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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迈阿密花园城，佛罗里达州（美联社）——F1赛季仅进行了五场比赛，就已出现一场令人信服、具有内部组织意义的冠军争夺战。
奥斯卡·皮亚斯特里（Oscar Piastri）积极地向人们展示他不会坐在队友兰多·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。这位澳大利亚人通过赢得本赛季前五场比赛中的三场，在车手积分榜上占据了领先位置。
诺里斯（Norris）曾是迈凯伦（McLaren）的候补冠军，在赛季中仅获得一次胜利，目前落后皮亚斯特里（Piastri）10分。随着F1在周日移师美国迈阿密大奖赛，迈凯伦车队老板扎克·布朗（Zak Brown）坚持表示，这场冠军争夺战中不会出现内部问题，现在他将会让其自然发展。
布朗向美联社（Associated Press）承诺说“让他们去比赛”。在某一车手在冠军争夺中明显领先之前，他不会指定1号车手，也不会发出任何车队指令。
布朗表示，只有在情况变得明朗，像去年某个时候那样，我们才会做出这个决定。在那之前，他们将得到相同的待遇。虽然可能会有一个升级而另一个尚未升级的情况，但目前就目前来说，这就是全部内容。我们希望让他们能够竞争。
诺里斯在迈阿密赢得了他职业生涯的首场胜利，当时他打破了Max Verstappen在Hard Rock Stadium周边举办的活动中的两连胜记录。诺里斯被视为迈凯伦的希望之星，当他抵达迈阿密时，他获得了“Lando No Wins”这个带有贬义的绰号，但他迅速摆脱了这个标签，并在南海滩举行了一场狂欢的胜利庆祝。
竞争对手皮埃尔·加斯利（Pierre Gasly）表示：“我真的很羡慕兰多在这里获得他的第一个比赛胜利，因为我敢肯定周日晚上一定很酷。这是那种你希望周日能顺利进行，以便周日晚上有好的理由可以狂欢的比赛之一。”
诺里斯的聚会怎么样了？
"他说：‘我不记得了’。”
随后，诺里斯被问及是否担心皮亚斯特里在诺里斯独自获胜后，通过赢得三场比赛而获得动力。
诺里斯说：“我一点也不担心。他干得很好，他应该得到这个。除了这些，别无其他。我不相信所谓的势头。我在尽我所能。我显然犯了一些错误，没有达到我需要的水平，但我相信我很快就能达到那个水平。”
这是第6站比赛，总共24站。我并不打算永远这么说，但我知道我需要加快步伐，稍微进入状态一点，诺里斯继续说道。"速度在那里，节奏在那里，比赛的节奏也确实在那里。我只是需要整理一下一件事情。这很难，但我有信心我会做到。"
汉密尔顿承认与法拉利之间的挣扎
刘易斯·汉密尔顿（Lewis Hamilton）本赛季加盟法拉利（Ferrari）的进程并不顺利，这位七届世界冠军承认，迄今为止所展现的挣扎可能会持续一整年。
在为梅赛德斯车队效力了12个赛季后，汉密尔顿首次加入法拉利车队。他随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。
他将自己目前的转型与自己初次加入梅赛德斯时进行了类比。
前六个月很难适应与新同事合作。很明显，我现在的工程师们习惯为不同的驾驶员和不同的驾驶风格来设置汽车，而我习惯驾驶具有不同驾驶风格的汽车。这确实是一个不同事情的组合。
他还在努力适应在意大利度过更多时间的生活，虽然他在努力学语言，但也在尽情享用那里的美食。
汉密尔顿（Hamilton）表示，他试图远离比萨饼和意大利面，但做得并不太好。他说，在两天内吃了三个比萨饼。我找到了一个供应商——他总是给我送来比萨。
目前我并不在意大利居住，但我依然希望能花更多时间去了解并实现这个目标。我的意大利语进展不大，所以或许我应该更加深入地投入到当地的生活中。不过球队的表現不错，自我到来的第一天起，就有很多工作在不断进行。
美国电视播放权
F1主席斯蒂芬诺·多梅尼卡利（Stefano Domenicali）表示，他没有关于F1在寻找美国电视合作伙伴方面正在进行的努力的新消息可以提供。
ESPN目前与F1的合同处于最后一年，但已通知F1系列赛事，其不会续约至2026年。据报道，ESPN每年需向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。
多梅尼卡利一直强调F1在北美的定位的重要性，而F1系列在过去五年中已经显著增长。F1现在在美国每年进行三次比赛，并在周五宣布与迈阿密签订了为期十年的延期协议，使比赛延续至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与，其中福特作为红牛的合作伙伴，凯迪拉克作为工厂支持的第十一个车队。
已经有多方讨论，并且有多个合作伙伴表示出兴趣。
美国联合通讯社（AP）的赛车新闻：
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