When the Miami International Autodrome opened its doors to Formula 1 in May 2022, few could imagine that in just four editions this temporary circuit built around Hard Rock Stadium would become one of the most dramatic stages in the championship. Four years. Four main qualifying sessions. Two sprint qualifyings since that format was added in 2024. And a total of four different names at the top of the grid of the most spectacular Grand Prix on the American continent.
Charles Leclerc, Sergio Pérez, Max Verstappen and Kimi Antonelli. Four stories, four countries, four distinct generations of motorsport. Here is everything you need to know about them.
CHARLES LECLERC — 2022, the first in history
On May 7th 2022, a 24-year-old driver born in Monte Carlo put his Ferrari 1:28.796 at the top of the timesheets and wrote the first line of Miami Grand Prix history. Charles Marc Hervé Perceval Leclerc, the Monegasque who learned to drive before he was old enough for school, claimed the first pole position in the Florida Grand Prix, with Carlos Sainz alongside in a red front row lockout that perfectly summarised Ferrari’s state that year.
Born October 16th 1997, Leclerc grew up on the streets of the Principality under the influence of his father Hervé, a Formula 3 driver, and Jules Bianchi, his racing godfather who would die in 2015 as a consequence of the Suzuka 2014 accident. That loss marked Leclerc for life and, as he has acknowledged on multiple occasions, gave him a different perspective on what it means to race and why to do it.
Karting champion in 2011, Leclerc dominated GP3 in his debut year in 2016 and won the Formula 2 championship in 2017 with Prema Racing, becoming only the fourth driver in history to win that title in their debut season. Ferrari watched him arrive in the F1 paddock in 2018 with Sauber and gave him the promotion to the Scuderia in 2019, where he took his first wins at Spa and Monza. Since then he has accumulated more than 26 pole positions, eight Grand Prix victories including the long-awaited Monaco triumph in 2024 making him the first driver from his country to win at home since 1931, and a consistency that places him among the finest of his generation.
In 2026 he shares a garage with Lewis Hamilton at Ferrari, and in the first three races of the year he has already stood on the podium twice. The championship dream remains alive. As a curiosity, Leclerc is trilingual in French, Italian and English, a regular gamer on Twitch where he has raced virtually with his grid colleagues, and is one of the most active drivers on social media in the entire paddock.
“Ferrari is different from the others. It has passion. No other team in F1 has so many fans and so many enthusiasts. It’s almost like a fever.” — Charles Leclerc, charlesleclerc.com official site.
SERGIO PÉREZ — 2023, the pole that drama delivered
On May 6th 2023 at the Miami Autodrome, a red flag changed the world. With less than ninety seconds on the Q3 clock, Charles Leclerc lost control of his Ferrari at corner 4 and hit the barriers. The session was not restarted. The driver who already had the best time of the moment, a serene 33-year-old Mexican who had been struggling all weekend to find confidence in his Red Bull, looked at the timing screens and saw his name at the top. Sergio Pérez, “Checo”, had taken the third pole position of his career.
Sergio Michel Pérez Mendoza was born January 26th 1990 in Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico, the youngest of three children. His father Antonio Pérez Garibay was a motorsport enthusiast and from the age of six he put Checo in a kart. What began as a hobby became a mission when the teenager crossed the Atlantic at fourteen to pursue a European motorsport career. In 2007 he won the national class championship of the British Formula 3 series. In 2010 he was runner-up in the GP2. In 2011 he debuted in Formula 1 with Sauber as the first Mexican driver in the category in thirty years.
What followed is one of the longest stories of patience and perseverance in the sport. Pérez passed through Sauber, McLaren, Force India and Racing Point before reaching Red Bull in 2021. He had to wait 190 races to win for the first time in F1 the record for most starts before a first victory in the history of the championship. At Sakhir 2020, starting last after a first-corner incident, he won the race with a comeback that is still studied today as an example of tyre management and intelligent racing.
At Red Bull he contributed decisively to two constructors’ championships in 2022 and 2023 and finished runner-up in the world in 2023, the best result for a Mexican driver in Formula 1 history. He was let go by Red Bull at the end of 2024 and after a year’s absence returned in 2026 with the new Cadillac team. Married to Carola Martínez, he has four children and is involved in charitable work through his own foundation. He is the Mexican driver with the most points accumulated in F1 history.
“It’s been my worst weekend up to qualifying. I just couldn’t figure out how to pull those tenths that I was missing all the time to Max and to the Ferraris. With a small change in qualifying everything came alive and we put the lap together when it mattered.” Sergio Pérez after Miami pole 2023, Formula1.com official.
MAX VERSTAPPEN — 2024 and 2025, the owner of Florida
If there is one driver who owns Miami, it is Max Verstappen. The Dutchman won the first two editions of the Grand Prix in 2022 and 2023. In 2024 he took sprint qualifying pole and GP pole. In 2025 he repeated the GP pole. Four out of six qualifying sessions in Miami ended with his name at the top. There is no other way to say it: Miami is Max’s circuit.
Max Emilian Verstappen was born September 30th 1997 in Hasselt, Belgium, son of former F1 driver Jos Verstappen and former karter Sophie Kumpen. He grew up in Belgium speaking Dutch as his first language, one of the curiosities of a driver who competes under the Dutch flag but was born on Belgian soil. He started karting almost before he could walk at four years old he was already in a kart alongside his father. At seventeen he arrived in Formula 1 with Toro Rosso. At eighteen, on May 15th 2016, he won the Spanish Grand Prix with Red Bull in his first race with the team and became the youngest winner in championship history at 18 years old. Gianpiero Lambiase was on the other end of the radio.
What followed has no parallel in the modern era of the sport. Four consecutive world titles: 2021, 2022, 2023 and 2024. Nineteen victories in a single season in 2023, an absolute record. More than 71 victories in total. The image of Verstappen on that final lap of Abu Dhabi 2021 passing Hamilton on fresh tyres is already one of the most iconic in the history of sport. In 2026 he is going through his worst moment at Red Bull the team struggles with the new regulations and he sits ninth in the championship after three races. He has threatened to retire. His engineer Lambiase just signed for McLaren. But in Miami 2025, he took his third pole at the Florida Autodrome and proved once more that when pressure squeezes, he finds a lap nobody else can deliver.
Away from the car he collects simulators, is passionate about Dutch football and has competed at the 24 Hours of Nürburgring with his own team. He became a father for the first time in May 2025, days before the Miami Grand Prix where he claimed that third pole position.
“It’s been a great Qualifying. We improved the car a tiny amount which helped me to rotate it a bit better and honestly Q1, Q2, Q3, just improving every run really, trying to find a bit more the limit.” Max Verstappen after Miami pole 2025, Formula1.com official.
KIMI ANTONELLI — 2025 Sprint, the record that will last decades
On May 2nd 2025, in the Sprint Qualifying session of the Miami Grand Prix, an 18-year-old boy born in Bologna set a record that Lewis Hamilton — the driver he had just replaced at Mercedes described from the paddock as follows: “It’s going to take a while for someone to ever get close to that one.”
Andrea Kimi Antonelli known by his middle name, which was given to him by a family friend because it sounded right alongside “Andrea” and not in honour of the Finnish champion, despite the coincidence being perfect became the youngest polesitter of any format in the history of Formula 1, at 18 years, 8 months and 7 days. He broke a record that was 75 years old in the category.
Born August 25th 2006 in Bologna, Italy, Antonelli is the son of Marco Antonelli, a former racing driver and current owner of AKM Motorsport. He started karting at seven years old competing for his own father’s team. In 2019, aged thirteen, he joined Mercedes’ junior programme. He won five European karting titles. In 2022 he became Italian and German Formula 4 champion. In 2023 he won the Formula Regional European Championship, skipping Formula 3 entirely. In 2024 he debuted in Formula 2 with Prema Racing and finished sixth as the youngest driver on the grid.
In August 2024, during the Italian Grand Prix weekend at Monza, Mercedes confirmed him as Lewis Hamilton’s replacement for 2025. He was 18 years old. In his F1 debut in Australia he finished fourth in the rain. In Miami he took sprint pole. In Canada he claimed his first podium. He ended the season as the highest-scoring rookie in F1 history with 150 points.
In 2026, already 19, he became the youngest Grand Prix polesitter in all of F1 history in China, beating Sebastian Vettel’s long standing record. He won in China and Japan. He leads the world championship. And he has not yet celebrated his twentieth birthday.
Among the curiosities few people know: he obtained his driving licence for public roads only weeks after debuting in F1, since as a minor in Italy he could not legally drive outside a circuit. As a child in 2018 at Monza, he was Lewis Hamilton’s grid kid. In 2026, after winning in China, images of that moment together emerged and Hamilton was the first to share them with emotion.
“I’m feeling great. It was a good session, a good way to end the day after a difficult Sprint. Of course there’s a lot of excitement, but the focus is already ahead on tomorrow.” Kimi Antonelli after Miami sprint pole 2025, Formula1.com official.
The complete Miami pole table
2022 GP: Charles Leclerc — Ferrari — 1:28.796
2023 GP: Sergio Pérez — Red Bull — 1:26.841
2024 Sprint: Max Verstappen — Red Bull — 1:27.641 2024 GP: Max Verstappen — Red Bull — 1:27.241 2025
Sprint: Kimi Antonelli — Mercedes — Youngest in history
2025 GP: Max Verstappen — Red Bull — 1:26.204
One circuit. Four drivers. Six qualifying sessions. And the question Miami is already asking for 2026: can Antonelli do in the GP what he already did in the sprint?
Sources: Formula1.com official, F1 Miami GP official f1miamigp.com, Mercedes AMG F1 Team official, Ferrari official charlesleclerc.com, Formula1.com driver profiles, ESPN F1, Wikipedia editions Miami GP 2022-2025, Motorsport.com, Planet F1, Sky Sports F1, GPFans, Formula One History, RacingNews365, Grokipedia
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