Antonelli, became Formula 1’s youngest ever championship leader in March, has now defeated his more experienced teammate George Russell for the third straight race. Russell, 28, entered the season as the betting-odds favorite to win the title. He finished fourth in Miami.
Antonelli’s unexpected strength in his sophomore season of Formula 1 is already spicing up the championship battle.
The race delivered on the exciting wheel-to-wheel racing that F1 hoped for with the polarizing new regulations, featuring numerous of battles as Antonelli, Norris and Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc each looked, at different moments, capable of winning.
Leclerc fell out of contention for victory later in the race, and finished sixth after spinning on the last lap, nearly crashing his car and losing multiple positions in the final few corners.
There was some “yo-yo” racing, with cars using electrical energy to overtake and then getting re-passed as their battery ran out. The drivers sought to map out where to use their “boost” buttons to maximum impact. That aspect of the new rules has sparked controversy as some drivers say it’s antithetical to racing.
It was also the inaugural home race for the GM-backed Cadillac F1 team, which joined the grid this year. The owner of the team hopes it’ll help Formula 1 break further into American culture.
“We just have to break into that mainstream sports conversation. The NFL draft is like this cultural event. I mean, the amount of people that watched and attended that event was crazy. And then you got the NBA playoffs, and you’ve got the MLB season underway. And so motorsports is on the rise, for sure, but it still has to take that big next step,” Dan Towriss, the CEO of the Cadillac F1 team, told reporters Friday in the paddock. “It has to break into that sports conversation where every day people are talking about what happened in … Formula 1.”
Formula 1 says the U.S. is a top-priority market.
