2025 Miami Grand Prix - Miami USA, May 02-04

[AR3-GP]

[organic]

I guess with the softer tyres they're expecting it to become more rear limited. Shame for the rest of the field as thay would mean we might see another boring McLaren fest

[organic]

Red bull had to abandon pink and go with white on their Japan livery after the pink was found to be too heavy. 2 races later and the sister team shows up with a pink livery...

[Sevach]

Red Bull will likely struggle in the mid-course however. The slow tigher corners and heavy traction zone at the end of sector 2, then down back straight to the final corner, which itself is tight and heavy on traction won't serve them well.

RB have struggled this year where a circuit is rear limited. The latter half of the circuit is very much more rear limited than the first half. So we shall see.

I see Mercedes having a return to a better race. Red Bull somewhere in there and Ferrari a bit of an unknown.

McLaren the obvious favourites.

Mclaren is the safe bet, it's good at everything.
Red Bull is good at high speed corners but gets hit hard on bumps, curbs and traction zones(which is Miami after S1).
Mercedes could compete, their car is also an all rounder, but slower than Mclaren.
More or less the same for Ferrari.

[univex]

Everything I see in the media is expecting McLaren and Norris to be the one to beat (esp. Sky Sports re LN).
If you look at the race last year, whilst LN pipped OP in qualifying (LN had the updates to the car), OP completely outshone LN in the race until the safety car, due to the bollard on track, that handed LN the win.
From the start OP took the opportunity to scoot through from 6th to 3rd, then within a few laps managed to overtake Leclerc and stay ahead moving into 2nd place whilst LN was in 6th behind Sainz with little indication he could make a pass.
Without the safety car (due to Max hitting the bollard) the GP was looking to be a 1 stop snooze fest that should have seen 1. MV, 2. OP, & 6. LN.

[BorisTheBlade]

@univex
Very good point. Also, Zak Brown seems to believe, that the WC Lead might make OP even stronger mentally, where I am beginning to lose faith in Lando's ability to turn around.
On another note: As this is a Sprint Weekend and the Mercedes seems to be an easier car to set up this year, might they have an edge over Ferrari? Or might they be able to keep the rears alive better?

[Henk_v]

I think extrapolations are difficult. RBR has much improved the kerb performance and it seems teams are reeling in MCL.
I am secretly honing for a chaotic weekend and a midfield team on the podium. Both Hadjar and Gasly seem to be able to snatch a Lucky podium this season.

[Matt2725]

Red Bull will likely struggle in the mid-course however. The slow tigher corners and heavy traction zone at the end of sector 2, then down back straight to the final corner, which itself is tight and heavy on traction won't serve them well.

RB have struggled this year where a circuit is rear limited. The latter half of the circuit is very much more rear limited than the first half. So we shall see.

I see Mercedes having a return to a better race. Red Bull somewhere in there and Ferrari a bit of an unknown.

McLaren the obvious favourites.

Mclaren is the safe bet, it's good at everything.
Red Bull is good at high speed corners but gets hit hard on bumps, curbs and traction zones(which is Miami after S1).
Mercedes could compete, their car is also an all rounder, but slower than Mclaren.
More or less the same for Ferrari.

I do think the latter part of sector 2 at the underpass and the heavy traction event down the back straight is going to hurt RBR's chances, but I've also learned to never count out Max Verstappen doing some voodoo.
Mercedes just need to make sure they don't crap the bed with setup again and I think GR has a solid chance of another podium at the very least.

As stated, for me it's Ferrari I can't pinpoint. Their finishing position all depends on Mercedes nailing the setup or not I think. If they do, then Ferrari will probably need to settle for somewhere between P4 and P6.

[organic]

Red bull have been rather quick in slow speed corners lately. The issue is curbs and bumps yea

[Farnborough]

Mercedes appeared light on downforce in Saudi, good overall balance but needing to keep it light in preservation of max speed to effectively wear the tyre. Close but not enough in this competitive season.

Both RB and Ferrari seemed to have hit the sweet spot in Saudi, ultimately with balance in most attribute to come closer to McL there.

Anyone's guess here, they've all shifted substantially from last year to make it difficult in prediction. Anyone claiming they know the order (particularly post event) is just lucky on this one.

Hopefully it's going to be really close time wise, good when the technical and drivers really have to think about what they trade off in defining their start balance.

[f1isgood]

Expecting Mclaren's superior tire management to help them significantly with these compounds.

Then I think the race will be similar to Bahrain. Expecting Ferrari and Mercedes to be the cars behind McLaren and then Red Bull fourth. Miami qualifying is also tricky to get right.

Interesting weekend ahead.

[organic]

Expecting Mclaren's superior tire management to help them significantly with these compounds.

Then I think the race will be similar to Bahrain. Expecting Ferrari and Mercedes to be the cars behind McLaren and then Red Bull fourth. Miami qualifying is also tricky to get right.

Interesting weekend ahead.

I have

McL
Merc
Red Bull ~= Ferrari

With the softer compounds and higher temps limitations will be quite different to last year's race.

[f1isgood]

Expecting Mclaren's superior tire management to help them significantly with these compounds.

Then I think the race will be similar to Bahrain. Expecting Ferrari and Mercedes to be the cars behind McLaren and then Red Bull fourth. Miami qualifying is also tricky to get right.

Interesting weekend ahead.

I have

McL
Merc
Red Bull ~= Ferrari

With the softer compounds and higher temps limitations will be quite different to last year's race.

Yeah, as you said above, it will likely shift the limitation to the rear than the front.
I think Ferrari will be a bit better but let's see.

[AR3-GP]

Asphalt under the sun gets much hotter than asphalt under the night sky. So it will be similar to the daytime practice sessions in Jeddah and Bahrain. Mclaren should have this weekend at a canter unless the upgrades of other teams materialize.

[stephen]

Max's baby being born right on press day and causing his dad (who hates him) to skip