Sprint weekend format, Mercedes the only team focusing on race pace.
We’ve reached the second Sprint weekend of the six scheduled on the 2025 calendar. Teams had only one free practice session to find the right setup and make final assessments before heading back on track for the Sprint Qualifying session, scheduled for 10:30 PM Italian time this evening.
For the fourth edition of the Miami Grand Prix, Pirelli has chosen to bring the same compounds used in Saudi Arabia, which are one step softer than in 2024: teams will have the C3 (Hard), C4 (Medium), and C5 (Soft) tyres available. The race will likely be a one-stop strategy, following a Medium-Hard sequence, but we’ll see if these softer compounds could shake up the strategies.
During the free practice session, the track surface was very dirty, and all drivers complained about low grip. As the hours go by, the track will certainly rubber in, helped by the support races from F1 Academy and the Porsche Carrera Cup North America. Additionally, very high temperatures are expected, so tire degradation will be a key factor to watch out for.
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Finally, the last unknown factor will be the weather: Sunday’s skies are expected to be cloudy, with a 40–45% chance of thunderstorms during the race.
Race pace analysis FP1 Miami: here are the times from this afternoon.
In this single free practice session, all drivers focused on race pace simulations. However, since it’s a Sprint weekend, it’s unclear whether they were preparing for Saturday’s race or Sunday’s race, as we don’t know the fuel loads.
The team that completed the longest simulation was Mercedes, with George Russell finishing an impressive 16 laps, very close to the 19 laps expected in tomorrow’s Sprint race, scheduled for 6:00 PM Italian time. The British driver’s long run was very positive, ending with a 1:31.481, consistent with his other laps, showing minimal degradation.
Also performing well in the race simulation was our Andrea Kimi Antonelli, making his debut on the Miami track: the Bologna-born driver completed 13 laps, with times not far off from his teammate.
The race simulations for both McLaren drivers were much shorter: 6 laps for Norris, who also had a close call with Ocon, and 5 laps for championship leader Oscar Piastri. As for the lap times, it’s likely that both drivers focused on the early laps of the Sprint race.
The race simulation for Ferrari was also very brief, with Leclerc completing 5 laps and Hamilton only 3, before switching to Soft tires for the final qualifying simulation. Lastly, new father Max Verstappen completed 7 laps, with times between 1:31 and 1:32. It’s likely that the four-time world champion focused on the first stint of Sunday’s race.
PHOTO: F1, Mercedes AMG-Petronas, McLaren F1 Team, GPKingdom.
