Racing Bulls misses out on points in Miami despite a combative performance and strong pace – but confidence remains high for the home race in Imola
The 2025 Miami Grand Prix ended in frustration for the Racing Bulls team, who missed out on a chance to score points – but they also gained some important insights. Team boss Peter Bayer spoke after the race of a “very, very difficult” day that was heavily influenced by incorrect weather forecasts.
“The starting position was actually that everyone had expected rain – that would definitely have helped us,” explained Bayer. But the rain stayed away – and with it the chance for chaos that could have been exploited strategically.
Early drama for Lawson: “Car was badly damaged”
Liam Lawson was one of the unlucky ones in the race. He collided with Jack Doohan’s Sauber in turn 1. Although the Racing Bulls driver said he had “a really good start” and saw a big gap ahead of him, he was hit from the side in the melee.
“I just felt a bump, I don’t really know what happened,” said the New Zealander, without watching the replay. The stewards decided not to take any further action, which Lawson acknowledged but did not want to comment on before analyzing the scene himself.
The result: a badly damaged car that Lawson said was “pretty awful” to drive. Bayer confirmed that Lawson lost around one second per lap throughout the race.
He was initially left out on the track in the hope that rain would start to fall. “If it comes, anything can happen in the chaos,” said Bayer. But when it became clear that the rain was not coming, Lawson was brought into the garage.
Hadjar in a tenth-of-a-second battle with Tsunoda: “I wanted too much”
Isack Hadjar, on the other hand, was able to finish the race and narrowly missed out on the points. The young Frenchman was ahead of Yuki Tsunoda, who had received a five-second time penalty for speeding in the pit lane. “I knew I was within five seconds – it was a qualifying duel against him,” Hadjar explained after the race.
He had the gap live on his display and gave it his all, but made crucial mistakes on the final lap. ‘I wanted too much,’ Hadjar admitted.
He finished just 0.168 seconds behind Tsunoda – eleventh instead of tenth, no points despite a strong pace. “A tenth over 25 laps or more, which we drove on the hard tires. But that’s the way it is. Yuki may have made a few mistakes, but I made too many.”
Bad luck with strategy, but still hope: “Suddenly we had a race car.”
The team was also unlucky with its strategy: Shortly after Hadjar’s pit stop, the virtual safety car came out, much to Bayer’s annoyance: “If we could have taken advantage of that, we would have come out ahead of Lewis [Hamilton]. Of course, he probably would have overtaken us. But then we would have suddenly been in ninth place.”
One ray of hope: Bayer emphasizes that the car performed strongly towards the end of the race. ‘Alan Permane said to us towards the end: ’Guys, I don’t know what happened, but suddenly we have a race car instead of a qualifying car.’”
“So there seems to be a sweet spot towards the end where the car worked very, very well. Isack then caught up with Yuki again, but unfortunately threw it away in the first sector of the last lap, in the first corner.”
Despite all the setbacks, the team is looking forward to the next race in Imola, the home Grand Prix for Racing Bulls. “For 90 percent of the team, that means sleeping at home,” says Bayer with a smile, revealing: “We have a big event planned with our team. We have bought tickets for all our employees so they can watch the race.”
This will also celebrate the 20th anniversary of the team, which emerged from the former Minardi racing team in 2006. “We won’t be throwing a big party, but we’ll celebrate together with the team,” says Bayer.
