Formula 1 is in Miami this weekend for Round 5 of the 2023 World Championship. Less than a week after all the action in Baku the teams and their cars have landed in America for the first time this year with trips to Las Vegas and Austin still to come later in the calendar.

Let’s jig it out.

RACE RUNDOWN

Get ready for a thrilling ride on the high-speed street track surrounding the Hard Rock Stadium. This is only the second race here, so theres not much of a rich history around the track.

Track Length: 5.41km

Race Length: 308.326 km (57 laps)

Corners: 19

Straights: 3

DRS zones: 3

Max Speeds: >340km/h

Racing Lap Record: 1:31.361 (Max Verstappen 2022) (of course smh)

Vibes: Unserious

Do we like this track? No… not really. BUT, the sample size is small and we still have hope as the track visually looks very good and the off-track vibes are immaculate

What to Watch on the Track 👀

The track has three sectors, each sector comes with its own unique challenges.

The first sector is a fast, sweeping set of corners through S-Bends and you've got to pick your line and watch the kerbs. If you get fractionally off line you can lose track grip thanks to the dust of the new surface.

The exit out of Turns 6, 7 & 8 are super important as this leads into sector two which starts with a couple of shallow corners and a nice big long straight. This is going to be a problematic section. Drivers will be looking to get their pace up and with the help of the first DRS (Drag Reduction System) zone we will see some very quick cars. After that, things get a bit…twisty.

After reaching crazy speeds the brakes are going to get slaaaaamed going into Turn 11 before a cheeky little chicane at Turn 14/15. Last year some of the driver’s expressed their dislike for the chicane including race winner Max Verstappen.

We are glad that the chicane has survived for another year. Hopefully this sneaky section levels the playing field a little bit with the Redbulls being so unbelivably dominant on the straights.

Speaking of straights just look at sector 3. HOLY MOLY. Unsurprisingly this is the fastest part of the track. Like a very extreme, intense, life threatening game of chicken; who hit the breaks first and who dares to push it to the limit. Can’t be too slow at Turn 17 as there is not much time before you’re off on another straight across the finish line to start the whole thing again.

Do that 56 more times and that’s a wrap. Just be fast. And efficient. And look after your tyres. And try not to crash the multi million dollar car. No biggie.

Inside Line

Friday Practice Highlights

The Good

Practice 1 saw both Mercedes at the top of the timesheet with Russell getting the better of Hamilton. Pretty sure they surprised themselves with this one.

Perez was no where to be seen in the first session. He was more like himself in session 2 however still slower than both Ferraris.

Peak old man Alonso just hanging around like a bad smell. He will be eyeing the podium again this week for sure.

Honourable mentions go out to Alex Albon who is just doing things that should not be able to be done in the Williams and Lando Norris who managed to get his McLaren right in the middle of the pack showing a little bit of the pace over short distances the team have been hoping to get out of their car for some time now.

The Bad

The afternoon was going so well for Ferrari until Leclerc put his car in the barriers at Turn 8 with only 10 minutes to go. Luckily it didn’t look like there was too much damage to the car.

Yuki Tsunoda has some words for Ocon who gets in his way on a flying lap.

The Ugly

The new surface was always going to make life difficult for the drivers until the track gets rubbered in but some drivers seemed to struggle more than others with both Haas cars spinning out. Nyck De Vries also did not have a good day.

Bringing the Heat 🔥

A number of upgrades are coming to Miami this weekend. Will these be what Aston and Ferrari need to get on the podium?

Ferrari: Floor

Alfa Romeo: Beam Wing (without Flap)

Aston Martin: Bodywork (Cooling Louvres)

Haas: Floor

Alpha Tauri: Mirror Winglet, Front Wing

Sainz, Hamilton and Russell have all opted to take new control electronics and energy stores this weekend. That’s their second of the max two allowed in a season and we still have 19 race weekends to go. Keep an eye out for grid penalties in the future for these three as parts wear out.

2022 Recap

The inaugural Miami Grand Prix was definitely a controversial talking point in the 2022 season. The fans thought the race was boring and that’s because it WAS. More importantly, the drivers did not like the drive.

The drivers had plenty of critical comments about the track and some went as far as describing the surface as a “joke”.

Despite this, there were 45 overtakes and we can expect this number to go up for the 2023 season as the circuit comes with a completely new surface that is supposed to improve grip and allow for more possible driving lines. (we’ll see)

Ferrari qualified one-two with Leclerc starting on pole (1:28.798). Leclerc was the Driver’s Championship leader going into the Miami Grand Prix with 86 points, 27 ahead of Verstappen.

Despite starting on the front line Verstappen took second place off Ferrari’s Sainz at the FIRST corner of the race LOL.

Verstappen then took the lead from Leclerc on lap 9 and that was all she wrote. Sound familiar? Yep.

POLE PREDICTIONS

GET A GRIP. With the new surface throwing up all kinds of dust and a high chance of rain on both qualification and race days that might be quite hard to do. Hell for the drivers but potentially a very exciting race for spectators and an opportunity for some major upsets.

Qualifying

Hot take - Carlos Sainz of Ferrari takes pole at qualifying. The Ferrari is fast over a single lap but falls off over longer distances (see Leclerc unable to convert pole to a win at Baku last week)

The two Redbulls will follow up to fill spots 2 and 3.

Grand Prix

Obviously Redbull are killing the game this season, currently undefeated in the previous four races. We like Perez to take the dub over his team mate as he is after all the King of the Street circuits.

Verstappen will probably take 2nd because, well, he’s Verstappen.

Sainz to drop to finish third. A welcome podium finish nonetheless.

HOWEVER there is Fernando Alonso. The veteran has been incredible this season so far and the Aston has showed glimpses of real pace so we reckon he could sneak the podium in place of his fellow Spaniard.

It’s going to be an absolute dog fight for those mid-points between the Ferrari, Mercedes and Aston Martin and it is going to be great.

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