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
佛罗里达州迈阿密花园（美联社）- 在F1赛季仅进行了五场比赛后，已经出现了一场令人信服的总冠军争夺战，这背后涉及到了车队内部的组织含义。
奥斯卡·皮亚斯特里（Oscar Piastri）积极展现出他不会屈居于队友兰多·诺里斯（Lando Norris）之后，这使得诺里斯得以在迈凯伦车队（McLaren Racing）成为被钦定的1号车手。这位澳大利亚人通过在本赛季前五场比赛中赢得三场，从而在车手积分榜上占据领先地位。
诺里斯（Norris）一度是迈凯伦（McLaren）指定的候补冠军，本赛季他仅获得了一个胜利，但目前落后皮亚斯特里（Piastri）10分。随着F1在周日移师美国举行迈阿密大奖赛（Miami Grand Prix），迈凯伦车队老板扎克·布朗（Zak Brown）坚称，本赛季的冠军争夺中不会出现内部问题，目前他会任其自然发展。
布朗向美联社保证“让他们去比赛”。他不会指定一个1号车手，也不会发出任何团队指令，直到其中一位车手在冠军争夺中明显拉开差距。
布朗说：“我们只有在情况变得明朗时才会做出这个决定，就像去年某个时刻那样。到那时之前，他们将得到相同的待遇。可能会有这样的情况，其中一个有升级而另一个还没有，但目前这就是全部。我们希望让他们竞争。”
去年在迈阿密，诺里斯在Hard Rock体育场附近举办的活动中，打破了马克斯·维斯塔潘（Max Verstappen）的两连胜纪录，从而赢得了职业生涯的首场胜利。作为迈凯伦（McLaren）的希望之星，诺里斯抵达迈阿密时，曾被冠以“Lando No Wins”这一讽刺的绰号，但他在那里迅速摆脱了这个标签，并举办了一场狂野的南海滩胜利庆祝活动。
竞争对手皮埃尔·加斯利（Pierre Gasly）表示：“我多少有点羡慕兰多（Lando）在这里首次赢得比赛，因为周日晚上肯定很酷。这是那种你希望周日能顺利进行，这样你就有充分的理由在周日晚上狂欢的比赛之一。”
诺里斯的派对怎么样了？
“我记不清了，”
随后，诺里斯被问及是否担心皮亚斯特里（Piastri）在诺里斯（Norris）独自获胜后连续赢得了三场比赛而夺取了势头。
我一点也不担心。他做得很好，这是他应得的。除此之外，别无其他，诺里斯说道。我不太相信‘动量’之类的东西。我正在尽我所能。我显然犯了一些错误，还没有达到我应有的水平，但我相信很快就能达到那个水平。
现在只是第6轮的24轮比赛。我虽然不会永远这么说，但我知道我必须加快步伐，开始努力了，诺里斯继续说道。"速度在那里，节奏在那里，比赛的节奏也肯定在那里。我只需要解决一件事。这是一件困难的事情，但我相信我能做到。"
汉密尔顿承认与法拉利车队存在竞争压力
本赛季，七届世界冠军刘易斯·汉密尔顿转会法拉利的表现一直不尽如人意，他承认到目前为止所表现出的挣扎可能会持续一整年。
在为法拉利效力的首个赛季中，汉密尔顿结束了在梅赛德斯长达12年的职业生涯。他在法拉利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。
他将自己目前的转变比作自己初加入梅赛德斯时的情景。
前六个月很难适应与新同事合作。很明显，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，而我也习惯了驾驶不同风格的车辆。所以这是一个多种因素的组合。我确实在努力适应这一变化。
他也在努力适应在意大利度过更多时间，这个国家他正努力学习语言，但同时也正在尽情享受美食。
汉密尔顿说，他正试图远离比萨和意大利面，但做得并不太好，「在两天内我吃了大约三个比萨。我有我的联系对象——他一直给我送比萨。」
我现在并不居住在意大利，但我仍希望能多花些时间去那里，探索如何通过一年的时间来深入了解和适应。我的意大利语进展不大，所以我可能需要更加深入地融入当地的生活中。不过球队的状况一直很好。自从我第一天到那里以来，已经发生了许多变化，也进行了大量的工作。
美国电视播放权
F1总裁斯蒂法诺·多梅尼卡利表示，他无法提供关于该系列目前在美国寻找电视合作伙伴的最新进展。
ESPN目前正处在其与F1的合同最后一年，但他们已告知F1系列不会续约至2026年。据报道，ESPN每年向Formula One Management支付约7500万美元至9000万美元的版权费用，以在美国播放F1内容。
Domenicali一直强调F1在北美地区的重要性，而F1系列赛在过去五年中取得了显著增长。目前，F1每年在美国举办三次比赛，并于周五宣布与迈阿密续签了10年合约，将比赛延长至2041年，在北美地区总计举办五次。下赛季，F1系列赛还将迎来福特和通用汽车，其中福特作为红牛的支持合作伙伴，而凯迪拉克则作为工厂支持的第十一车队。
目前已有讨论，并且有多个合作伙伴对此感兴趣。
美联社汽车比赛： [https://apnews.com/hub/auto-racing](https://apnews.com/hub/auto-racing)
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