MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. (AP) Just five races into the Formula 1 season and theres already a compelling championship battle with inner organization implications.
Oscar Piastri has aggressively shown he wont sit behind teammate Lando Norris, allowing Norris to become the anointed No. 1 driver at McLaren Racing. The Aussie did it by winning three of the first five races this season to take hold of the lead in the driver standings.
Norris, at one time McLarens designated champion-in-waiting, sits 10 points back from Piastri with one victory on the season. And as F1 shifts to the United States for the Miami Grand Prix on Sunday, McLaren boss Zak Brown insisted there will be no internal issues with this championship fight and, for now, hell let it play out naturally.
Let em race, Brown vowed to The Associated Press. He will not designate a No. 1 and issue any team orders until a time comes in which one of the drivers has clearly separated himself in the title race.
Well only make that decision if it becomes clear, like it did last year at a certain point, Brown said. Until then they will get the same treatment. There may be instances when one has an upgrade that the other doesnt have yet, but thats the extent of it right now. We want to let them race.
Norris earned his first career victory at Miami last year when he snapped Max Verstappens two-race winning streak at the event staged around Hard Rock Stadium. Norris, hyped as McLarens great hope, had picked up the derogatory moniker Lando No Wins when he arrived in Miami, where he promptly shed the label and had a rowdy South Beach victory celebration.
I kind of envy Lando for getting his first race win here, because Im sure Sunday night was definitely a cool one, said rival Pierre Gasly. Its one of those races you want the Sunday to go well so you get a good reason to party on Sunday night.
How was Norris party?
I dont remember, he said with a sheepish grin.
Norris was then asked if hes concerned that Piastri has seized momentum by winning three races since Norris lone victory.
Not worried at all. Hes doing a good job and he deserves it. Nothing more than that, Norris said. I dont believe so much in the momentum stuff. Im doing what I can. Ive clearly made some mistakes and not at the level I need to be, but I believe I can be at that level soon enough.
Its round six of 24. Im not going to say that forever, but I know I need to get a move on and get into gear a little bit, Norris continued. The speed is there, the pace is there, the race pace is definitely there. Its just one thing I need to tidy up. Its a difficult thing, but Im confident Ill get it.
Hamilton admits to struggles with Ferrari
Lewis Hamiltons move to Ferrari this season has been slow going for the seven-time champion and hes admitted the struggles shown so far could continue the entire year.
Hamilton is in his first year with Ferrari after 12 seasons at Mercedes. He won the sprint race in Shanghai with Ferrari but has yet to log a top-four finish in any Grand Prix. Hamilton trails teammate Charles Leclerc by 16 points in the driver standings.
He likened his current transitioning to when he first joined Mercedes.
The first six months were tough getting attuned to working with new people. Obviously, the engineers Im working with now are used to setting up a car for a different driver and a different driving style, and Im used to driving a car with a different driving style, Hamilton said. So its a combination of a bunch of different things. Im definitely working hard to adjust to this one for sure.
Hes also trying to adjust to spending more time in Italy, a country where hes struggling to learn the language but gorging on the food.
Trying to stay off the pizzas and the pasta, which Im not doing very well with, Hamilton said. I had like three pizzas in two days. I have my hookup C he keeps bringing me a pizza.
Not living in Italy currently, but spending more time is still something I really want to try and figure out how to do through the year, he continued. My Italian is not really progressing, so Ive probably got to throw myself more into the thick of it. But the teams been well. Lots of changes, a huge amount of work has been going on from my first days there.
U.S. television rights
F1 president Stefano Domenicali said he had no update to give on the series ongoing efforts to find a television partner in the United States.
ESPN is in the final year of its current contract with F1 but informed the series it would not be renewing for 2026. ESPN reportedly pays Formula One Management an estimated $75 million to $90 million annually for the rights to air F1 content in the U.S.
Domenicali has been touting the importance of F1s positioning in North America, and the series has dramatically grown the last five years. F1 now races three times a year in the U.S. and announced a 10-year extension with Miami on Friday that takes the race through 2041 and five times total in North America. F1 next season will also have both Ford and General Motors in the series Ford as a support partner with Red Bull and Cadillac as a factory-backed 11th team.
There are discussions in place and there are several partners that are interested to talk, Domenicali said Friday. The good news is that there is a lot of interest and we need to make sure we are credible in the landscape where we know very well there are major league sports that are very, very important for this market. We need to find the right place with the right content to offer the supportive fans in the U.S.
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AP auto racing: https://apnews.com/hub/auto-racing
迈阿密花园，佛罗里达州（美联社）——仅在F1赛季的五场比赛中，就已经出现了一场令人信服且对内部组织具有深刻影响的冠军争夺战。
奥斯卡·皮亚斯特里（Oscar Piastri）已经积极地展现出他不会屈居于队友兰多·诺里斯（Lando Norris）之后，这使诺里斯得以在迈凯伦车队（McLaren Racing）成为被钦定的头号车手。这位澳大利亚车手通过赢得本赛季前五场比赛中的三场，从而在车手积分榜上占据领先地位。
Norris，这位曾经被麦克拉伦队（McLaren）指定为待定的冠军，本赛季仅获得一次胜利，目前落后皮亚斯特里（Piastri）10分。随着F1周日移师美国迈阿密进行大奖赛，麦克拉伦队老板扎克·布朗（Zak Brown）坚持表示，这场冠军争夺不会有内部问题，而目前他会让一切顺其自然发展。
布朗向美联社（Associated Press）保证会“让他们去比拼”。在其中一个车手在冠军争夺中明显脱颖而出之前，他不会指定1号车手，也不会发出任何车队指令。
布朗表示，只有当情况变得像去年那样明确时，我们才会做出那样的决定。在那之前，他们将获得相同的待遇。可能会有这样的情况，即其中一方进行了升级，而另一方尚未进行，但目前仅限于此。我们希望让他们竞争。
诺里斯在迈阿密赢得了他职业生涯的首个胜利，他在硬石体育场周围举行的活动中，成功阻止了马克斯·维斯塔潘（Max Verstappen）连续两场比赛的胜利。作为迈凯伦的希望之星，诺里斯在抵达迈阿密时被冠以了贬义的绰号“Lando No Wins”，但他很快便摆脱了这个标签，并在南海滩举行了一场热闹的胜利庆典。
竞争对手皮埃尔·加斯利（Pierre Gasly）表示：“我确实有些羡慕兰多（Lando）在这里赢得了他的首场胜利，因为我相信周日晚上一定非常酷。这是一场你希望周日过得很好的比赛，这样你就有充分的理由在周日晚上尽情狂欢了。”
诺里斯的派对怎么样？
他带着羞涩的微笑说：‘我不记得了。’
随后有人问诺里斯，是否担心皮亚斯特里在诺里斯赢得唯一一场比赛后，通过赢得三场比赛而获得势头。
我完全不担心。他做得很好，他值得这份赞誉。仅此而已，诺里斯说。我不那么相信动量的事情。我正在尽我所能。我显然犯了一些错误，还没有达到我需要达到的水平，但我认为我很快就能达到那个水平。
现在是第6轮，共有24轮。我并不会说永远这样，但我知道我需要加速并稍微进入状态，诺里斯继续说道。“速度已经到位，节奏也已经到位，比赛的节奏也肯定到位了。我只需要调整一下。这是一件困难的事情，但我相信我能做到。”
汉密尔顿承认在与法拉利竞争中的挣扎
七届世界冠军刘易斯·汉密尔顿（Lewis Hamilton）本赛季转会法拉利（Ferrari）的进程并不顺利，他承认到目前为止所表现出的挣扎可能会持续一整年。
在梅赛德斯车队度过了12个赛季后，汉密尔顿迎来了他在法拉利的第一年。他曾在法拉利车队赢得了上海的冲刺赛，但尚未在任何大奖赛中取得前四名。在车手积分榜上，汉密尔顿落后队友查尔斯·勒克莱尔16分。
他将目前的转型期比作他最初加入梅赛德斯时的时期。
前六个月对我来说非常艰难，因为我要与新同事合作。显然，我现在合作的工程师们习惯为不同的驾驶员和不同的驾驶风格设置车辆，而我则习惯于驾驶不同风格的车辆。这确实是多种不同因素的结合。我确实在努力调整自己以适应这一新的情况。
他也在努力适应在意大利花更多时间的生活，尽管他努力在学习语言，但却在享受美食。
汉密尔顿（Hamilton）表示，他正试图远离披萨和意大利面，但做得并不好。他说：“我在两天内吃了三个披萨。我有一个‘供披萨的伙伴’——他总是给我送来披萨。”
我目前并不在意大利居住，但我很想尝试并找出如何在这一年内花更多时间在那里。我的意大利语并没有太大的进步，所以我可能得更加深入地投入到其中。但团队的状态很好。从我到那里的第一天起，就发生了很多变化，进行了大量的工作。
美国电视播放权
F1主席斯蒂法诺·多梅尼卡利（Stefano Domenicali）表示，目前没有关于F1正在努力寻找美国电视合作伙伴的最新进展。
ESPN目前与F1的合同已经进入最后一年，但他们已经通知F1系列，他们不会续约至2026年。据报道，ESPN每年向Formula One Management支付约7500万美元至9000万美元的版权费，以在美国播放F1内容。
多梅尼卡利一直在强调F1在北美地区的重要性，而这一系列赛事在过去的五年里已经取得了显著的成长。F1现在每年在美国进行三次比赛，并于周五宣布与迈阿密续约十年，将比赛延长至2041年，并在北美总共进行五次比赛。F1下赛季还将有福特和通用汽车参加，其中福特作为红牛的支持合作伙伴，凯迪拉克作为工厂支持的第十一车队参赛。
目前已有讨论，并且有几位合作伙伴表示出浓厚的兴趣。
美国新闻协会（AP）自驾车比赛：查看[最新新闻](https://apnews.com/hub/auto-racing)
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