Luke’s Weekend Take – Miami GP 2023

Leave a Comment / News / By

New Tarmac Brings Unexpected Twists in Miami GP: A Recap of Free Practice and Qualifying

Miami GP 2023 Weekend Take 1

And what a race we’ve got on our hands tomorrow, we have seen drivers being caught out by the new tarmac in the Miami GP across Free Practice and Qualifying due to the lack of grip other circuits might offer due to being more ‘rubbered in’ due to the lack of other support races and old races in the track.

We start by looking at FP1 on Friday where we saw Mercedes closing the session in the first 2 spots with George Russell leading his teammate Lewis Hamilton by 2 tenths, while we saw Red bull only managing 4th and 11th most likely due to running different programs or as the industry calls it ‘sandbagging’ and letting other teams set the pace for the weekend.

Nico Hülkenberg was the first victim to the Miami GP track where we saw Hulkenberg crash in FP1 bringing out the first red flag of the weekend. Hülkenberg lost the rear of his Haas on turn 3 in FP1 cutting his sessions short and giving the Haas mechanics some work to get his car repaired for FP2 later on Friday. Hülkenberg wasn’t the only one caught out in FP1 where we saw a few drivers going wide or spinning on track due to the lack of grip.

In FP2 it was Charles Leclerc who brought out the Red Flag where he had a snap of oversteer at turn 7 putting his Ferrari into the barriers. Kevin Magnussen had a narrow escape later in the session at turn 14 where he completely spun out brushing the wall with the rear of his car but avoiding any major damage where he was able to continue the session ending it in 12th place.

Down at Red Bull it wasn’t all smooth sailing for the team with the current World Champion and Driver Championship leader Max Verstappen where he has been suffering with Headrest issues all weekend complaining that his head keeps getting stuck and with Sergio Perez being shown the Black and White flag for crossing over the pit entry line with a last minute entry into the pits, under normal racing conditions this would have landed the Mexican driver a 5 second penalty which I’m sure he would want to avoid at all costs given how close the driver championship is between the Red Bull pair.

FP3 was the only free practice session which we didn’t see a Red Flag waving other than all the Ferrari fans in the stands, however it wasn’t short of any close calls where we saw both Nico Hülkenberg and Lando Norris escape crashes with some amazing reflexes to catch their cars before it was too late. Turn 17 has been quite popular for a few lockups over the weekend and I’m predicting it will catch a few more drivers tomorrow in the race giving it is the longest straight on this track which will be where most of the overtakes might happen.

New Helmet Designs, Liveries, and Overalls Take Over Miami GP: A Look at the Grid and Qualifying Results

In Miami we have seen teams and drivers bring new helmet designs, liveries and overalls to the Miami GP. In fact, over half the grid all had a special helmet designed especially for the Miami GP. Some of my favourites are Lando Norris’s Beach Ball design helmet where he tries to top his last year design where we saw Norris rock a basketball helmet design, Alex Albon also went with a ball design where we see Albon wearing a Golf Ball Design lid. The Ferrari Pair also have new designs where Charles Leclerc seems to have opted for the light theme and Carlos Sainz opt for a darker theme both portraying Miami themes. Haas team decided to change their overalls for the weekend as well where we see both Kevin Magnussen and Nico Hülkenberg rock the overalls with palm trees all over them. Hass wasn’t the only team who changed their uniform as we see Red Bull change the livery of their F1 car implementing 3 stripes embracing Miami colours, this came out from a competition they are running for all US races where fans can design the livery for Red Bull.

With regards to new parts we see George Russell, Lewis Hamilton and Carlos Sainz all elected to take on new control electronics and energy stores this weekend in the Miami GP this is the 2nd of 2 allowed with 19 races still to go this season which might later on lead to grid drops if the opt to take on new ones later this season. This will make it interesting later in the season where teams will have to tactically take on new parts in races where they believe they can maximise the most of taking on new parts.

Qualifying tonight was an interesting watch where we have seen a few upsets and unexpected results. Traffic has been an issue all weekend but in Q1 there were a few close calls, we see Hamilton clipping the wall while avoiding Kevin Magnussen. Biggest upset in Q2 was Lewis Hamilton being eliminated in Q2 while we saw the likes of Esteban Ocon, Pierre Gasly, Valtteri Bottas and Kevin Magnussen making it through into Q3. Leclerc gave all the Tifosi hope of pole where we see him only 0.150 off the pace from Max Verstappen in Q2 only to break our heart again when he crashed in the closing minutes of Q3 bringing out the red flag one more time in the Miami GP and stopping the session early for everyone where a lot of drivers were out on timed laps improving on their times. This red flag has given us an interesting top 10 for tomorrow where we see Perez on pole again 2 times in a row after Baku followed by Alonso, Sainz, Magnussen, Gasly, Russell, Leclerc, Ocon, Verstappen and Bottas.

Max Verstappen has his work cut out for him tomorrow in order to keep the lead in the drivers championship so he will be looking to get himself to the front as soon as possible and will be praying to the racing gods for some miracle tomorrow. Will ‘The King of the Streets’ be able to retain his title or will someone else claim victory on the streets of Miami? I for one am excited about this grid and am very hopeful that we have a good race on our hands.

Share this article with your friends

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *