Miami weekend update, and the results are genuinely more encouraging than what came before.

The sprint race delivered exactly what Leclerc promised. After griping about the soft tire in qualifying trim, Charles put in a P3 finish in the sprint itself — up from his P4 grid slot — while Hamilton held his P7 starting position through to the flag. Small margins, but the pattern matches: the SF-26 does find something extra when it stops doing hot laps and starts doing actual racing.

Then Saturday qualifying raised the mood further. Leclerc went P3 again, and Hamilton jumped to P6 — a meaningful improvement over the sprint qualifying misery (P4 and P7 respectively) and a sign that the team either found something overnight or that the softs are simply more cooperative over a single lap in cooler conditions. Either way, the front row is out of reach but third and sixth is a credible launchpad.

In completely unrelated but very fun paddock news: Rafael Nadal got the Ferrari garage treatment in Miami. The r/ScuderiaFerrari post went up Friday evening with the caption "two legends, one soul" — which is the kind of content that reminds you Ferrari is as much a cultural institution as a racing team. Rafa in red, naturally.

The race day discussion thread is live as of this morning, which means we're either mid-race or the flag has dropped. Results to follow in the next briefing — but P3 and P6 on the grid with Charles's stated confidence in race pace makes this the most interesting Ferrari Sunday in a while.