[Official] Miami Grand Prix 2023: Grand Prix Weekend Thread - Round 5 of 23

[Born Racer]

With the United States boasting its own motorsport pedigree, legacy and traditions, for a long time F1 seemed a foreigner of sorts on its soil – an outsider taking its own circus to town, and with some fantastic and memorable events at times, but never making any major inroads into the American psyche. A big push in the country since the arrival of Liberty Media, however, has allowed the US to become an integral part of F1's plans. In 2023, with Miami, Austin and Las Vegas, Formula 1 will host three races in the USA for the first time since 1982, when the Long Beach, Detroit and Las Vegas were all run.


The history

Some of the earliest racing in Florida began in 1926, when the AAA (American Automobile Association) ran an event on a board track, the Fulford-Miami Speedway, which was a banked oval using wooden planks. The name was the Carl G.Fisher Trophy Race and the victor of the 300-mile event was Pete DePaolo in a Dusenberg. The circuit was destroyed in a hurricane a mere seven months later. The name of 'Grand Prix of Miami' has been attributed to this in various places on the net, but I could find no source which confirmed this to not be erroneous. The 'Grand Prix of Miami' designation was, however, used for IMSA, Grand Am and Indycar.

In Formula 1 terms, though, Florida, in fact, hosted the first United States Grand Prix to count for the championship, with the exception of the Indy 500 (which featured from 1950 to 1960), when a race was run at Sebring in 1959. Jack Brabham, Stirling Moss and the recently-departed Tony Brooks all entered the events in title contention. Moss led away off the start, while Brooks was hit by Wolfgang von Trips. Moss retired on Lap 5 with a transmission failure. There was a strange climax of the race when Brabham had some problems and waved Bruce McLaren through, who upon seeing the other Cooper slow, lifted himself, only just speeding up in time to take over first and keep the lead over Maurice Trintignant who was runner-up in his Cooper. Brooks just beat Brabham to the podium, but the Australian was drivers' champion and Cooper constructors' champions. The race was also unusual for seeing the Kurtis Kraft-Offenhauser midget of Rodger Ward take part. The event was a financial failure, though, and the promoter took the event to Riverside in California the following season.

Plans were afoot for a Miami downtown race earlier this century with the Biscayne Boulevard area touted, but these came to nothing (but an F1 Fan Festival there), and in 2019 the new plans were announced.

Max Verstappen won the inaugural Grand Prix, from pole man Charles Leclerc and the latter's Ferrari team-mate Carlos Sainz.


The track
The circuit, Miami International Autodrome, is set around the Hard Rock Stadium, home of the NFL's Miami Dolphins, and features a 5.412 km layout, with 19 turns and three DRS zones.

Turn 1 is a slow 90-degree right, before the track segues into a faster and more flowing section, with the left at 2 and long Turn 3, before drivers bring the car to the right in order to chuck it into the fast left-hander Turn 4, which is swiftly followed by the switch to 5, before the triple-apex 6, 7 and 8 complex brings us to the end of Sector 1. There's the potential for a number of lines here as they approach the end of this complex, perhaps hugging the inside or keeping it to the right for 8, and the risk of a lock-up as braking is completed under turning, as at Sakhir.

Now it's all fast sweepers before the big stop at Turn 11 with the 90-left and then the more curved 12 before dipping into 13. Climbing uphill into the clumsy 14 and 15 left-right chicane, drivers meet the crest and then speed downhill towards the more 90-left at 16. This takes them into Sector 3 and after a massive straight and a big stop at 17, the quicker 18 and 19 vault them back onto the start-finish straight.

Last year saw a medium-hard one-stop strategy deployed by most, with teams not choosing to pit under a late safety car (due to the difficulty in overtaking). What was a very soft track has also been resurfaced.




Other information

Circuit length: 5.412 km
Number of laps: 57
Race distance: 308.326 km
Race lap record: 1:31.361 (Max Verstappen - Red Bull Honda - 2022)
Dry weather tyre compounds: C2, C3 & C4
First Miami Grand Prix: 2022

Join in the fun with the Predictions Contest and Fantasy F1:

https://tentenths.com/forum/showthread.php?t=157912

https://tentenths.com/forum/showthread.php?t=157755

[bjohnsonsmith]

Excellent intro as ever.

I'm not usually this negative but after last year's Miami Grand Prix, I can't say I'm overly excited about this year's event. There wasn't anything I liked about it last time, from Martin Brundle's encounter on the grid walk, with self-obsessed celebrities, to the actual race itself; I gave it 2 in Rate the Grand Prix. Hopefully my negativity will be assuaged and we will have a good race.

[Derwent]

I don't think we need more than one GP in America and they always spoil any sport they "adopt". This is the most artificial event of the year and I will probably give the C4 coverage a miss.

[BTCC frog]

In the Sebring race of 1959, the problem that Jack Brabham had was that he was running out of fuel. Bruce McLaren hesitated to pass him but Brabham waved him through because he knew the only way he could fail to win the title was if Tony Brooks won, so wanted McLaren to make sure he stayed ahead. McLaren then narrowly held off Trintignant for his first win and Brooks came through to finish third. Jack Brabham didn’t need to finish to win the championship but, just in case, he pushed his car uphill for a quarter of a mile to finish fourth, with marshals stopping the crowd from running onto the track and helping him because then he would have been disqualified.

Another interesting thing about that race was that Tony Brooks’ car wasn’t actually damaged after the contact with Wolfgang von Trips. But he had promised himself he would never race a car that he wasn’t absolutely sure wasn’t damaged, so he pitted anyway to make sure. His pace after that was enough to ensure he would have won the race and the championship had he not pitted. But Tony Brooks chose life over the championship.

[JHamilton]

Originally Posted by Derwent

I don't think we need more than one GP in America and they always spoil any sport they "adopt". This is the most artificial event of the year and I will probably give the C4 coverage a miss.

We ruin lots of stuff but I can't think of another sport that the US has adopted?

Agreed that it is artificial just like most of the world's impression of what Miami is.

[steve_r]

Red Bull have a new livery for this weekend which was apparently designed by a fan. Ironically at first glance it looks almost identicle to every other RBR livery for the last 10 years.

[bjohnsonsmith]

Originally Posted by steve_r

Red Bull have a new livery for this weekend which was apparently designed by a fan. Ironically at first glance it looks almost identicle to every other RBR livery for the last 10 years.

A variation on a theme.

[bathurst77]

Yes I was underwhelmed by RBR special fan livery. I was hoping for something radical. this is just a few stripes added to the same basic livery they have run since Fred beat Barney in the Bedrock GP

[Aysedasi]

Originally Posted by steve_r

Red Bull have a new livery for this weekend which was apparently designed by a fan. Ironically at first glance it looks almost identicle to every other RBR livery for the last 10 years.

Yep. Just another layer of dull on dull....

[S griffin]

Good to see Merc fastest in FP1. Bad mistake by Leclerc in FP2.

[Lancsbreaker]

I see C4's coverage of the qualy is on at 8.30 Sunday morning........since I realised recently my Virgin package includes Sky Showcase, which shows what I think is essentially the same coverage at 11pm tonight I think I'll catch that..... Don't have high hopes for a great race - after FP1 it looked like it could be interesting, but Red Bull seemed to be dominant again in FP2 and FP3. Don't know what set-up Mercedes were running in FP3 but they were nowhere.....

[bjohnsonsmith]

A very interesting Q1. Both Hamilton and Russell looked like they might not get into Q2 but they managed to get through.



Great to watch proper qualifying, rather than a sprint race.

[bjohnsonsmith]

Hamilton out of Q2.

[bjohnsonsmith]

Leclerc into the barrier and Q3 is red flagged. Perez on Pole, with Alonso joining him on the front row. Verstappen P9. This is a fascinating grid.

[mstets]

I am not getting much from the "live" timing and scoring. Perhaps it's better if you pay but it's useless compared to Indycar live timing. It's showing Verstappen as the only one without a time in Q3 and Magnussen in P4, .5 seconds down to Perez in P1. Has Max not turned a lap? At the red flag I assumed he was the cause as everyone else had a time showing. Edit: no time for Bottas either, showing P10.

[E.B]

Originally Posted by mstets

I am not getting much from the "live" timing and scoring. Perhaps it's better if you pay but it's useless compared to Indycar live timing. It's showing Verstappen as the only one without a time in Q3 and Magnussen in P4, .5 seconds down to Perez in P1. Has Max not turned a lap? At the red flag I assumed he was the cause as everyone else had a time showing. Edit: no time for Bottas either, showing P10.

Max made a couple of mistakes on his first run and aborted the lap. Never bothered about going out again for a banker and as a result with the red flag flying before he got his last lap completed ended with nothing on the board. Bottas also lost his (only) lap to the red

[Tourer]

Great intro BR - harking back to Sebring etc. is a good scene-better for this race.

Interesting that the world has not gone as mad re the "marina" corner this year - maybe short attention spans really are widespread!

Really enjoyed qual - with a pretty damn interesting grid coming out of it - plenty of hard-luck stories coming out of that red flag in Q3 but the race could be wild card after wild card.

Weather may play a part - the Sky commentary team were all referring to it being really hot but it was only 28C at the start of qual, which isn't too extreme - if there's a weather change coming through, could be a crazy old race tomorrow!

[bathurst77]

Danica!

[bathurst77]

THe start should be great Alonso and checo off the line

And Max will have to do a lot of passing and RB tactics on a hard to pass track,
THis could be good.

[mstets]

Originally Posted by E.B

Max made a couple of mistakes on his first run and aborted the lap. Never bothered about going out again for a banker and as a result with the red flag flying before he got his last lap completed ended with nothing on the board. Bottas also lost his (only) lap to the red

Thank you. I don't understand why neither driver's times were shown on timing even if the times were a minute off the pace. Did they not complete a lap on course during the session? It seems to me that a lap of the circuit should show as a lap time regardless of the pace.

[E.B]

Originally Posted by mstets

Thank you. I don't understand why neither driver's times were shown on timing even if the times were a minute off the pace. Did they not complete a lap on course during the session? It seems to me that a lap of the circuit should show as a lap time regardless of the pace.

They aborted their laps and returned to pit lane so did not complete their laps. Under the red flag rules they have to return to pit lane so they dont register as a full lap. Max chose to abort his first lap and return to pitlane, having gone wide and lost too much time. His 2nd lap was lost to the red flag.
With hindsight Max would have been better to do an extra Q3 lap, even on the old tyres to get at least a banker in that would be still probably faster than many. He chose not to and relied on a second lap at the end which was lost to the red.
Bottas, knowing he was likely only going to finish 10th in Q3, chose to save a set of tyres for the race and only do one Q3 run at the end.... that got lost under the red flag.

[S griffin]

Wow, what a session that was!

Really seemed to be a case of being out at the right time, hence why Stroll was eliminated in Q1 and Hamilton in Q2. Gonna be interesting watching them come through the field if they can

Q3 was really something. Max really screwed up and then missed a second chance with the red flag. Shows the importance of banker laps. Checo, after a bad start to the weekend, got it all right to take pole. Good to see Freddy alongside him and Sainz makes it 3 Spanish speaking drivers in the top 3

Great to see Magnussen in 4th and then with Gasly and Russell in the top 6, that's 6 different teams. Bad mistake by Leclerc in the same place as practice yesterday. I can forgive him though, considering the car he has got.

[P38 in workshop]

It looks like the Alpine developments are delivering performance.It seems that the American races can now fill grandstands,no doubt courtesy of the dramatics on Netflix.

[Aysedasi]

Originally Posted by bjohnsonsmith

Leclerc into the barrier and Q3 is red flagged. Perez on Pole, with Alonso joining him on the front row. Verstappen P9. This is a fascinating grid.

Good to see the back of the sprint nonsense for a while. Splendid outcome. A great chance for another win for Checo or maybe even Fernando. I've only watched the qually highlights so I don't know the extent of the DRS advantage here - I just hope it doesn't let Max sail back up to the podium - if he's going to get there we need to see him have to work for those positions. Leclerc is showing his tendency to make mistakes which, to be fair, has always been there.

[Born Racer]

Interesting to note about the fuel, BTCC frog and about Tony Brooks. He was mightily fast while also avoiding what he considered excessive risk-taking. Perhaps that ultimately prevented him achieving more, but he survived and is much revered.

Re: qually, I second Aysedasi's thoughts on DRS, but I think even though Verstappen will sail up to second without a problem, Pérez could be long clear. Then safety cars could come into play. It's probably going to be a two-bull race, and Checo needs to keep sticking it to Max, to give us a championship battle.

Behind them at least, things are super competitive. Alonso fantastic again and I'm interested in seeing whether Magnussen can hang on for points.