Piastri raises closing speed concern despite F1 rule tweaks at Miami GP
Photo: Race Pictures
Henry Eccles is a freelance Formula 1 journalist for GPblog, covering breaking news, live race blogs, and features across the F1 calendar. Since joining in 2026, he has produced high-volume reporting on the sport’s biggest stories, alongside feature pieces including analysis and historical content.
Oscar Piastri has warned “not much has really changed” with regard to F1’s 2026 closing speeds despite rule tweaks implemented at the Miami GP. The Aussie charged from P7 to secure the final podium position at the Hard Rock stadium, after battles with George Russell and Charles Leclerc.
Arriving with F1's move to a 50:50 power unit split between electrical power and internal combustion has been a widespread concern with closing speeds - only raised further by Haas' Ollie Bearman's 50G crash at Suzuka behind an energy-harvesting Franco Colapinto at Spoon Curve.
Prior to Miami, the FIA introduced tweaks to the regulations to address closing speeds, in the shape of capping the amount of energy delivered by Boost Mode to +150kW, as well as limiting MGU-K deployment to 250kW at certain parts of the lap. However, Piastri, who got his first real taste of 2026 racing action in Miami, is not convinced enough has been done to address the safety issue.
Speaking to media, including GPblog, at the post-race press conference, Piastri, alongside teammate Lando Norris and winner Kimi Antonelli, was asked to reflect on the new tweaks introduced in Miami. Piastri began by praising the reduction to harvesting in Qualifying, but was not as complimentary when it came to the racing.
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Piastri said: "I think the reducing the harvest limit in qualifying has helped a bit. It’s not fixed the problem or all the problems, but it’s helping with one. The races are basically exactly the same, and I think today was my first proper experience of overtaking people and then having to defend and stuff like that. It’s pretty crazy, to be honest."
Piastri reflected on his battle with Russell in Miami. At one stage during the race, the McLaren driver called out the Briton for a "super dangerous" move, but when talking to the media, he suggested that he understood the difficulties of overtaking in the new machinery after trying a similar move on Russell just a few laps later.
"At one point George was one second behind me and managed to overtake me by the end of that straight. And it’s just a bit random. The closing speeds are huge and trying to anticipate that as the defending driver is incredibly tough to do.
"And obviously for the overtaking driver, I wasn’t that pleased with one of the moves that George did, but I kind of found myself almost doing the same move about five laps later, just because the closing speed is enormous. So from that side of things, not much has really changed."
F1 'not at the level it should be' says Norris
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Photo: Race Pictures
Piastri's McLaren teammate Norris was also pleased that the FIA had made "a step in the right direction" with the changes, but warned that F1 is not at the level it should be just yet, reiterating a stance he took on Saturday that drivers were still being "penalised" for going quick in Qualifying.
Norris said: "It’s a small step in the right direction, but it’s not to the level that Formula 1 should still be at yet. I think we said yesterday still in qualifying, if you go flat out everywhere and you try pushing like you were in previous years, you still just get penalised for it.
"You still can’t be flat out everywhere. It’s not about being on as early on throttle everywhere. You should never get penalised for that kind of thing and you still do. So honestly, I don’t really think you can fix that. You just have to get rid of the battery. So hopefully in a few years, that’s the case."
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