The two key questions posed by McLaren's Miami GP dominance

McLaren delivered an utterly dominant 1-2 in the heat of Miami, half a minute clear of the opposition. This posed two questions: where is the huge advantage coming from? Secondly, how was the order between the two McLaren drivers decided in this Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris show?

How was the order decided?

That order was decided in the opening seconds of the race by Max Verstappen. The polesitter had kept his Red Bull into the lead into Turn 1, with Norris right with him, Kimi Antonelli and Piastri looking on from behind. But Verstappen fishtailed out of the corner as he tried to get the power down, preventing him from getting across the track to block Norris getting a better run than him down to the quick left of Turn 2.

Partly alongside and with more momentum, but on the outside, Norris had no real option but to go for the lead. With a big gap there, it was the obvious racing move. But as Verstappen went through that left, another oversteer snap took him out wide to where Norris already was – obliging the McLaren driver to take to the run-off area, losing him places to Antonelli, Piastri, George Russell and Alexander Albon.

Did Verstappen need all that track width? Was the oversteer slide induced as a defensive manoeuvre? Was it exaggerated? These are all defensive tools which can legitimately be used with plausible deniability and Verstappen isn’t about to provide any answers. Lewis Hamilton once used just such a move on Verstappen in China 2016, losing Verstappen that race to his team-mate Daniel Ricciardo. It was judged legitimate then, just as it was now. Just one of those things.

“It was just Max’s usual ‘crash or don’t pass’,” said a clearly still-displeased Norris after the race. “Without [taking to the run-off] I’m in the wall – hard.” When told of Verstappen’s explanation, Norris’ reply of, “What else is he going to say?” closed down the discussion.

But on a day when the McLarens had anything between 0.5-1.0s on the field, that moment seconds after the start decided which McLaren driver headed the 1-2. But it took them several laps of grinding Verstappen down, forcing him to use up his harder-worked tyres, to get the cars in their natural performance order.

Verstappen had over-qualified, the McLaren guys had under-qualified. Not for the first time this year. The dynamic of the slower car ahead of the faster one always makes for a good race. At least until the faster car gets past. Piastri was canny and cool in how he did this, but it took 14 laps. They got side-by-side at the end of the DRS zones into Turn 11 and Turn 16 on numerous occasions, Verstappen always insisting Piastri go the long way around. Piastri is calm and smart and with no pressure from behind (as Norris was still making his way past the cars who’d slipped by as he was on the run-off) he just kept the pressure on, knowing he had the faster car and that eventually Verstappen would run out of options.

Eventually, he pinned him down to Turn 1, Piastri using ‘the long way round’ Verstappen insisted on to his advantage. Braking late and daring Verstappen to brake later but from a shallower angle, Piastri succeeded in inducing a lock-up on the Red Bull, dragging it out wide and allowing Piastri to simply drive past. He disappeared off into the distance as Verstappen then fended off Norris’ less structured attempts for four laps before eventually surrendering, his tyres finished, his brakes not great. Piastri was 8s gone by then, a cushion he used to keep himself out of Norris’ range after they switched to the hard tyre, on which Norris was faster.

A VSC just after Verstappen had pitted but before the McLarens had just exaggerated McLaren’s advantage. It also allowed Russell to jump past Verstappen for that very distant third place.

Where is the McLaren advantage coming from?

Russell offered some thoughts on where the advantage was coming from. “This weekend was the best-case scenario for them with these track temperatures,” he said. “It’s clearly down to track temperatures. They take a huge step when the track is hot. But even in their worst-case scenarios, on a cool track like Suzuka or China, they were still the quickest car. They’re just quicker by more when it’s as hot as this. They’ve been like this for the last 18 months. We have ideas about how we can improve this aspect but it’s a long-term project. Which is a bit of a bummer.”

There is intrigue about how the McLaren controls the rear tyre temperatures so much better than any other car – and its brake ducts have been the focus of rival teams’ attention. There’s even a thermal image going around indicating just how cool those ducts and rims are, which has led to all sorts of theories. Mercedes boss Toto Wolff is having none of the suggestion that it might not be legal.