What’s the state of play in F1’s title race heading to Miami?

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Assessing the talking points and trends in the early stages of Formula 1’s world title battle after the first five races of the 2025 season heading into this weekend’s Miami Grand Prix.

Piastri settles strongly into new status

Seven days after his victory in Bahrain led to him being installed as the bookmakers’ favourite for the world title for the first time, Oscar Piastri solidified his new status with another accomplished weekend en route to victory over Max Verstappen in Saudi Arabia.

The in-form Australian has now achieved the milestone of winning back-to-back races for the first time in his F1 career – a feat team-mate Lando Norris is yet to manage in the same season – and he has won three of the last four races since the error that cost him at least second place in the Melbourne season-opener.

Indeed, since taking his maiden grand prix win in Hungary last July, Piastri has won five of the last 17 races – one more than his team-mate and two more than Verstappen in that time.

The 24-year-old’s growing momentum and assuredness through a race weekend is not being lost on observers – or rivals.

“You’ll not find many people in and around F1 who think Max is anything other than the best driver on the grid right now,” wrote Sky Sports F1’s Martin Brundle in his post-Jeddah column.

“But Oscar Piastri at McLaren is learning fast, and despite being 163 race starts behind Verstappen and 82 F1 races behind Norris experience-wise, he’s now won 10 per cent of his 51 race starts and leads the world championship. And he’ll only get better.”

Verstappen himself remarked after the race that he liked the fact that the McLaren driver was “very calm in his approach” and that he “delivers when he has to, barely makes mistakes”.

Delivering at the key moments in Jeddah, of course, included going wheel-to-wheel with the pole-sitting Verstappen into the race’s crucial first corner.

That Piastri ultimately came out on top in that duel after getting the better start from second and then, as the stewards would rule, ‘winning’ the corner as the Red Bull challenged him in the incident that would earn Verstappen a penalty, impressed many.

Norris returns to scene of first win in need of qualifying turnaround

F1’s fourth visit to the Miami International Autodrome represents the first anniversary of Norris’ maiden F1 win, a feat achieved from fifth on the grid ahead of Verstappen on the McLaren driver’s 110th race start.

A first return to the ‘Magic City’ since then will therefore hold special memories for Norris, who really needs a momentum-shifting result again this time after losing his early title lead to Piastri amid a difficult fortnight for him in the Middle East.

It is in the Briton’s previous stronghold over his McLaren team-mate – qualifying – where he really needs to deliver a timely improvement. Costly mistakes over a single lap in China, Bahrain and, most notably with a crash, Saudi Arabia mean Norris has only twice started on the front row so far this season.

It has been sixth and 10th in the last two weekends.

Both driver and team have spoken in recent weeks about the challenges he is having in meshing his driving style to the characteristics of this year’s McLaren, with the ability to extract the best from the car when on the low-fuel edge in qualifying proving particularly tricky for him.

Speaking after eventually salvaging fourth in Jeddah, Norris said: “I just make life tough for myself, especially when it’s a race like that. It would have been much easier, a lot more chilled, just to drive at the front.

“In some ways it’s a bit easier, so I’ve got to help myself out a little bit and have better Saturdays.”

Team boss Andrea Stella said of Norris’ race from 10th: “It was important for Lando’s morale. He showed his racecraft is absolutely brilliant and he said in the in-lap, ‘we just have to polish a little bit the Saturdays and we will have fun’.”

Ten points behind Piastri at this stage is certainly not yet major cause for concern but Norris, who had run ahead of his team-mate in Saudi before wrecking his victory hopes on the Saturday, will want to strike back as quickly as possible.

Verstappen in touch and still looming large

That a win rather than his ultimate second place in Jeddah would have seen Verstappen and not Piastri arrive in Miami as the world championship leader tells you all you need to know about why the reigning four-time champion remains such a threat to the McLaren drivers.

“We’re going to get an intra-McLaren battle with Verstappen looming large,” said Sky Sports F1’s Karun Chandhok on the F1 Show podcast.

“He is there ready to pounce and is the one maximising it at that Red Bull camp. You can’t discount him.”

McLaren and their drivers certainly will not be with Verstappen just 12 points behind, particularly with Red Bull looking genuinely quick in Saudi and tipped to bring a notable upgrade to the next race when F1 returns to Europe at Imola.

And although McLaren have consistently played down the impact the looming changes to front-wing deflection tests will have on their car’s performance come round nine in Spain, Red Bull will also hope that plays to their favour from June.

For now, it is still all about maximising results, which few if any do better than Verstappen. Indeed, all the while he stays in and around the equivalent of one race win of the title lead – 25 points – he is very much going to be right in the hunt for that fifth successive crown.

Will Saudi struggle prove exception or rule for Mercedes and Russell?

So was George Russell indeed right to sound a big note of caution about his chances of staying the distance in F1’s title fight this year given how Mercedes’ disappointing raceday in Saudi transpired?

When speaking the week before in Bahrain, after finishing an impressive second between the McLarens to secure his third podium in four races, Russell had warned: “I don’t expect this to continue for many races to come.”

Fast forward just one Sunday and Mercedes’ 2024 Achilles’ heel – tyre wear in hot conditions – returned with a vengeance on raceday in Jeddah to leave Russell only fifth and 27 seconds behind Piastri at the chequered flag.

“Clearly our worst performance so far from the year,” admitted team boss Toto Wolff after the race.

“The pace just dropped away with a blistering tyre and overheating tyres, and so far we haven’t got the explanations.”

Miami is expected to be warm too and, furthermore, it has not hitherto been a track where Mercedes have challenged at the very front since it joined the calendar in 2022.

It makes this Sprint weekend another important early-season test of the Silver Arrows’ 2025 front-running credentials.

Ferrari need something to happen soon

It is still relatively early in the 24-race season to definitively rule any would-be title challenger out, but Ferrari and their high-profile drivers certainly cannot afford to keep dropping ever-more points off the leading pace if any sort of title challenge is to take shape soon.

Highest-placed driver Charles Leclerc is fifth in the standings but even he heads to Miami already 52 points behind Piastri – a deficit which is in excess of two race wins.

Leclerc did lose 10 points from his tally when he was disqualified from fifth place in China, but his run to third in Jeddah is still as good as it has got for the Scuderia in a grand prix so far this season.

There have been race stints here and there so far where the SF-25 has looked to be genuinely competitive but consistent front-running has proved elusive, particularly in qualifying which has compromised the team’s chances on Sundays.

Lewis Hamilton is a further 16 points back in seventh place, with the eight points he lost from the Chinese Grand Prix meaning he is still behind Mercedes rookie Kimi Antonelli.

Clearly, with such an early-season deficit to the fast McLarens already built up, something would have to change very quickly for the Briton to put himself in the hunt for a record eighth title this year, although he did say in Japan that it “wasn’t my expectation” that he would be winning the championship in his first year in red anyway.

Nonetheless, the seven-time champion will certainly be hoping his 2025 picks up more promisingly soon despite somewhat ominously predicting after his Saudi struggle that “it’s going to be painful” all year in a Ferrari car he is not yet gelling with.

Sky Sports F1’s Miami GP schedule

Thursday May 1
7pm: Drivers’ Press Conference

Friday May 2
3pm: F1 Academy Practice 1
5pm: Miami GP Practice (session starts at 5.30pm)
7.30pm: Team Bosses’ Press Conference
8.15pm: F1 Academy Practice 2
9.05pm: Miami GP Sprint Qualifying (session starts at 9.30pm)

Saturday May 3
3.20pm: F1 Academy Qualifying
4pm: MIAMI GP SPRINT (race starts at 5pm)
6.30pm: Ted’s Sprint Notebook
7.50pm: F1 Academy Race 1
8.35pm: Miami GP Qualifying build-up
9pm: MIAMI GP QUALIFYING*
11pm: Ted’s Qualifying Notebook*

Sunday May 4
6pm: F1 Academy Race 2
7.30pm: Grand Prix Sunday: Miami GP build-up*
9pm: The MIAMI GRAND PRIX*
11pm: Chequered Flag: Miami GP reaction*
Midnight: Ted’s Notebook

*also live on Sky Sports Main Event

Formula 1 heads to Miami for a Sprint weekend this weekend, live on Sky Sports F1. Stream Sky Sports with NOW – no contract, cancel anytime

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