Grand Prix thread CRYPTO.COM MIAMI GRAND PRIX 2026

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Who will finish first?

  • George Russell

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Max Verstappen

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Oscar Piastri

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Carlos Sainz

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Isack Hadjar

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Any Other

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Total voters
    5
  • Poll closed .
I have a feeling that the power that the electrical motor delivers isn't very linear, it's all or nothing. If they are anything like EV motors it's 100% torque from start.
I don't think they are allowed to 'control' the motor torque as that could be considered traction control?

I think a few teams had a 'filming' day at Silverstone in the wet before the season started so they will have an advantage. I think it was Merc and Alpine although Cadillac also tested a few days earlier.

I think this is an artifact of the rules, that the powers just steps in, but I don’t think it’s to prevent traction control, because a rule that says total torque demand has to be linear with the accel pedal movement would presumably be sufficient to prevent that.

I don’t really what the reason is, but it is giving the cars some traits of the old turbo era cars where there’s a sudden surge in power and making them trickier to drive.
 
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This was the best race of the year I think. It retained some of the characteristics of the previous races that the new rules have introduced but toned down, such that the action felt a bit more meaningful. The circuit I fear played a big part, rather than the rules tweaks, but I think this year we are going to have to take whatever wins we can get in this area.

This was definitely the best of Antonelli’s wins, in that there was no asterisk and he had a clear margin over his teammate all weekend. Beyond that he also looked really on top of the car and I really enjoy the way he was pitching it in to the corners with a touch of oversteer, especially on Saturday.

McLaren will be disappointed not to have won and I think will have mixed feelings from the weekend. They do seem to have out developed Ferrari over the break, but with Merc’s big upgrade package coming in Canada, they’d maybe have been looking to be relatively stronger this weekend and have established some kind of performance margin.

Good weekend for RedBull too, Verstappen sounded more engaged from the moment he turned up at the circuit. I guess he knows what’s proposed for 2027 and a couple of comments sounded more like he was looking toward a future in F1 than recently. The car has joined the front pack (at least in Verstappen’s hands) and he seemed more like himself fighting back through the pack - although a couple of uncharacteristic errors suggested to me he’s still not at 100%. Hadjar’s performance was a lot less positive, so that’s something they’re going to need to get on top of quickly to avoid reverting back to a 1 car team.

In the midfield Williams and Colapinto both had races they really needed.
 
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McLarens first part of their upgrades has helped - they will be more of a quali threat for sure - their big test is race pace.

Merc still look king on race pace, especially with upgrades still to come for them. Driver wise, a lot of people writing George off- I do think Kimi will end up the better driver over time, but just a quick reality check on these 4 races - it probably should be 2-2 after Kimi had the well timed safety car in one of the opening races- and George for whatever reason is horrendous in MiamI- not his circuit at all. It will be close in Canada.

Ferrari might be hamstrung until they make use of an ADUO to upgrade the engine. Broadly the view is they’ve got a pretty good car, but McLaren and Merc look like they have the edge now.

Red Bull made an impressive step forward this weekend. They are still a chunk off being a real threat each weekend but they net gained half a second on the pack, which given the mess they were in and also the immaturity of their power unit programme, is incredibly impressive.

When you compare their work vs Honda, it’s hard not to be impressed.