Will Ferrari turn their season around?

Grand Prix of Miami

Venue: Miami International Autodrome Dates: 2-4 May Race start: 21: 00 BST on Sunday

Formula 1 heads to the United States this weekend for the Grand Prix of Miami, the sixth round of the 2025 world championship.

Oscar Piastri, a McLaren driver, won his third race of the season to lead the drivers’ standings last time out in Saudi Arabia.

A year ago, Miami was the scene of Lando Norris ‘ first F1 victory.

Would it be fair to say Lando Norris is faster than Oscar Piastri, but Piastri is a better racing driver? – Rob

The comparison between McLaren team-mates Norris and Piastri – as drivers, and as personalities – is one of many interesting aspects of this season.

Because of how contrasting they are, Piastri is the epitome of solidity. He doesn’t seem to be fazed by anything. Even the weekends when he is a little off Norris ‘ pace he seems to take in his stride. He is very “solid,” as Max Verstappen pointed out in Jeddah, and he rarely makes mistakes.

Norris, on the other hand, wears his heart on his sleeve. He appears to be falling prey to life’s unpredictable circumstances. He beats himself up about his weaknesses. Additionally, he appears to be more prone to minor errors that can affect a title campaign.

That was happening last year, and it’s still happening this.

The above-mentioned question would have been accepted as a fair comment last year. Norris was definitively faster than Piastri in 2024. He qualified him 20 times to four, with an average of 0.147 seconds. And he won four races to Piastri’s two.

However, Piastri’s race-craft was obvious to everyone, showing off his excellent overtaking skills on Norris on the opening lap of Monza or his eventual victory over Charles Leclerc in Baku.

But this season? Norris won three pole positions, and Pirastri won one. Piastri is 4-2 ahead in qualifying at an average of 0.185secs a lap.

And despite having to fight against Norris for the lead from the beginning, he is now leading the championship despite his unfortunate incident on wet grass in Melbourne, which saw him fall to ninth overall.

Norris is incredibly fast. However, Piastri’s highs were never without a doubt at least as good as those of the Briton.

Australian Piastri came into this season setting himself a target of accessing them much more consistently.

Do you believe Max Verstappen can maintain his incredible run in a car that some have deemed to be “fourth fastest” or has the character of the tracks he has so far aided him? – Steve

Few in Formula One doubt that Verstappen is the all-round best driver, and that’s because of how consistently impressive his performances have been.

The Red Bull driver has been operating at a consistent level of excellence since, basically, the 2018 Canadian Grand Prix, the race he finally ironed out the series of errors that blighted his start to that season. There is therefore no reason to believe that will change.

He simply always seems to get the best out of his car, apart from on the odd occasions when he allows tangles with other drivers to get the better of him, such as in Mexico and Hungary last year.

The Mercedes and Ferrari are ahead of the Red Bull car, which is second fastest overall behind McLaren by 0.177secs overall in qualifying time.

Of course, Verstappen’s performances are a factor in that statistic – it’s his car that is the fastest Red Bull. But does he really outsmart Charles Leclerc and George Russell in one lap?

He may be, a bit. He might not be. But would he be, for example, consistently 0.135secs a lap faster than Leclerc in qualifying – the gap between Red Bull and Ferrari this year? No one is certain as to what. And the answer can only be subjective. Few people are unsure of Leclerc’s one-lap pace, though.

So far, the Red Bull has been a fast car, in Verstappen’s hands, on certain types of track. In high-speed corners, it is quick and slow. But it lags behind McLaren in long, medium-speed corners, which emphasise its often inconsistent balance.

Verstappen was quick in Australia, Japan, and Saudi Arabia, but not in Bahrain and China.

Red Bull believe they can fix their issues with some upgrades that are due soon, perhaps for the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix in two races ‘ time.

McLaren’s development is hardly ever going to slow down.

Verstappen will get the very best out of the Red Bull, and stay in the title fight as long as he can.

Can Ferrari turn this season around and be in contention for either championship? – Laura

After five races this season, Ferrari have a sprint victory in China, courtesy of Lewis Hamilton, a single grand prix podium finish, thanks to Charles Leclerc in Saudi Arabia, and lie fourth in the constructors ‘ championship, already 110 points behind leaders McLaren.

Their car is fourth fastest overall in terms of raw performance, behind McLaren by 0. 32 seconds in qualifying.

It’s fair to say this is significantly below their expectations.

The advantage would shift between the top four teams from race to race, according to team boss Frederic Vasseur’ prediction over the winter that this year would be as open as last year. And there is no secret that Ferrari were expecting to start the season in a competitive position and mount a title challenge from the off.

Vasseur thinks they can turn the season around. He has repeatedly pointed to last season, and the fact that they were in a less competitive position at the same point in 2024 but transformed their car and came close to winning the constructors ‘ title at the end of the year.

The 2023 car, which was vicious at the beginning of the season but much better by the end, was also developed well.

An upgrade is due soon, although Ferrari have not said at which race.

Ferrari’s two significant issues pose a problem.

The first is the performance of their car. The second is Hamilton’s performance, which could be a major hindrance if the seven-time champion struggles to recover from three disappointing races in Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, and Japan.

Why do the regulations change just when the field is beginning to close up in competitiveness? The new rules for 2026 appear to be a lottery for teams who succeed or fail them, creating both dominant teams and losers. Stable regs = competitive racing. – Matt

F1 has always changed its regulations from time to time. It’s a necessary and inevitable component of the game.

Often in the past, it has been because the governing body felt the need to intervene in some way.

Perhaps because the cars were becoming too fast or dangerous, like in 1982, the last ground-effect era, or because Ayrton Senna died in 1994. Or to change an aspect of racing that was no longer considered desirable, such as when refuelling was banned for 2010. Or to add something that was perceived as lacking, such as when wider, faster cars were introduced in 2017.

And the engine rules have also often changed, again for various reasons.

The engine rules were the first thing that came to mind this time. F1 and the FIA wanted to make the sport more attractive to new manufacturers. Therefore, they created some working groups with manufacturers’ representatives and developed the 2026 regulations.

These retain 1.6-litre V6 turbo hybrids, but simplify them by removing the MGU-H, which recovers energy from the turbo and is highly complex and was considered a barrier to new suppliers.

Additionally, they increased the electrical capacity, ensuring that the engine’s electrical system will use 100% sustainable fuel, and generate about 50% of the overall power.

It has worked. Audi entered, which served as the inspiration for the rule change. Porsche in the end did not. However, Ford has returned in a partnership with Red Bull. Honda is staying when it was going to pull out. General Motors will also be launching next year, even though its engine won’t be finished until 2029.

There was already a desire to refine the chassis rules, to fix some of the issues that have arisen with the 2022 ground-effect regs. However, additional modifications were required by the new engine rules.

It became clear that recovering sufficient energy to supply the batteries was going to be a problem. The rule-makers then switched to moveable aerodynamics, which made the cars stay in the braking zones longer while reducing drag on the straights.

Wrangling is still going on about this topic, although the rules are not expected to change significantly – for example by limiting the electrical deployment in races, as some are pushing at the moment – as there is a blocking majority preventing it.

Seeing as Mercedes dominated the first eight years of the engine regulations when the V6 engines came in, do you see them building that sort of dominance again from the new regulations? Keegan

Just because Mercedes nailed the last new engine rules in 2014, does not necessarily mean they will do so again in 2026.

Mercedes essentially succeeded because they devoted more resources and resources to those regulations than their rivals. The other manufacturers have learned from that experience.

Having said that, Mercedes are currently in the best position to comply with the new regulations in Formula One.

Many believe that what’s motivating the current debate about the engine rules – whether it be changing them again earlier than originally planned, or tinkering with the 2026 rules – is founded in the concerns of Mercedes ‘ rivals – especially Red Bull – that they may face a competitive deficit next year.

Senior sources claim that the FIA’s single-seater director Nikolas Tombazis is telling teams and manufacturers that the governing body doesn’t want engines to be a performance differentiator in the future.

But that raises a major philosophical question. Not, why? Engines have always been a performance differentiator. After all, it’s called motorsport. Cars don’t move without engines.

Who made this decision, and why? Was this agreed with the other stakeholders first?

It appears not to.