Thrilling Actions Unfold at Miami GP: Verstappen Dominates as Ferrari Showcases New Livery
2 weeks have gone past, and we have travelled 8250 miles from Shanghai into the sunshine of Florida for the Miami GP where for the 3rd consecutive race, we will have a sprint race weekend.
We see a lot of new helmet designs like we always do in Miami but the 2 main talking points this weekend outside of Adrian Newey leaving Red Bull were the cars and overalls for Ferrari as we see them implement a bit of blue on their livery and full blue overalls to celebrate their new partnership with HP as the team is formally called Scuderia Ferrari HP. The other team with a special livery was VCARB who have implemented a multicolour livery which in my opinion should be made permanent as the car looks absolutely amazing.
Other than special liveries we also see some big upgrades coming onto the McLaren as they have a total of 9 performance upgrades, the only thing is that only Lando Norris has the full package of upgrades while Oscar Piastri got half of the upgrades for this weekend as Zak Brown confirms that Piastri will get the remainder of the upgrades by next race in Imola.
In FP1 all teams try and get on it ASAP given this was the only practice of the weekend. Unfortunately For Charles Leclerc this wasn’t long lived as 7 mins in he takes too much kerb going into Turn 16 and spins the car, doesn’t hit anything but couldn’t get it spun round facing the right way ending his session early and bringing out the Red Flag. After the Marshalls clear Leclerc’s car the session restarted and after his outlap, Max Verstappen Goes straight onto the runoff at Turn 17 as he locks the brakes, this was due to a tailwind which was catching quite a lot of drivers on this turn. McLaren drivers were both unhappy with the steering of the car after the upgrades which meant that ahead of sprint qualifying the team had some adjustments to do. At the end of FP1 we see Max Verstappen topping the leaderboard followed by Oscar Piastri and Carlos Sainz.
We head now into the first qualifying session of the weekend where drivers are getting ready to qualify for the Sprint Race on Saturday and we see Charles Leclerc go out 1st in SQ1 on track as he needed to make up for lost time from the time he lost in the earlier session and on his flying lap we see him have a bit of a snap at Turn 7 but manages to hold it on track and keep his lap going unlike he did last year in qualifying as we had seen him crash out here. In SQ1 we also see an incident between Valtteri Bottas and Oscar Piastri at Turn 1 as the pair looked like they touched as while Piastri was on a push lap, Bottas was on a slow lap and was in the middle of the corner and as soon as Piastri went past him Bottas who was unaware of Piastri coming, turned into the corner and into Piastri. Immediately we hear Bottas come on the radio to his engineer saying that was too late as he is still getting into grips with his new race engineer who was newly assigned to him from this weekend. This incident was investigated after the session and Bottas ended up getting a 3 place grid penalty for the Sprint Race on Saturday. At the end of SQ1 we end up losing Pierre Gasly, Zhou Guanyu, Valtteri Bottas, Logan Sargeant and Alex Albon.
SQ2 was a bit more normal with less incidents however we do see Lewis Hamilton being noted for a pitlane infringement due to mechanics not wearing their helmets in the pitlane, but nothing came out of this. At the end of SQQ2 we end up losing George Russell, Lewis Hamilton, Esteban Ocon, Kevin Magnussen and Yuki Tsunoda which was quite shocking to see both Mercedes drivers out in SQ2. SQ3 kicks off with he final 10 drivers and half way through the session no one had left their garage as the softs were only good for 1 lap and everyone decided to leave it for the last second before they go out to maximise on track evolution. After all 10 drivers come out to do their runs we see Max Verstappen taking pole followed by Charles Leclerc, Sergio Perez, Daniel Ricciardo, Carlos Sainz, Oscar Piastri, Lance Stroll, Fernando Alonso, Lando Norris and Nico Hulkenberg.
Intense Mid-Race Drama and Strategic Pit Stops Define Miami GP Sprint Weekend
We head now into Saturday for the Sprint Race and we see Alex Albon opting to start from the pits as Williams decide to do a suspension set-up change ahead of the race and breaking Parc Ferme, while we see Esteban Ocon get a 10 second penalty as he hit Charles Leclerc in the pitlane as he was coming out of the garage to the grid. After a quick formation lap all 19 cars line up on the grid to go (with Alex Albon in the pitlane) and when the lights went off they all went and Verstappen managed to get away well and so did Leclerc who by Turn 1 was side by side Verstappen but due to hi being on the inside he had to back out as he got slightly squeezed by Verstappen and this put him right into the firing line of Perez, however Leclerc manages to hold 2nd place but Perez got jumped by Ricciardo and dropped to 4th while the Aussie got into the podium positions with the VCARB car.
Further back we see a car spin out in the distance and the double Yellow Flags being waved as we see Lewis Hamilton dive bomb Alonso, while Alonso had Stroll to his left as well. Hamilton due to the speed he was going into the corner hit Alonso which in turn caught Stroll who ended up clipping Norris’s back wheel and giving Norris a puncture and spin out into the run off and out of the race. This incident brought out the Safety Car so the marshals could clear out Norris’s car and the debris on track. Stroll at the end of the 1st lap also went into the pits to retire due to damage while his teammate pitted for a new front wing and the hard tyres. Stewards looked into this incident and concluded that no further investigation was required which was quite surprising as in my eyes this was Hamilton’s fault and caused a collision.
While under the Safety Car, the cars were passing through the pitlane so that marshals can the debris properly, Ocon took this opportunity to pit and serve his 10 second penalty while Hamilton was noted by the stewards for speeding in the pitlane. Norris was also noted to the stewards for crossing the track on foot which is not allowed for safety purposes and at the end was given a €50,000 fine for doing so and a driver reprimand.
Safety Car period ended, and they went back racing as we see Verstappen getting away nicely and after 1 lap, he was already a second ahead of Leclerc to defend from the DRS threat. On Lap 5 we see Perez get back past Ricciardo to get back into 3rd and Ricciardo is immediately under pressure from Sainz behind him, but Ricciardo was still in the DRS of Perez which was helping him defend against the Ferrari of Sainz.
Hamilton after the Safety Car put his head down in order to try and get into the points and was on the back of Magnussen however, he came on the radio to complain that his car was too slow on the straights and was not making the overtake easy. This however didn’t defeat Hamilton as he stayed on the back of Magnussen and on Lap 9 forced him into a mistake as we see Magnussen cut the chicane and Hamilton was straight on the radio to say that Magnussen gained an advantage, the stewards agreed with Hamilton as they and Magnussen a 10 second penalty. This battle was far from over as on lap 11 Hamilton goes to make a move and Magnussen defends aggressively also hitting Hamilton a bit which Magnussen gets a black and white flag. On Lap 14 Hamilton was able to charge up again and went for another move but again Magnussen broke very late and forced both Hamilton and himself off the track and Tsunoda was able to get past Hamilton due to this while Magnussen was able to stay ahead of the pair. This got Magnussen another 10 second penalty making it a 20 second penalty total.
On Lap 15 we see both Tsunoda and Hamilton ahead of Magnussen finally and Hamilton was pressing Tsunoda now for that final points position in the Sprint Race and on lap 19 Hamilton was able to get past Tsunoda to finish in the points. This was however short lived as the stewards handed Hamilton a drive through penalty for speeding in the pitlane and given that the race has ended that meant an additional 20 seconds added to his final race time which put him down to 16th place and out of the points.
Further at the front we see Ricciardo drop from Perez’s DRS on lap 9 which meant Sainz had a better chance of overtaking so Ricciardo had to ensure to not make any mistakes and save all the battery power he can to use on the straights. Ricciardo did an amazing job at this as he managed to hold Sainz off for the whole race which the pair were constantly battling and Ricciardo managed to finish in 4th place in the Sprint Race getting some well deserved points for him and the team while his teammate also got the final point after Hamilton got his penalty.
At the end of the race we saw Max Verstappen take the chequered flag followed by Charles Leclerc, Sergio Perez, Daniel Ricciardo, Carlos Sainz, Oscar Piastri, Nico Hulkenberg and Yuki Tsunoda form the top 8 for the sprint. Magnussen really managed to keep the stewards on their toes in this race as we see him get another 5 second penalty at the end for track limits totalling his total penalties to 25 seconds.
Heading now into the qualifying for the race tomorrow and in Q1 we see all cars queueing in the pitlane ready to go out as soon as the lights turn green and once it did, they all got going. Apart from a few radio messages complaining about impeding, Q1 was fairly normal with no incidents and in the end, we end up losing Valtteri Bottas, Logan Sargeant, Daniel Ricciardo, Kevin Magnussen and Zhou Guanyu.
Early in Q2 we momentarily see the double Yellow Flags being waved as we see Alex Albon go wide into Turn 17 and had to reverse back on track, this was very quick, and all drivers got going again in the end. For the last runs of Q2, McLaren take the gamble and send Norris out on the mediums but I don’t think Noris had enough time for 2 out laps which was going to put him at risk. Luckily his first run was enough as the drivers below him were not improving significantly and he was through to Q3 as we lose Lance Stroll, Pierre Gasly, Esteban Ocon, Alex Albon and Fernando Alonso in Q2.
Q3 got under way and after the first runs we see Max Verstappen on provisional pole with Charles Leclerc very close behind and Carlos Sainz coming in 3rd. Sainz was noted by the stewards for impeding Nico Hulkenberg at Turn 17 but after a quick review the stewards declared that no further investigation is needed. On the 2nd and last runs, Mercedes had to opt to send both their drivers out on the mediums as they had run out of new softs while McLaren put Norris back on the softs as he was not making an impact on the mediums. Nearly no one was able to improve their times from the first runs and we end up having Max Verstappen taking pole followed by Charles Leclerc, Carlos Sainz, Sergio Perez, Lando Norris, Oscar Piastri, George Russell, Lewis Hamilton, Nico Hulkenberg and Yuki Tsunoda will form the top 10 for the race.
Who do you think will come out on top tomorrow? Will Max be able to sail into the Florida sunset, or will Ferrari and McLaren potentially have an answer for the Rede Bull of Max Verstappen?
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