The organizers of the Miami Grand Prix have held tentative discussions about changing the event to a night race at some stage in future. The second edition of the race in Florida had a crowd of just over 90,000 on race day but fans are often dealing …
The organizers of the Miami Grand Prix have held tentative discussions about changing the event to a night race at some stage in future.
The second edition of the race in Florida had a crowd of just over 90,000 on race day but fans are often dealing with high temperatures throughout the weekend that puts a premium on shaded areas. With the race located on a semi-permanent circuit that winds around Hard Rock Stadium, the backdrop could be adapted for a night race according to Miami GP managing partner Tom Garfinkel.
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“We’ve had some discussions about potentially doing that,” Garfinkel said. “It’s obviously this time of year the weather’s a little unpredictable, the weather’s been nice this year so far, last year was unseasonably hot, but there’s a lot of factors that go into that with F1 and television and everything else so we’ve got to weigh all those things, but we’re certainly open-minded to it.”
The race was declared a sellout by Formula 1 with around 90,000 per day being the published attendance, figures that were called into question by some. But Garfinkel says empty grandstand seats at certain times don’t reflect a lack of attendance and he sees the event continuing to increase numbers in future.
“What we do is purposefully hold back tickets then bleed them out, we added some campus passes this last week or so. Last year we had roughly 85k sold per day, we probably could have sold 150k based on demand and the room we have here, but I want everyone to have a great experience. So it’s hard to get people in and out, make sure there aren’t lines, traffic, all of those things.
“We want to grow a little bit every year as we operationally get better and better to make sure people have a good experience, enough points of sale, bathrooms, it’s part of the reason we doubled the width of bridges is anticipating the attendance would grow in the future so we have the capacity.
“We are sold out of grandstands, we have a lot of amenities for people, for them to go and eat and drink, so sometimes the grandstands don’t look completely full, it’s people off doing other things, sitting in the shade, off drinking, watching it on TV.”
Lewis Hamilton says being able to make overtaking moves and recover from a tough qualifying is what he lives for after climbing from 13th to finish sixth in the Miami Grand Prix. Mercedes struggled on Saturday at the Miami International Autodrome, …
Lewis Hamilton says being able to make overtaking moves and recover from a tough qualifying is what he lives for after climbing from 13th to finish sixth in the Miami Grand Prix.
Mercedes struggled on Saturday at the Miami International Autodrome, with Hamilton dropping out in Q2 and George Russell only just making it through to Q3. In the race, however, cooler conditions helped both drivers to be more competitive and Hamilton started on the hard tire before a charge on mediums led to him overtaking Valtteri Bottas, Pierre Gasly and Charles Leclerc in the closing stages.
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“In qualifying, to qualify 13th is not great,” Hamilton said. “It made the race much, much harder for us. The first 20 laps were a little bit difficult because we were in a DRS train. But after that I was able to start chipping away.
“I really enjoy battling with different cars, it was great at the end to catch the Alpine and overtake a Ferrari for example. George and I, he started sixth so we were in a bit of a different race. Of course, I’m a team player, I want to give the team the maximum points.
“It was mega. Just to be… the sprint race in the last race, I was going backwards. It’s really, really demoralizing when you’re going backwards, it’s really tough. So it was really great to have pace, see the cars up ahead and seeing the progress, knowing that I’ll be battling with people. I had a couple of great overtakes as well. That’s what I live for.
“It felt great to see the Ferrari up ahead and just catching it bit by bit. It’s pretty impressive that they’re so quick in a single lap but I don’t know what was going on in the race. But to come from 13th and get back into the hustle with them was great.
“I think if I had qualified where I should’ve, I probably would’ve had a much smoother and easier day. But I like days like this where there’s a bit of adversity and you have to put it all together and deliver.”
Hamilton was also buoyed by the pre-race introductions that were carried out in Miami, with all of the drivers presented to the fans on a star-studded grid.
“I think it’s cool that the sport is continuously growing and evolving and they’re not just doing the same thing they’ve done in the past. They’re trying new things, they’re trying to improve the show always, and I’m in full support of it.
“I grew up listening to LL Cool J, and LL Cool J was there. That’s cool. You look over, you’ve got will.i.am who’s an incredible artist. You’ve got Serena and Venus (Williams) standing there. I thought it was cool.”
Fernando Alonso says he’s starting to get frustrated to not be able to finish higher than third place after another Red Bull one-two in the Miami Grand Prix. Max Verstappen beat teammate Sergio Perez to victory after starting ninth in Florida, …
Fernando Alonso says he’s starting to get frustrated to not be able to finish higher than third place after another Red Bull one-two in the Miami Grand Prix.
Max Verstappen beat teammate Sergio Perez to victory after starting ninth in Florida, climbing through with ease before overtaking Perez in the late going. Alonso was over 20s adrift in third place as he picked up his fourth P3 in five races this season, and when it was put to him that it could be becoming frustrating to not secure a top-two result he replied: “It is, it is.
“Obviously we want to be one step higher on the podium in P2 and eventually one day have an opportunity to win a race but at the moment it didn’t happen because Red Bull is better than us — (they’re) stronger, (they’re) faster and reliability has been always outstanding for them as well, finishing both cars in every race. So if one day there is a crack there, if there is an opportunity, we need to make sure we are in that position and not making any mistakes at any point in the weekend.”
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After dancing briefly on the podium, Alonso says Sunday’s run to third was an uneventful one but he’s proud of the consistency Aston Martin is showing.
“I did enjoy (the podium). Obviously the race…for us it was a little bit of a lonely race, nothing really to do in front of us with the Red Bulls but behind us not much pressure. So at the end, P3, and we take this good result for us and a fourth podium in five races. We only missed Baku by 0.8s so I think it’s a good moment so far.”
With many teams set to bring new parts to the start of the European season, the Spaniard says he’s still hopeful Aston Martin can keep its main rivals at bay.
“Let’s see. I think in Imola it’s going to be an interesting fight again. As you said, a lot of teams will bring upgrades to the car — Mercedes, probably Ferrari as well — and we will try to keep finishing in front of them on Sunday.”
Max Verstappen says he has no problem being booed by fans when he wins races if they’re not supporting him, after receiving some heckling after winning the Miami Grand Prix. The championship leader was booed by some fans during the pre-race driver …
Max Verstappen says he has no problem being booed by fans when he wins races if they’re not supporting him, after receiving some heckling after winning the Miami Grand Prix.
The championship leader was booed by some fans during the pre-race driver introductions that were used in Miami, and a few more were audible after he took to the podium having climbed through from ninth on the grid to win. Verstappen says it’s a byproduct of winning so many races during a dominant season and that it’s a trade-off he’s happy to make.
“I think if I would be driving in the back nobody would do anything in terms of reaction,” Verstappen said. “It’s normal when you are winning and they don’t like who is winning. It’s something for me that is absolutely fine. As long as I stand on the top that is the most important (thing). I take the trophy home and they go back to their houses and they can have a nice evening.”
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The Dutchman climbed into second place quickly in Miami, losing little time to Sergio Perez after starting on the hard tire and running long. He still needed to pass his teammate and managed to do so in the final ten laps before winning by over 5s, and says his tire usage was crucial to the victory.
“It’s been a good one — just really staying out of trouble in the beginning because the people around me try to gain positions as quickly as possible on lap one, but knowing that you have a quick car once it all settles down…you just try to pick them off one-by-one. That worked out quite well, I (even had) a three-wide on the straight which was quite entertaining!
“We had good pace. I could look after my tires and then once I was in clean air it was about getting to that lap number we targeted. That’s why maybe in the middle of that stint I was not entirely sure if I was going to make it, but then as soon as I was getting close to that number I was like, ‘OK, this is good,’ so then I started pushing and could extend the gap again, which really made my race today, I think. Because once we pitted, then of course I had the fresher tires to the end but also the tires which were a bit more fragile today.
“I had a good battle with Checo. We were free to race which was said before, and we had a good go at it. Of course most important is that we don’t touch, but that all worked out really well.”
Sergio Perez says fighting Max Verstappen any harder would have led to contact after being overtaken by his teammate late on in the Miami Grand Prix. Verstappen climbed through the field from ninth on the grid to lead for a long spell before his pit …
Sergio Perez says fighting Max Verstappen any harder would have led to contact after being overtaken by his teammate late on in the Miami Grand Prix.
Verstappen climbed through the field from ninth on the grid to lead for a long spell before his pit stop, emerging behind Perez heading into the final ten laps. Having quickly closed in, Verstappen attacked around the outside of Turn 17 but Perez resisted, before the championship leader used DRS to get alongside and complete the move around the exit of Turn 1.
“Obviously at the end of the day we have to put the team ahead of us,” Perez said. “We are two drivers but there are so many people back home working really hard, so we have to stay respectful and at the end we had a really good fight between us and a bit more would have been contact, and I don’t think that would have been fair for any of us. Only for Fernando (Alonso).”
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Perez was magnanimous in defeat after a tough weekend despite starting on pole position, saying strategy played against him but that Verstappen was simply quicker.
“It started well but very early on I saw that the medium was very fragile initially, so I had to protect the tire quite a lot just to make lap 15 or so, so it was really hard to lean on that tire. Basically the whole right hand side was really difficult and I could see that Max was closing up on the hards and from that point on I knew the race was looking difficult.
“Then when I went onto the hard Max had a very strong pace, so we didn’t manage to open a gap, so he simply came too close to us. We had a bit of a fight on track which was quite clean — to the limit but clean — and obviously putting the team in front of us. A great team result but today Max deserved the victory because he was the strongest car out there.
“I wasn’t able to look after the (medium tire) properly. I don’t know how different the race for Max would have looked if he was on the same strategy as myself, but he was clearly the fastest car out there. I have to understand what went wrong today and it’s pretty simple — when you don’t have the race pace it’s pretty hard to win the race, so well done to Max today.”
Max Verstappen beat polesitter Sergio Perez to victory in a late-race duel to maintain his championship lead. Verstappen started the race ninth on the hard tire, alternating with Perez, who opened the race on mediums. The Red Bull Racing’s pace …
Max Verstappen beat polesitter Sergio Perez to victory in a late-race duel to maintain his championship lead.
Verstappen started the race ninth on the hard tire, alternating with Perez, who opened the race on mediums.
The Red Bull Racing’s pace advantage around the Miami International Autodrome was so significant that it took the Dutchman only 15 laps to rise to second place, at which point he was only 3.5s adrift of the lead. By this stage, the hard tire was the better compound and he made incremental gains on the leader to put Perez under pressure.
The Mexican’s medium tires cried “enough” on lap 20, directing him into pit lane for his sole change and handing the lead to his teammate. He rejoined the race around 19s off the lead, and with fresher rubber he set about closing the gap to lay down the gauntlet to his teammate.
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Verstappen was in fine form despite his aging rubber; his victory bid made late in his first stint.
The new Miami surface had been shredding the Pirelli rubber, and much of the grand prix was characterized by finessing the rubber to go the distance.
After lap 30 Verstappen had more than a pit stop worth of time over the field, bar his teammate, and was encouraged to push harder and extract the full life from the rubber.
Aided by a Perez mistake through the rapid Turn 7, the gap blew back open to 18.4s before Verstappen made his stop at the end of lap 45. He rejoined the race just 1.6s behind Perez, and with new medium tires he was able to make quick work of his teammate on laps 47 and 48.
Perez defended well in the braking zone of the long back straight to force Verstappen offline onto the front straight, but that only gave the Dutchman the racing line into the first turn, which he used to seize the lead with a move around the outside to gallop away to a 5.3.s victory
“I call that simply (expletive) lovely,” Verstappen said on his cool-down lap. “That was a good fight with Checo. That was really good.”
Perez was disappointed to have nothing for his teammate’s pace.
“In all honestly I think Max also had tremendous pace on the hard tire,” he said. “I think I’ve got to analyze what went wrong today, because we simply didn’t have the pace.”
Perez leads Alonso at the start. Alexander Trienitz/Motorsport Images
Fernando Alonso took his now customary third place for Aston Martin, returning to the podium after missing the rostrum in Azerbaijan.
The Spaniard started alongside Perez on the front row, and though he was undercut by Carlos Sainz at the pit stops, he made relatively easy work of the Ferrari with fresher rubber in the second stint to finish well ahead of fourth place.
Russell found great pace in his Mercedes despite early worries about vibrations under braking, using the car’s unexpected speed to overhaul Sainz as well to take an unexpected fourth.
Sainz was penalized 5s after the flag for speeding in the pit lane but had a sufficiently comfortable advantage over teammate Lewis Hamilton in sixth to cling to fifth place.
Hamilton recovered from 13th to score points after using a Verstappen-style alternative strategy to recover positions late and claim sixth, including a hard-fought move on Charles Leclerc at the end of the back straight in the final laps.
Leclerc had a shaky recovery from his qualifying crash to seventh, having complained in the race of the car was “all over the place,” but came good enough late to finish seventh, equaling his starting position.
Pierre Gasly dropped a pair of places to Leclerc and Hamilton late in the going, finishing eighth ahead of teammate Esteban Ocon in a strong turnaround from Alpine’s dismal non-score in Azerbaijan.
Kevin Magnussen scored the final point of the race for home team Haas with 10th, down from his unexpectedly-punchy fourth.
Yuki Tsunoda finished 11th after an admirable defense of Lance Stroll on the final lap, holding off the faster Aston Martin driver by 0.4s at the flag. Both drivers used the hard–medium strategy to gain six places apiece.
Valtteri Bottas finished 13th ahead of Alex Albon, Nico Hulkenberg and Zhou Guanyu.
Lando Norris was rear-ended by Nyck de Vries at the first corner but recovered to finish 17th ahead of the Dutchman.
Oscar Piastri finished 19th with a braking system failure, while home favorite Logan Sargeant finished last after a second-lap pit stop for a new front wing.
Fernando Alonso says he wants to take the lead but is not setting a goal of victory in the Miami Grand Prix despite starting on the front row due to issues for other drivers. Charles Leclerc’s crash in qualifying leaves the Ferrari driver – who was …
Fernando Alonso says he wants to take the lead but is not setting a goal of victory in the Miami Grand Prix despite starting on the front row due to issues for other drivers.
Charles Leclerc’s crash in qualifying leaves the Ferrari driver – who was on pole position twice in Baku – starting seventh, while the resulting red flag on Saturday limited Max Verstappen to ninth after a mistake on his own first run. Alonso lines up alongside Sergio Perez on the front row this afternoon but feels he’s slightly out of position in terms of outright race pace and just wants to maximize the Aston Martin’s potential.
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“I don’t think that we have to target a win, especially after how the weekend went,” Alonso said. “I think even the podium is going to be difficult but we do our race. We’ve been doing this the whole season, we are in a privileged position, we never expected to be here. So, every lap we do, every race lap that we will do in these kind of positions is a gift at the moment.
“So, I think the team is enjoying it. We will try to pass Checo into Turn 1, because we love to lead the race, at least for a few laps. And after that, it’s just… we will end up in the position we deserve. If it’s P5, it’s going to be P5. If it’s P7, P7. If it’s another podium it will be fantastic. But I think it’s going to be a tough race.”
Despite not focusing on victory, Alonso says he takes a lot of confidence from starting so high up in the race and believes Aston Martin can pull further clear of Mercedes in second place in the constructors’ championship.
“I think Sunday is our day, normally. I think the car takes care of the tires normally very well, and we have a very good race pace and we struggle a little bit on Saturday. So, when we start higher up normally things are a little bit easier.
“But we have a strong opposition behind. Ferrari has been very strong this weekend and in Baku, with some upgrades also on their car. Max obviously will eventually come in the race, quite fast. So a lot of things to take care of in the mirrors. But we will do our race, we will score as many points as possible and our main competitors, Mercedes, they had a difficult weekend so far, so we need to keep outscoring them.”
Sergio Perez says his pole position at the Miami Grand Prix feels all the sweeter because he had been struggling right up until Q3. Max Verstappen’s error on the first runs in Q3 opened the door for Perez – who had largely been up to four tenths of …
Sergio Perez says his pole position at the Miami Grand Prix feels all the sweeter because he had been struggling right up until Q3.
Max Verstappen’s error on the first runs in Q3 opened the door for Perez — who had largely been up to four tenths of a second off his Red Bull teammate throughout practice — and the Mexican put in a strong first effort to secure provisional pole. That was confirmed as his starting position when Charles Leclerc crashed and brought out the red flag, and Perez was proud of his ability to find a lap when he needed it the most.
“I’m very pleased because it’s been a very difficult weekend for me up to qualifying,” Perez said. “I think this tarmac is just very different to anything else. And I was just trying to figure out how to get the maximum out of the car, out of the balance, because even on my final lap, I was still finding things out that were working better. We haven’t had a straightforward weekend so it tastes a lot better once you deliver.
“I think it’s been my worst weekend up to qualifying, really, I just couldn’t figure out how to pull those tenths that I was missing all the time to Max and to the Ferraris. I mean, I was just resetting everything; we did a small change into qualifying and everything became more alive. With this tarmac we were just playing a bit with the tools and we put the lap in when it mattered.”
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The result gives Perez a big chance of taking the championship lead, as he’s currently six points behind Verstappen and his teammate starts ninth, but he says he’s wary of the threat from Fernando Alonso alongside him on the front row.
“I think the race, it’s a lot easier. Already yesterday I had a very good pace, although I was struggling for balance. Straight away, we put fuel in the car and things come more naturally to me. The problem was getting the tires up to temperature and taking that little tenth of peak grip, I was struggling with that massively.
“At the moment these two guys (Alonso and Carlos Sainz) obviously (pose a risk). I’m mainly focusing now on getting a good start and being able to manage our first stint. I think it will be really helpful for all of us to be able to do that. You know, it’s a very long race and still a lot can happen tomorrow.”
Lewis Hamilton is hoping rain during the Miami Grand Prix can save his weekend after failing to reach Q3 on raw pace on Saturday. Mercedes has struggled throughout the first two days in Miami and both drivers needed late laps to escape Q1, before …
Lewis Hamilton is hoping rain during the Miami Grand Prix can save his weekend after failing to reach Q3 on raw pace on Saturday.
Mercedes has struggled throughout the first two days in Miami and both drivers needed late laps to escape Q1, before Hamilton was unable to advance into the top 10 shootout. Starting from 13th, Hamilton admits his best hope of a recovery is likely to be thunderstorms that are forecast, as he doesn’t feel the performance is in the car to make major progress.
“Hoping that the Florida heavens are going to open and we’re going to have some rain,” Hamilton said. “I don’t know how lucky I’ll be, but the rain would make it exciting. They’ve shortened the DRS so the overtaking might be worse tomorrow, like it was in the last race, but I think I’ve set the car up in a pretty decent place.
“It’s not going to be easy to overtake the cars ahead of me but maybe on strategy I can progress, try and get in the top 10 and get some points.
“I don’t think any of us have driven in the rain here so we’d have two laps to the grid and we’d have to learn as we go, which is exciting. Ultimately we’re not where we want to be. I wish we had a car that was able to contend for wins and so it’s tough for us but we just keep our heads down and pushing.”
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The lack of pace left Mercedes with a challenging qualifying session and Hamilton says the team didn’t help itself with the timing of his final lap in Q2.
“It started out OK — there were a couple of decent moments throughout the session. We generally have struggled to have the true pace to get into Q3 today, maybe on the cusp of not getting in, then right at the end we went out too late. I was at the back of maybe seven cars and started the lap with just not enough temperatures in the tires.”
Max Verstappen admits his own mistake was the catalyst for a ninth-place start at the Miami Grand Prix despite getting unlucky with a red flag. The championship leader was favorite for pole position but made an error on his first Q3 lap and returned …
Max Verstappen admits his own mistake was the catalyst for a ninth-place start at the Miami Grand Prix despite getting unlucky with a red flag.
The championship leader was favorite for pole position but made an error on his first Q3 lap and returned to the pits, leaving himself with only one run to set a time. While on his out-lap, Charles Leclerc then crashed at Turn 8 to bring out a red flag that ended the session prematurely, and Verstappen says it’s a situation he put himself in.
“Of course that is unfortunate, but first of all, we didn’t do a lap, and that was my fault,” Verstappen said. “But it was extremely tricky. I was a little bit off-line out of (Turn) 6 into 7, I felt a bit of understeer, and I just couldn’t get it back on the line. So I aborted my lap. And then of course, you need a bit of luck, hoping that there won’t be a red flag. But of course, when you try to think like that, then it happens.
“So it’s a bit upsetting. I mean, the whole weekend we have been really quick, my Q2 lap was fast enough even for pole in Q3. So I guess that already says that we have a very quick car. But you need to put it together, and where it matters, we didn’t. And that’s a bit frustrating for my part.”
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Verstappen feels Red Bull could have played it more safe with his final run by leaving the garage ahead of more cars but he believes the team also wasn’t taking too many risks chasing the best track conditions.
“We could have in hindsight — we could have also gone out a bit earlier. But you know, at the end of the day, I make a mistake. We don’t plan of course on me making a mistake. Then of course, you’re like, ‘OK, let’s go a little bit early,’ so we might have a clean run. I was still quite ahead of a few cars. But then you also don’t anticipate that one car immediately goes off. That’s a street circuit, these things happen.”
Despite the lowly starting position, Verstappen says getting ahead of every car except teammate Sergio Perez — starting on pole — is his realistic target on Sunday.
“Minimum P2… It will be a little bit tougher. But I think with the pace of the car we have normally, yeah, we should have a chance of moving forward quite quickly. But I hope it’s not going to be a DRS train because then we are in trouble.”
