It has been a long time, hasn’t it? With the cancellation of the Bahrain and Saudi Arabian races, F1 has had an enforced and unexpected spring break after just three rounds of the new regulation set. But here we are, back in Miami for a sprint weekend, with some tweaks to the regulations.

Without going into too much detail – and the new regulations are so detailed that it beggars belief – there will, of course, be hope that the tweaks make for better, more sensible racing as well as bringing some of the challengers close to leaders Mercedes. Hard to say if that has happened on the basis of one (albeit extended) practice session in Miami, but there were some fairly promising signs.

Charles Leclerc was fastest for Ferrari ahead of Max Verstappen in the Red Bull, nearly 0.3sec behind, followed by Oscar Piastri, Ferrari team-mate Lewis Hamilton and then the lead Mercedes of Kimi Antonelli. George Russell, who is hoping to overturn the Italian’s championship advantage this weekend, was sixth, only marginally behind his team-mate.

I am not sure the additional 30 minutes in FP1 feels like enough time for the teams before sprint qualifying, but who cares? It’s up to them and the drivers to get on with it. Plenty of upgrades here as well as the regulation amendments, so let’s see if they have made a difference.

SQ1 begins at 9.30pm and the whole session should be done in about an hour, so let’s get back on with it, shall we?