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5 storylines we’re excited about ahead of the Miami GP

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5 storylines we’re excited about ahead of the Miami GP


After four weekends without a Formula 1 race, we will soon be back on track with a spectacular event in the United States. As the paddock heads to the second Sprint weekend of the season, there are a number of talking points and unknowns to get stuck into ahead of the trip to Miami.

Upgrades, and lots of ‘em

The Miami Grand Prix has seen some teams bring significant upgrade packages in the past, but it’s a whole new ball game this year.

New regulations mean an increased development rate in the early part of the season, as teams are able to find bigger gains as they explore different directions that have been opened up by the rules.

Where many of the teams might have been aiming to bring their first major updates to the Bahrain Grand Prix, the two scheduled rounds in April being unable to take place has meant more time to develop and manufacture new parts, as well as additional spares before the race weekend in Miami.

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The scale of the changes could be massive across the grid, with McLaren Team Principal Andrea Stella going as far as describing his team’s efforts as representing a whole new car, and he doesn’t think they’ll be alone.

“In our intent, there was always the idea to deliver a completely new car – especially from a aerodynamic upgrades point of view – for the North American races,” Stella said. “So we could keep up with this plan. Obviously, the fact that the calendar has been changed sort of helped a little bit, like I’m sure helped all the other teams that could work more streamlined towards upgrading the car rather than being busy with racing.

“But I could say overall that across Miami and Canada, we will see an entirely new MCL40… I would like to stress that this is what I would expect of most of our competitors.”

Antonelli’s happy hunting ground

Sometimes it’s a little hard to believe the current championship leader is only in his second season in F1, and even harder to recall the struggles he faced during the European swing of races last year.

Kimi Antonelli had an encouraging start to 2025, but the first headline moments came in Miami and Montreal. Prior to his first podium in Canada, the visit to the Miami International Autodrome saw Antonelli set the fastest time in Sprint Qualifying, and he followed that with a top three Qualifying performance, just 0.067s adrift of pole position.

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Given the difficulties he faced with the Mercedes throughout the middle part of last year, Antonelli’s performance in Miami stands out as a particularly strong weekend. Arriving with a nine-point championship lead over George Russell after back-to-back wins from pole position, will he be able to replicate that on his return this year?

Regulation tweaks

This year’s regulations have been a major talking point among drivers and fans alike, and were always designed with mechanisms that could be adjusted if required once there was proven on-track data from race weekends.

With three rounds down in Australia, China and Japan, the unexpected gap in races provided a larger window for discussions to take place among the sport’s key stakeholders – also including the teams, drivers, FIA and power unit manufacturers – about any changes that could address certain aspects of car performance.

Meetings were described by many of those involved as extremely collaborative, and the main outcomes focused on trying to allow drivers to maximise Qualifying performance as well as reducing the likelihood of excessive closing speeds in race conditions.

The changes have been carefully considered and simulated using the data from the opening three events, but Miami will be the first true test of them in race conditions.

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Two American teams and a first home race for Cadillac

Miami has quickly become a significant stop on the calendar for the entire field, with multiple teams carrying out additional activations and often running special liveries.

There will likely be a number of designs on display again this year, but two teams get to call it the first of three home races, as Haas return looking to add to a record of just three points – two of them in a Sprint – in the previous four editions. Given the strong form to start the year that sees Haas sitting fourth in the Teams’ Championship, more points will certainly be the target.

While the on-track aims are currently at a different stage to Haas, it will still be a big weekend for Cadillac as they make their debut on home soil. The team are hoping to bring their first upgrade package to Miami, but also feel the support from the American crowd as they continue their maiden season in the sport.

Sergio Perez and Valtteri Bottas are sure to have a huge amount of backing during the race weekend, as is another member of the Cadillac line-up…

A Sprint weekend and an F2 US debut

It’s not just Cadillac getting to enjoy their first home race in Miami, but their third driver Colton Herta also has an unexpected chance to race in Formula 2 in the United States.

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Herta has made the switch from IndyCar and with Bahrain and Saudi Arabia unable to take place in April – they were both set to feature F2 rounds – that has meant the next two North American F1 weekends will host instead. For the first time as either F2 or its previous guise as GP2, the feeder series will be racing on the continent, giving fans a chance to see the next generation racing twice over each weekend.

And speaking of racing twice, that’s exactly what the F1 grid will be doing as both Miami and Montreal are Sprint weekends, providing two opportunities to score points.

Given the length of the gap between races, and the amendments made to the regulations since the last time the teams were on track in Japan, the FIA has opted to extend the only practice session on Friday from its usual one-hour length to run for 90 minutes. It’s sure to be an action-packed weekend.



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Miami, FL

3 hurt in fire on Lincoln Road that started underground

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3 hurt in fire on Lincoln Road that started underground


Three people were hurt after a building caught fire on Lincoln Road on Sunday, according to authorities.

The Miami Beach Fire Department said it was working a fire near 230 Lincoln Road.

The flames had spread from a fire in a manhole that “ignited an FPL vault of an adjacent building,” officials said.

Three people were taken to Mount Sinai Medical Center with minor injuries.

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The building was evacuated, and FPL has shut off power to the surrounding area, the fire department said.

Drivers were asked to avoid the area of Collins Avenue between 16th and 17th streets while crews worked the scene.



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“Love & Hip Hop: Atlanta” star Tommie Lee among 6 arrested during World Cup match in Miami, sheriff says

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“Love & Hip Hop: Atlanta” star Tommie Lee among 6 arrested during World Cup match in Miami, sheriff says


Reality television personality Tommie Lee — whose real name is Atasha Jefferson — best known for her appearances on “Love & Hip Hop: Atlanta,” was among six people arrested during the England vs. Norway FIFA World Cup match in Miami on Saturday, according to the Miami-Dade Sheriff’s Office.  

The sheriff’s office said 60,024 fans attended the match. Deputies also reported 19 ejections from the stadium, adding that all incidents were isolated and handled quickly.  

Authorities have not yet released the circumstances surrounding Jefferson’s arrest or any charges she may face.

A social media account that regularly reports celebrity news claimed Sunday that Jefferson was arrested July 11 and released July 12 after posting a $1,000 bond. The post also alleged she is facing a felony charge of interference with a sporting or entertainment event and said she later shared a video on Snapchat appearing to be in good spirits after her release.

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What we don’t know

CBS News has not independently verified those claims, including the reported charge, bond amount or release information, and Miami-Dade Sheriff’s Office has not publicly confirmed those details.

CBS News has also not independently verified what led to the encounter, and the sheriff’s office has not said what prompted deputies to take Jefferson into custody.

CBS News has requested Jefferson’s arrest report, booking information and any charging documents from the Miami-Dade Sheriff’s Office. A request for comment has also been sent to Jefferson’s representatives.

Reality TV star’s legal troubles in South Florida amid World Cup festivities

Jefferson rose to national prominence as one of the breakout personalities on “Love & Hip Hop: Atlanta” before later appearing on several Zeus Network reality series, where she has remained a frequent cast member.

This is not Jefferson’s first legal issue in South Florida. In 2024, she was arrested in Miami Beach on a battery charge following an incident outside LIV Nightclub. Court records from that case alleged she physically confronted another person before officers took her into custody.  

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Saturday’s arrest comes as Miami continues hosting FIFA World Cup matches that have drawn tens of thousands of fans from around the world. Despite the arrests and ejections, the sheriff’s office said the event proceeded safely and described the incidents as isolated.  

This is a developing story. CBS News will update this article as additional information, including the exact circumstances surrounding Jefferson’s arrest and any charges, becomes available.



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Why I’m Not Worried About Giannis in Miami

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Why I’m Not Worried About Giannis in Miami


The reaction to the trade was predictable. The moment Pat Riley landed his whale and the Heat sent most of their young talent and a war chest of draft picks to Milwaukee for Giannis Antetokounmpo, the conversation turned away from how Miami finally landed the star they had been seeking, to calf strains and Giannis not being the superstar player that he once was.

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“He only played 36 games last year.” ”The calf injuries keep coming back.” “He’s 31, turning 32.” “They bet the franchise on a body that’s breaking down.”

Various voices on Giannis Antetokounmpo

I’ve spent Over 15 years working with youth, collegiate and pro athletes on exactly this question, not “is he hurt,” but “what does this injury actually mean for what comes next.” And I’ll say it plainly: I’M NOT WORRIED ABOUT GIANNIS. Not in the way the panic merchants want you to be.

Let me be clear about what I’m NOT claiming. I’m not his trainer. I don’t have his imaging, his force-plate data, or his medical file. And I’m not going to insult you by telling you calf strains are nothing, because in a 31-year-old NBA forward with 13 years in the NBA, they are decidedly something. The fear has a real basis.

The soleus and the gastrocnemius, which are the two muscles of your calf, both funnel down into the Achilles tendon. When a calf is compromised and an athlete returns before it has its full capacity back, the load it can’t absorb has to go somewhere, and the Achilles is next in line. We’ve watched it happen on the biggest stages. Those are the facts and I take it seriously. I just don’t think it’s the story here.

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Here’s why…

He’s one of the most durable superstars of his era

Before we talk about what’s fragile, look at what’s been bulletproof. Strip away the two COVID-compressed seasons that the entire league played short, and strip away last year (where he wa shut down by the team), and across his other ten campaigns Giannis averaged roughly 73 games a season and never once dipped below 63. He cleared 72 games in 7 different seasons. For more than a decade, the single most physically violent player in basketball, a 6’11”, 250+ pound freight train who initiates more contact per possession than almost anyone alive — was, by availability, an iron man.

Tissue tolerance, connective-tissue quality, recovery capacity, and movement efficiency are stable characteristics of an athlete, and Giannis has eleven years of evidence that his are elite. One brutal season doesn’t erase that baseline. When a historically available athlete has one wrecked year, the honest question should be “what was different about that year.” And a lot was.

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The injuries are soft tissue, not structural

Here’s the piece that many are missing, and it’s the heart of my optimism. Call me a fan if you want, but I hate seeing ANYONE get injured. I’m rooting for Giannis to bounce back.

There are two broad categories of injury, and they age completely differently. The first is structural: torn ligaments, ruptured tendons, cartilage and joint degeneration, stress fractures. These leave a permanent mark. A reconstructed ACL is never the original. Cartilage doesn’t grow back. These are the injuries that genuinely shorten careers, because the tissue itself is changed forever and the clock only runs one direction.

The second category is soft-tissue strains or muscle. A calf strain, a groin strain, a hamstring pull. And muscle is the one tissue in the lower body that, when managed properly, heals back to full structural integrity. It is not a cumulative wound. A calf you strained in December and rehabbed correctly is not a weaker calf in March; it’s a healed calf. There’s no scar that compounds the way an arthritic joint compounds. Strains are frustrating, they’re disruptive to a season, and they recur when you rush them, but they are not a countdown timer ticking toward catastrophe.

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Now go down Giannis’s list from last season: a low-grade groin strain. A calf strain. A re-aggravated calf. An ankle sprain. A knee hyperextension with a bone bruise. Look at that honestly. The ankle sprain is acute meaning it’s a one-off mechanical event as opposed to a sign of decay. The knee hyperextension and bone bruise are traumatic. That could be somebody’s leg, a bad landing, a freak gather (no pun intended). A bone bruise heals. None of those four are degenerative. None of them are the kind of injury that feeds the next one.

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Which leaves the calf. The one real recurrence. So let’s talk about the calf specifically, because that’s where the argument is actually won or lost.

What a soleus strain is

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Cleveland Clinic

Your calf is two muscles doing two different jobs. The gastrocnemius is the showy one that crosses both the knee and the ankle, it’s fast-twitch, it’s what fires when you sprint and explode off the floor. The soleus sits underneath it, crosses only the ankle, and it’s the endurance muscle. It’s considered the postural workhorse that absorbs force every time you decelerate, land, and push off, thousands of times a night in the case of many athletes. Giannis’s recurring problem has been the soleus.

Soleus strains are classic high-mileage, fatigue-and-load injuries. They show up in athletes who run an enormous volume on a heavy frame which is the literal job description of a player who logged the third-highest workload on a bad team.

And here’s the critical part: soleus strains are notoriously slow to heal and notoriously easy to re-tweak. The calf is one of hardest lower-leg structures to truly load-test before return. It can pass every clinical check, feel 100 percent walking and even jogging, and still not have the deep capacity to handle a full-speed game’s worth of repeated max-effort decelerations. Return a week early and you’re injuring healed tissue that hadn’t been rebuilt to game-level capacity yet.

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Feb 6, 2024; Phoenix, Arizona, USA; Milwaukee Bucks head coach Doc Rivers talks to forward Giannis Antetokounmpo (34) against the Phoenix Suns at Footprint Center. Mandatory Credit: Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports | USA TODAY Sports via Reuters Connect

Last season was the worst possible environment for getting that management right. Consider the context Giannis was actually operating in. Milwaukee went 32-50 and missed the playoffs. The franchise eventually fired its coach.

Giannis spent the entire year as the center of a trade saga that, by every report, had him wanting out for over a year. A declining team with a disgruntled superstar and a front office weighing his trade value against his health is the textbook setup for muddled, hurried, incentive-conflicted return decisions which are exactly the conditions under which a soleus strain becomes two soleus strains.

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Now change the environment as he lands in Miami. Known for being an organization with a near-mythological reputation for conditioning and body management, a culture that has rehabilitated and extended careers other teams gave up on.

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He pairs with Bam Adebayo, which means for the first time in years Giannis doesn’t have to be the entire offensive and defensive engine every single night. As of now the roster isn’t fully complete but they will add to that so that there’s lower usage and a shared load. Real return-to-play standards instead of playoff-desperation math. You take the most fixable injury pattern on his chart and drop it into the best possible setting to fix it.

Feb 13, 2024; Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA; Milwaukee Bucks forward Giannis Antetokounmpo (34) drives against Miami Heat center Bam Adebayo (13) in the first half at Fiserv Forum. Mandatory Credit: Michael McLoone-USA TODAY Sports | USA TODAY Sports via Reuters Connect
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His game is built to age

There’s a movement argument too. Giannis isn’t a stop-start, pull-up, hard-cut guard whose game is one violent deceleration after another. He’s a downhill, long-stride force athlete. His value comes from length, gather, straight-line pressure, rim protection, and playmaking. Those are skills that lean on size and feel, and they degrade gracefully with age in a way that twitchy, change-of-direction games don’t. The same frame that makes him an injury talking point is the frame that lets him dominate without living on the edge of his physical limits every possession.

What would actually change my mind? If the recurring issue were structural, like a partial Achilles tear, chronic patellar tendon breakdown that imaging showed was degenerating, cartilage loss in the knee, I’d be writing a very different column.

If he came back this season and strained the same calf a third and fourth time despite a clean environment and proper protocols, that would tell me something about the tissue I can’t see. And the Achilles risk that follows calf injuries in some athletes is real enough that it should govern how Miami brings him back: slowly, on capacity-based criteria.

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EVERY great athlete in his thirties requires careful management. That’s just the truth.

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I’m not telling you he’s invincible. But I’m not willing to bet against eleven years of durability and the most fixable problem on the chart if you want. I’ll take the Greek Freak, the new setting, and the science that we’ll all be watching a productive age-32 season with a lot less fear than the headlines are selling you.

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