McLaren Dedicates Miami F1 Sprint Win to Alex Zanardi With Emotional Tribute

McLaren principal Andrea Stella, speaking to Sky Sports F1 after the race, made sure the conversation didn’t start with a recap of the sprint.

“Yeah, I want to, before we talk about [the race], allow me to remember and pay tribute to Alex Zanardi. A very special man, a driver, athlete, a real symbol, an example of what it means to love life. Love life and inspiration for everyone, so this victory is for him.”

He then turned to the performance of his team: the upgrades had confirmed their promise not just over a single lap in qualifying, but across race distance in the Florida heat, conditions nobody had yet evaluated the new package in.

“It’s good to start races. It’s good to start sprints. It’s good to bring up grades so that we can become more and more competitive. It was important to confirm. That the upgrades work like we have seen yesterday over a single lap.

“Today it was important to see them in long runs and even hot conditions, so nobody knew exactly what the degradation would have been, but it looks like the car has retained the good characteristics from a degradation point of view.

‘Good indications so far, but everyone very close. I think Lando might have benefited from being the lead car, clean air, possibly whoever was first today could have won the sprint. So I think everyone is close, and we will see more in a few hours in qualifying.”

Norris became the first non-Mercedes driver to claim a pole position in the 2026 season , and then backed it up with a dominant race win.

Norris himself called it “a good race, nice to be back on the top step,” adding that McLaren’s upgrades had “really helped this weekend.”

Grand Prix qualifying, the session that actually determines Sunday’s grid, follows later today.

The Man the Win Was For

Zanardi competed in Formula 1 between 1991 and 1999, won the CART World Series in both 1997 and 1998 with Chip Ganassi Racing, and claimed four Paralympic gold medals and twelve UCI Para-cycling Road World Championship titles.

In 2001, coming out of the pits at the Lausitzring with 13 laps remaining, he lost control on fluid left on the track, spun back onto the racing surface, and was hit by Alex Tagliani. The impact cost him both legs.

He lost nearly three-quarters of his blood volume. The IndyCar chaplain gave him last rites at the Berlin hospital. He survived.

What came after is what made Zanardi impossible to define through a racing resume alone.

He took up handcycling and competed for Italy at the 2012 and 2016 Paralympics, winning four gold medals and two silvers.

His health had been fragile since June 2020, when a handbike relay event in Tuscany ended with him veering into the path of an oncoming truck.

His family announced his death on Saturday, saying he passed away on Friday night. “Alex died peacefully, surrounded by the affection of those closest to him,” the family said, without providing a cause of death.

Formula 1 has had its share of tributes over the years, many of them rote and quickly forgotten. This one landed differently. Zanardi wasn’t just a former F1 driver, he was the sport’s clearest argument that racing produces something beyond results. Stella said the win was for him. Given everything Zanardi did with the time he had, that feels like the right call.