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  "path": "/cherubic-formula-1-child-continues-success-in-miami",
  "publishedAt": "2026-05-04T19:19:30.000Z",
  "site": "https://defector.com",
  "tags": [
    "Racing",
    "arithmetic",
    "Charles Leclerc",
    "cherubic formula 1 child",
    "Ferrari",
    "formula 1",
    "George Russell",
    "kimi antonelli",
    "mclaren",
    "mercedes",
    "Miami Grand Prix",
    "the new f1 season can be fun if you don't have max verstappen in your ear telling you the regulations suck",
    "superclipping",
    "excess of its presentation",
    "many teams",
    "Macarena wing",
    "best on the grid"
  ],
  "textContent": "Please permit me one week without having to think about energy regeneration numbers and superclipping and focus on what happened on track on Sunday: some great racing, in spite of it all. Formula 1 went on hiatus for over a month, as the Bahrain and Saudi Arabian Grands Prix were canceled due to an immoral and murderous war in the Middle East. In keeping with the ethic of the sport, the race that restarted the season took place in the country that provoked the war, and thus the previous cancellations.\n\nThe Miami Grand Prix is a bloated race weekend that pairs the excess of its presentation with an equal excess of schedule: double qualifying and double races. It was not the first sprint weekend of the season—that honor goes to the Chinese Grand Prix—but the timing after a long layoff made the bloat feel overcompensatory. At their worst, sprint races take the sting out of both the key Saturday and Sunday sessions, either confusing the narrative contours of the weekend or spoiling them entirely. At their best, they can be ignored beyond cherrypicking an incident or two to fuel the next day's tension. I choose to view the Miami sprint in the best possible way, as giving a framework for Sunday without imitating it: The McLaren car can contend again, and baby-faced Mercedes teenager Kimi Antonelli has almost put it all together. The final results, beyond the points allotted, can be safely ignored.\n\nMcLaren was one of many teams—Ferrari and Red Bull included, with both teams most visibly trotting out their versions of the Macarena wing—to bring a huge upgrade package to its car in Miami. Unlike Ferrari and Red Bull, McLaren also has the benefit of a Mercedes engine, easily the best on the grid right now, which was enough to propel its team toward the very front of the grid. Meanwhile, the sprint weekend showed off many of Antonelli's weaknesses: He had a poor start, received a penalty for track-limits violations, caused Charles Leclerc to heatedly lambast his wheel-to-wheel racing skills. But it also helped him prove that out-qualifying his teammate, seven-year veteran George \"Mr. Saturday\" Russell, was not some arbitrary occurrence. Antonelli had the opportunity to do it twice, and in the qualifying session that actually mattered, he stuck his car in pole position, ahead of the Red Bull of Max Verstappen and the Ferrari of Charles Leclerc.",
  "title": "Cherubic Formula 1 Child Continues Success In Miami"
}