Damon Hill warns McLaren ‘be careful’ despite Lando Norris winning Miami Sprint from Oscar Piastri

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Lando Norris beat Oscar Piastri to win the F1 Sprint at the 2026 Miami Grand Prix, yet Damon Hill feels McLaren “have to be careful” not to develop the MCL40 too quickly.

McLaren have reaped the rewards from bringing a raft of updates to Hard Rock Stadium this weekend to end the dominance that Mercedes had enjoyed at the start of the season. Only Ferrari with 11 and Cadillac with nine have brought more updates than McLaren with seven.

Mercedes had scored every pole position and victory through the first three rounds of 2026, while McLaren only had Piastri bagging P2 in Japan to show for their early efforts. But Norris got pole for the Miami Sprint on Friday, and converted it into a comfortable win on Saturday.

Piastri finished 3.766 seconds adrift as Norris won the Miami Sprint, with Ferrari star Charles Leclerc completing the podium with a 6.251s deficit. George Russell also only finished as the lead Mercedes driver in P4 with a 12.951s deficit after Andrea Kimi Antonelli’s time penalty.

Lando Norris takes maximum points – but who was your driver of the Miami Sprint? 🧐

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Damon Hill warns McLaren must ‘be careful’ not to over-develop the MCL40 too soon

Norris and Piastri made full use of McLaren bringing their first upgrades of the 2026 season to the Miami GP to secure a one-two finish in the F1 Sprint. McLaren debuted a new engine cover, sidepods, and front and rear corner furniture as part of a revised floor for the MCL40.

READ MORE: How to watch the 2026 Miami Grand Prix, plus weather forecast

McLaren also have more updates planned for the Canadian Grand Prix next time out on May 22-24. But 1996 F1 champion Hill thinks McLaren need to be “careful” not to bring too many updates too soon and leave themselves at risk of being beaten once their rivals bring theirs.

Hill said on BBC Radio 5 Sports Extra 3 (02/05, 17:36): “It’s about when you play your cards, isn’t it, now in Formula 1? Because developments, they can only do so many and so much during a season.

“If you choose to do it now, then there may be teams that will be bringing forward their developments a bit later on. And McLaren have to be careful they don’t use up all their development options too early in the season.

Lando Norris heads the Miami Sprint podium! Is Mercedes’ dominance already over?

Kimi Antonelli was the lead Mercedes driver but only took the finish in P4 before a penalty

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“But it’s obviously played out brilliantly right now, if they’ve got a car [that] they can win with like this, and they get those points in the bag. So, yeah, they’ll cross that bridge when they get to it, I suppose.”

Only Aston Martin did not bring any upgrades to the Miami GP, but Mercedes also only have two upgrades on their car this weekend. The Silver Arrows have a modified exhaust tail pipe, echoing Ferrari’s design, along with tweaks to the front drum lip chord on the front corner.

Like McLaren, however, Mercedes intend to have a major upgrade package in Canada at the end of May. The Silver Arrows will hope their updates deliver straight away, as Russell called McLaren, Ferrari and Red Bull’s upgrades “daunting” after seeing their progress in America.