[Official] Miami Grand Prix 2024: Round 6 of 24 - Grand Prix Weekend Thread

[Born Racer]

This will be the third installment in the Miami Grand Prix's F1 history. F1 is now well and truly becoming established in the US, although still has a curious relationship with it. The opposition to the Andretti entry leaves a bitter taste in the mouth. Nonetheless, with three Grands Prix run in the country last year, Liberty clearly intend to keep putting on events there.

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. Can anyone assist? The 'Grand Prix of Miami' designation has, 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 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-sitter Charles Leclerc and the latter's Ferrari team-mate Carlos Sainz. Last year, even a 9th-place start couldn't prevent the world champion from pipping Sergio Pérez (who had qualified first). Fernando Alonso completed the podium.


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.

A one-stop strategy continued to be favoured last year.

One big talking point this year will be one of the most important people in F1 history - Adrian Newey. Is there anywhere he won't be linked with? This year, Miami will also have extra racing, with the addition of a Sprint.


Other information

Circuit length: 5.412km
Number of laps: 57
Race distance: 308.326km
Race lap record: 1:29.708 (Max Verstappen - Red Bull-Honda - 2023)
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=158754
https://tentenths.com/forum/showthread.php?t=158615

[Lancsbreaker]

Wonder how the much-vaunted McLaren upgrade will liven things up? FP to kick off soon before Sprint Qualy, so we'll soon see


Thanks as ever to BR for the intro.

[S griffin]

I think we could be in for a surprise this weekend. This could be the most exciting GP here yet

[veeten]

Well, FP 1 shorted, due to Leclerc spinning before the back strait. Lost a few minutes due to removing the stalled car.

Back up to running 10 minutes ago...

[S griffin]

Doesn’t look like it will be Ferrari’s weekend based on that. At least the session is running again

[bjohnsonsmith]

Excellent intro as ever.


I gave the 2022 inaugural race 2 and last year's race 4. Maybe third time lucky and we will be in for a surprise.

[GTRMagic]

Mr Ricciardo 4th in spring qualifying.. and not a word, a news article.. nothing.
Head he qualified 14th, the calls for his departure would be deafening.
It’s just… cactarian..

[Teretonga]

Originally Posted by GTRMagic

Mr Ricciardo 4th in spring qualifying.. and not a word, a news article.. nothing.
Head he qualified 14th, the calls for his departure would be deafening.
It’s just… cactarian..

The Sky interview was amusing. Ricciardo said that he hadn't expected a 4th overall and the end result, to start 4th in the sprint, was something to look forward to.
But he was smiling and obviously very happy about it.

Tsunoda was in the slowest 5 of the 20 but this didn't reflect his pace in Practice 1 so I'll be interested to see how the sprint goes and then how everything goes in qualifying for the real GP...

[Lancsbreaker]

It was a bit of a surprise, but a welcome one......Terrible Sprint qualy for Williams, and not much better for Mercedes, although the margins are very tight, of course.....

[Aysedasi]

Originally Posted by Lancsbreaker

It was a bit of a surprise, but a welcome one......Terrible Sprint qualy for Williams, and not much better for Mercedes, although the margins are very tight, of course.....

Quite a shock as far as I'm concerned. Daniel did well.

[Sandgroper]

Go Danny Ric

Havin a crack !!!!!

[S griffin]

Nice to see Danny’s form in China wasn’t a one off

[bjohnsonsmith]

Danny Ric keeps up the momentum with a good start.


FCY. Norris' McLaren stranded on the run off.

[bjohnsonsmith]

Looks like the FCY was initially caused by Stroll turning into Alonso but no further action is being taken. Seems the stewards are inconsistent as ever, after Alonso's penalty in China.

[Mike Harte]

Originally Posted by bjohnsonsmith

Looks like the FCY was initially caused by Stroll turning into Alonso but no further action is being taken. Seems the stewards are inconsistent as ever, after Alonso's penalty in China.

Don't think that it's got to the Stewards yet, bj. Maybe post race?

[bjohnsonsmith]

Originally Posted by Mike Harte

Don't think that it's got to the Stewards yet, bj. Maybe post race?

Sky commentary reported there was no further action.

[E.B]

Originally Posted by bjohnsonsmith

Looks like the FCY was initially caused by Stroll turning into Alonso but no further action is being taken. Seems the stewards are inconsistent as ever, after Alonso's penalty in China.

Fernando put the blame on Lewis who he said came diving down the inside, forcing Fernando wide and into Stroll, who in turn collected McLaren’s Lando Norris.

He went on to saywhen asked about the FIA potentially taking action, Alonso said “We'll see what they decide. I guess they won't decide anything, because he's not Spanish."

"But, I think Lewis ruined the race for a few people, especially Norris, who had a very fast car and he was out in that incident.”

[Mike Harte]

The Stewards, having looked at all the available videos of the incident at Turn 1, have decreed that no further action is to be taken against any of the drivers involved. After reviewing the videos, they concluded that a chain event was caused by the initial contact between Alonso and Stroll, and that they were unable to apportion blame to any one driver.

[Richard C]

I only watched the replay once, but my impression is... Lewis jumped in the gap, but really couldn't make the corner and pushed wide into cars already stacked up on the outside. I think Alonso sort of was doing the same and I am not sure if he could have made the corner (maybe he could have), but in the end, Lewis into Alonso, Alonso into Stroll, Stroll into Norris. Or something to that effect. I think it was overly optimistic for Lewis, but am on the fence regarding it being penalty worthy. The stewards tend to turn a blind eye to first corner stuff unless it was blatantly wrong. It did ruin the race for Stroll and Norris. I can only laugh at Alonso's comment however. He clearly is still sore from his recent penalty.

Richard

[Gerard C]

May be they are too busy with Magnussen?

[S griffin]

Just watched the highlights on YouTube. Magnussen really has fallen back into his old ways this year. His defensive moves were borderline at best

First corner incident between the Astons that took out Norris just seemed to be a racing incident. Alonso did seem to go in too fast though

Great drive by Danny Ric to keep 4th till the end. And good to see Logan get in the top ten at his home circuit.

Yet another Verstappen win, but at least it seems like we had some action this time

[Mike Harte]

Magnussen has been called to appear before the Stewards to answer a question of unsporting behaviour.

[E.B]

Originally Posted by Mike Harte

Magnussen has been called to appear before the Stewards to answer a question of unsporting behaviour.

Lewis said he welcomed Kevin Magnussen’s honesty in admitting that his ultra-defensive “stupid tactics” in Miami’s Formula 1 sprint race were down to trying to help his team.

“I mean, it's really honest of him. I think it's pretty cool,” Hamilton told Sky.

“We had a good race. It was a little bit on the edge in some places, but that is what I love. I love racing hard.

“So for me, it wasn't really frustrating or anything. That is obviously what you do to work as a team. So bravo.”

[Mike Harte]

Originally Posted by Mike Harte

Magnussen has been called to appear before the Stewards to answer a question of unsporting behaviour.

Magnussen has been "awarded" 3 seperate 10 seconds penalties for leaving the track and thus gaining a lasting advantage during the sprint. He has also been given 3 penalty points, bringing his total to 8 over a 12 month period.

[Teretonga]

Originally Posted by Mike Harte

Magnussen has been "awarded" 3 seperate 10 seconds penalties for leaving the track and thus gaining a lasting advantage during the sprint. He has also been given 3 penalty points, bringing his total to 8 over a 12 month period.

Interesting.
How many penalty point did Max get for his behaviour in Brazil when battling against Hamilton in 2021?

I just find the whole penalty situation in F1 something that sticks in my throat.
As an adjudicator I understand the principle of penalizing people for infringements but the situation we have now is becoming not only tiresome but irritating.