© Getty ImagesMiami Weekend ReviewThe second Sprint weekend of the season meant two shots at glory for Isack and Liam
Round6ofthe2025FIAFormulaOneWorldChampionshiptookVCARBtotheMagicCity,The305,ThePlaygroundoftheWorld–Miami.LiamandIsackarrivedattheMiamiInternationalAutodromewithheightenedconfidenceafterastrongJeddah.ThesecondSprintweekendoftheseasonmeanttwoshotsatgloryforIsackandLiam.OurveryownRafaFerreirawasbacktoo,forRound3ofthe2025F1Academy.
Did Miami treat us well?
This is VCARB’s Miami Race Review.
As we headed into the race weekend, fully clued up on the best things to do in Miami (thanks to our lovely culture guide), Isack, Liam and Rafa were prepared for hitting the streets of Vice City.
Oh, and I’m sure you noticed our new livery for Miami.
We even threw shade at Mercedes, sorry admin. Yeah, we went there. Even DJ Khaled couldn’t quite believe it. ANOTHA ONE.
It was then time for Isack and Liam to hit the track for their only practice session of the weekend. Isack and Liam finished P6 and P11 respectively, both within 1.5 seconds of Piastri’s fastest time.
The VCARB boys were back out in the Miami heat to secure their Sprint Qualifying positions, and both Liam and Isack made it through SQ1. Liam’s best time in SQ2 was good enough for P14. Meanwhile, Isack advanced to SQ3 to finish the session P9 overall, +1.061 off the pole time of Antonelli.
Bringing The Colour To Miami© Getty Images
Saturday came around, and with it, qualifying for the F1 Academy. Rafa stuck in a cracking lap, good enough for P7 overall - her best qualifying of the year so far and just +1.215 seconds off the pace of championship contender Chambers.
Torrential rain delayed the start of the Sprint Race. Once we got going, Liam made an amazing start and made up five positions on the first lap. The track dried up quickly and our boys pitted for dry tyres. The safety car was deployed after Liam and Alonso collided on lap 15. He received a five-second penalty for the move, which demoted him out of what would have been his first points haul of the season. Isack finished P10.
Wet. Wet. Wet© Getty Images
Qualifying time. The track had dried by now, so it was go go go for the VCARB 02 of Liam and Isack. Both of our guys made it through Q1 with no hiccups, but could do no better than P11 and P15 in Q2, with Isack leading our duo. He was only +0.020 seconds from advancing to Q3 – that’s how narrow the margins are this year!
Liam collided with Doohan on the race start and brought out the Virtual Safety Car (VSC). Isack dropped a position and sat in P12 for the race restart on lap 4.
Fresh For Miami© Getty Images
It was ‘as you were’ until the pit stop phase began on lap 23, when Isack pitted for hard tyres and re-emerged P16. Another VSC for Bearman’s engine failure was the perfect opportunity for Liam to pit, who swapped to the mediums and jumped up to P17 after Bortoleto had power issues.
Sadly, Liam retired on lap 38 due to damage from his lap 1 collision with Doohan. Isack finished P11, just one-tenth of a second from scoring another championship point.
Heading On Through© Getty Images
WhathavewelearnedinMiami?
We’ve plenty of strengths to take into the European stretch of the season. We were once again so close to championship points with Isack, which is a positive we shouldn’t ignore. A lap 1, turn 1 incident undid the hard work of Liam and his crew, but he still made significant steps this weekend. We’re going to re-group, re-assess and refresh before the upcoming triple header.
Next up: Imola. Join us from May 16-18 for the first European round of the season. See you in two weeks for the FORMULA 1 AWS GRAN PREMIO DEL MADE IN ITALY E DELL'EMILIA-ROMAGNA 2025.
And in the words of DJ Khaled: “WE THE BEST!”
Bringing The Noise This Weekeend© Getty Images
