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）——在F1赛季刚刚进行到第五场比赛时，就已经出现了一场引人注目的冠军争夺战，这还涉及到内部组织的含义。
奥斯卡·皮亚斯特里（Oscar Piastri）已经明确表示，他不会排在队友兰多·诺里斯（Lando Norris）之后，这使诺里斯得以成为迈凯伦车队（McLaren Racing）的正式一号车手。这位澳大利亚车手通过在本赛季的前五场比赛中赢得三场胜利，从而在车手积分榜上占据领先位置。
曾被视为迈凯伦候补冠军的诺里斯，本赛季只获得一次胜利，目前落后皮亚斯特里10分。随着F1赛事周日转移到美国迈阿密大奖赛，迈凯伦车队老板扎克·布朗（Zak Brown）坚持表示，这场冠军争夺不会有内部问题，目前他会让事情自然发展。
布朗向美联社（The Associated Press）承诺“让他们去比赛吧”。他不会指定1号车手，也不会在两车手在冠军争夺中明显分出高下之前发出任何车队指令。
布朗表示，只有在去年某个时候出现的情况那样变得明朗时，我们才会做出这个决定。在那之前，他们将得到同样的待遇。可能会有某个时候其中一方获得升级而另一方还没有，但目前就这个程度。我们希望让他们竞争。
诺里斯在去年的迈阿密赛场上取得了他的职业生涯首胜，他在此之前连续两场比赛都未能夺冠。这位被视为 McLaren 希望之星的诺里斯，在初到迈阿密时被戏称为“Lando No Wins”，但他在那里迅速摆脱了这个标签，并在南海滩举行了一场热闹的胜利庆典。
我多少有点羡慕兰多（Lando）在这里取得他的首场胜利，因为我确信周日晚上一定很酷。
诺里斯的聚会怎么样了？
“我记不清了。”
诺里斯随后被问到，他是否担心皮亚斯特里在诺里斯独得头筹后，通过赢得三场比赛而把握住了比赛的势头。
诺里斯说：“完全不用担心。他做得很好，他值得这样。仅此而已。我不太相信势头这东西。我在尽我所能。我确实犯了一些错误，还没有达到我需要的水平，但我相信很快我就能达到那个水平。”
现在是第6站比赛，总共有24站。我虽然不会永远这么说，但我确实知道我需要加快速度，稍作调整。诺里斯继续道：“速度已经到位，节奏也到位了，比赛的节奏也绝对没问题。我只是需要整理一下一件事。这是一件困难的事，但我相信我能做到。”
汉密尔顿承认与法拉利竞争的困难
对于七届世界冠军刘易斯·汉密尔顿（Lewis Hamilton）而言，本赛季加盟法拉利（Ferrari）的进程并不顺利，他承认目前所面临的挑战可能会持续一整年。
在梅赛德斯车队效力12个赛季后，汉密尔顿首次在法拉利车队效力。他随法拉利车队赢得了上海的短程赛，但在任何一场大奖赛中尚未获得前四名。在车手积分榜上，汉密尔顿落后队友查尔斯·勒克莱尔16分。
他将自己的当前过渡期比作他初加入梅赛德斯时的情景。
前六个月对我来说很难适应与新同事合作。显然，我现在合作的工程师们习惯为不同的车手和不同的驾驶风格来设置赛车，而我也习惯于驾驶不同风格的赛车。所以，这是一个由许多不同事物组合起来的挑战。我确实正在努力调整以适应这一挑战。
他还在努力适应在意大利度过更多的时间，尽管他在学习语言上有些挣扎，但他却在尽情享受那里的美食。
汉密尔顿表示，他正努力远离比萨和意大利面，但成效不佳，他在两天内吃了三个比萨。我找到了一个“供应商”，他总是给我送来比萨。
我现在并不在意大利居住，但我仍然希望花更多时间去了解并探索如何在一年内实现这一目标。我的意大利语并没有实质性的进步，所以我可能需要更深入地融入其中。但球队的运作状况良好。从我到达的第一天起，就发生了很多变化，也进行了大量的工作。
美国电视版权
F1总裁斯蒂法诺·多梅尼卡利（Stefano Domenicali）表示，他目前无法提供关于F1正在努力寻找美国电视合作伙伴的最新消息。
ESPN目前与F1的合同正处于最后一年，但已告知F1不会续约至2026年。据报道，ESPN每年向F1管理机构支付约7500万至9000万美元的版权费用，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F1系列在过去五年中已经实现了显著增长。目前，F1每年在美国进行三次比赛，并于周五宣布与迈阿密签署了为期十年的续约协议，将比赛延续至2041年，同时在美国的总比赛次数将达到五次。此外，F1下赛季还将迎来福特和通用汽车两个品牌的加入，其中福特将作为红牛的合作伙伴，而凯迪拉克将成为工厂支持的第十一个车队。
多梅尼卡利在周五表示，目前已有一些讨论，并有几个合作伙伴对进行对话表示出兴趣。"好消息是，我们有许多合作伙伴对这次合作表示出浓厚兴趣，我们必须确保我们在这一领域中具有信誉，因为我们都非常清楚，大型体育联赛对这一市场来说非常重要。我们需要找到合适的位置和合适的内容，以向美国的支持者们提供支持。"
美联社（AP）汽车赛车新闻：请访问[https://apnews.com/hub/auto-racing](https://apnews.com/hub/auto-racing)以获取更多内容。
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