Helmut Marko believes that the higher temperatures expected at the Miami Grand Prix this weekend will swing the race in favour of McLaren. Max Verstappen missed out on a win in Jeddah last time out and is losing ground in the Drivers’ Championship fight. Verstappen went into the 2025 season with aspirations of recording a fifth consecutive Drivers’ Championship crown, which would have levelled Michael Schumacher’s record.

However, after five rounds, the Dutchman trails Oscar Piastri by 12 points, and the gap is steadily widening. The Australian is in a fine vein of form and pipped Verstappen to P1 at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix last weekend, capping his third victory in the previous four races. With Lando Norris also in the mix, the reigning world champion needs conditions to be perfect if he is to fight for wins on Sundays.

Unfortunately, that looks unlikely to be the case this weekend. “What do the findings from the first five races mean for the upcoming race in Miami?” Marko penned in his Speedweek column. “Once again, we’re talking about a completely different track, but above all, we’re expecting higher temperatures.

“On paper, that’s not an advantage for us. In Jeddah, we were eight-tenths behind McLaren in the third practice session, in significantly warmer conditions than later in qualifying. We and the other opponents expected McLaren to drive away from everyone. But that didn’t happen.

“In Miami, we still expect the conditions to be more in McLaren’s favour. Our task at the moment is to develop a broader working window for our race car, and also to reduce certain weaknesses of the car before the races in Europe and thus improve the basic speed of the car.”

The fact that this is the second sprint race of the season, meaning eight more points are up for grabs, adds more fuel to the fire in Miami. If McLaren are as dominant as Marko expects them to be, this will be good news for Piastri and Norris.

Verstappen might also have to worry about Mercedes' threat. Their executive, Simone Resta, predicted: “It has been a very good start for this car. The car has been competitive everywhere so far. So we expect to be competitive, fight for the podium like we have done in the initial races and try to improve from what we've seen in Jeddah."

Therefore, the Dutchman is facing another battle with George Russell, who has been touted as a potential replacement for Verstappen should he leave Red Bull. The Brit has already finished ahead of the 27-year-old twice this season.