🏁 Lando Makes Waves in Miami

🥇Max Verstappen [136]: Was full of praise for his good mate in his inaugural victory, admits he could do nothing to stop “flying” Norris. “Today was a bit tricky. Once we made a pit stop I heard what the lap times McLaren were doing and I was like, ‘Well, that’s pretty quick!’. Max was all class in defeat, giving all credit to Lando’s performance and not blaming any extraneous factors that happen in a typical race. Was great to see. Hope to see those two battling at the front more this year… with Ferrari in the mix as well?

🥈 Sergio Perez [103]: Explains what happened on his aggressive overshot into turn 1 where he nearly took out his teammate + Sainz: “I hit the brakes there was no grip at all, like we saw yesterday with Lewis. Off-line here, especially into Turn 1, there’s no grip…and I did struggle quite a bit unfortunately.” Good point - same exact thing happened to Hamilton in the Sprint.

🥉 Charles Leclerc [98]: Admits the team now needs to “catch up” to McLaren after their victory. On his poor start at lights out, “It was very tricky. Checo [Perez] was on my inside. I didn’t have a great start, as soon as I let the clutch I had wheelspin.” Can’t wait to see these upgrades next weekend… with a new race engineer to boot

4️⃣ Lando Norris 📈 [83]: Never doubted a victory would come, but admits that P1 takes a “weight off” his shoulders. “I’ve just been doing my job and executing my races, executing my qualis, doing what I can do best, and I knew my time was coming.” Calm, Cool, Confident… Lando Yeswins ™️ 

5️⃣ Carlos Sainz 📉 [83]: Pit stop timing and penalty cost him in Miami, “We could have won this race.” He likely would have been P2 after turn 1 if not for Checo’s torpedo down the inside. Later in the race he wasn’t happy with Piastri’s apparent overtake off track.

6️⃣ Oscar Piastri [41]: What started out as a great GP (running in P2 at one point) quickly unraveled after contact with Sainz during their tight battle. “Encouraging day in terms of the pace and obviously to get a win on pace. So overall mixed emotions, but very, very happy for the team.”

7️⃣ George Russell [37]: Disappointed with his P8 in the GP, saying he lost some positions after Checo’s full send into turn 1. “It was a pretty rubbish race from start to finish, in all honesty. I need to check the car, check the data because something didn’t feel quite right.”

8️⃣ Fernando Alonso [33]: Met with FIA President Mohammed Ben Sulayem on what he says is discrimination against Spanish drivers after the penalties he’s received this season.

9️⃣ Lewis Hamilton [27]: Happy with some tightly contested on-track battles leading to a P6 finish in the GP. “So much fun. I’ve really enjoyed this weekend race-wise. It’s been a lot of fun on track, [I’ve had] really great, tough, close battles.”

🔟 Yuki Tsunoda 📈 [14]: Another great result with an under the radar P7 in the GP. “We kind of expected we would have a good performance here but the most important thing is that we achieved it.”

11. Lance Stroll 📉 [9]: On his incident that knocked Lando out of the Sprint: “It was an unfortunate incident, but there wasn't a huge amount I could do.” Hmm.. not sure about that…

12. Oliver Bearman [6]: Was reportedly spotted at a Miami club with his hand stuck in a comically large jar of honey

13. Nico Hulkenberg [6]: Hopeful that the upgrades the team will bring to Imola will get them closer to the RBs, saying they will “complete that kind of package that we were building since Shanghai. So hopefully those can…put us a little bit closer to the RBs, because they look really strong at the moment.”

14. Daniel Ricciardo 📈 [5]: All smiles after a stellar Sprint Quali and P4 finish, he noted the importance of qualifying higher to not get stuck at the back of the grid: It’s simple, we just can’t qualify at the back, that’s where we make it difficult for ourselves. Obviously complete contrast, great qualifying Friday and a great race, bad qualifying and a bad race.”

15. Esteban Ocon 📈 [1]: Pumped to score Alpine’s first point this season. “What a race…every lap was a massive push…We need to keep doing these baby steps forward but, looking at where we were in Bahrain – [17th and 18th] – well done to the team… finally we come out of a weekend with some reward.”

16. Kevin Magnussen 📉 [1]: On a weekend where he got as many penalties as the team has points: “All the penalties were fair…but I had to do my thing to protect Nico, make the space, same story as Jeddah.”

17. Alex Albon 📉 [0]: “One of my most challenging races” after poor qualifying and slow pace.

18. Zhou Guanyu 📉 [0]: Didn’t think safety car timing was too bad, but had nearly 30 laps on soft tires that fell off hard. “I think the issue was that we lacked some top speed against Alex and I couldn’t really pass him on the straights, so the whole race was really compromised.”

19. Pierre Gasly [0]: A tight teammate battle on the opening lap of the race, even through the tight chicanes at the end of the lap was some early excitement. Ocon vs Gasly… Old rivalries die hard.

20. Valtteri Bottas [0]: Hopes Miami was an “outlier” after a P16 finish, as he felt the previous two races saw better pace.

21. Logan Sargeant [0]: On Magnussen’s contact that ended his race, “I don’t have a lot to say, other than it’s a very disappointing way to end my home race weekend.” Added that P10 in the Sprint and being close to Q2 were positives to take away.

Constructor’s Corner

🥇Red Bull [239]: Horner says Max’s violence against the bollard caused a good amount of floor damage, and may have hampered his pace in the second half of the race. Considering, he thinks P2 was a good result. It’s hard to say if Max would have caught Lando without the damage, bottom line is Lando had great pace all day and you can always play the ifs and buts candies and nuts game. As Max said: “If my mom had **** she’d be my dad.” Amazing. 😂 

🥈Ferrari [187]: Testing their Imola upgrades Thursday and Friday this week, their first of 3 planned. Vasseur down-played the impact saying it won’t be a game-changer, saying “A large part of the result, it's also coming from what we are doing with the drivers, the set-up of the car during the weekend, the management of the tires.”

🥉McLaren [124]: Zak Brown praises Lando’s “overdue” win in a “perfect” performance in Miami. “I think this is a very popular win amongst the fans, amongst the drivers… [with] how many drivers went up to him and congratulated him. He drove perfectly, the car was really fast.”

4️⃣ Mercedes [64]: Jumping on the Imola upgrade train as well with the goal to not only improve performance, but improve the balance for their drivers and adding downforce where it’s needed. We’ll see what they can do, but after their start it’s hard to get as excited about upgrades vs other teams.

5️⃣ Aston Martin [42]: The sensitive nature of tires in Miami had them bail on running their new rear wing design. Due to lower downforce causing the car to slide more, they elected to sacrifice top speed for a set up that went easier on the tires, which was critical in the Miami heat. 🏀 ?

6️⃣ RB [19]: Team boss Laurent Mekies says Ricciardo’s P4 in the Sprint “had been coming” as he’s been making improvements that have gone under the radar. Guess that new chassis has helped, whether placebo or not, even though some tried to poo-poo it.

7️⃣ Haas [7]: Komatsu noted the team didn’t have pace on the hard tire when the car was heavy in the beginning of the race, but is looking forward to Imola: “It’s disappointing today but…for Imola, we have more things coming so we’ll see what we can do there.”

8️⃣ Alpine 📈 [1]: Team signs former Ferrari man David Sanchez in newly created Executive Technical Director role, after his brief 3 month stint at McLaren

9️⃣ Williams 📉 [0]: This one flew under the radar and would be an absolute doozy if it happened: James Vowles is in talks with Newey to return to his former team, having won championships with the team in the 90’s. File this one under longshot… but crazier things have happened…

🔟 Kick Sauber [0]: Hulkenberg says Andreas Seidl played a large role in bringing him to Audi next year, noting his key role with the team and straightforward approach.

Question (My Answer)

5 of course. Loved it. Lando’s first win + hints of tighter fights at the top? More please!