last lap, with a noticeable drop in the second home straight. Wet race and unknowns For the race this time there are countless unknowns: rain is taken for granted in Miami, unlike the actual starting time. Everything is on the table to be discovered, especially in terms of race pace. There are four different cars in the first 4 places, something that we would not have expected so soon and which encourages good hopes for the race, with many open issues. Even in this case the prediction is therefore not obvious, and this in itself is excellent news.

Automobile Magazine – F1 English News
2026-05-03 15:45:00