The inaugural Miami GP, did it live up to the hype? Well considering it felt like F1 forced the excitement of the event down our throats, just like they do with the Sprint races, I am not so sure. Let's be honest, the track is a fancy mirage on a parking lot. The fake marina is beyond ridiculous, and trying to create buzz from celebrities that don't even follow F1 is a strange attempt to make the GP bigger than it is. The celebs are annoying at Monaco, but at least that track has a history in F1. I don't know if there was some sort of collab deal with the NFL, but it was embarrassing to see all the NFL references for a Formula 1 race. The Stetson hats in Austin were amazing, the football helmets in Miami were a flop. Also, these guest post race interviewers are extremely cringe. Please, can we have Coulthard or Brundle do the interviews like it used to be? Having said that, the track isn't all that bad. Sure it is another bland design from Tilke, but it definitely induced some mistakes, and that is always good for racing. The fact that teams chose between high downforce and low downforce setups, makes it technically fascinating.
Red Bull Racing surely came into the weekend as favorites. Their top speed advantage looked to be a key to their performance on paper, and it proved to be in the race. Interestingly they opted for a low downforce setup, despite an already strong max speed advantage. Can't say Verstappen put a foot wrong in the race and deserved the win. Red Bull definitely were much faster on medium tires. Perez was unfortunate to have a sensor issue that hurt his power, as he surely should have blown past Sainz after the restart. This supports that Red Bull's speed advantage is down to drag, rather than power.
Ferrari can't be too disappointed. A double podium is a strong result, especially for Sainz, who needs to improve. Ferrari chose a higher downforce setup, which most would say is better for tire wear, but that isn't always true as high downforce increases the loads on the tires, which can make things worse. As it turns out, Ferrari struggled with tire wear on the medium tires and the first stint didn't have much to fight with the Red Bulls. On the hard tires the Ferrari's were pretty much equal, and Leclerc made it exciting after the restart. But the car is still not fast enough. It's hard not to say Ferrari have been behind in the development race as they have brought very few updates to the car compared to almost every other team. They don't even seem to bring track specific wing packages like other teams. Who knows what Spain brings, but up until now, Red Bull has surpassed Ferrari as the faster car.
Mercedes brought more developments and on Friday the car looked significantly better. Then on Saturday the car looked terrible. It seems George Russell is right that their window of performance is extremely narrow, at least in outright speed. George Russell has been incredibly lucky, once again benefiting from a Safety Car. Lewis Hamilton who used to have all the luck, once again at the misfortune of his teammate's benefits. Mercedes has to be pleased that considering how far off the pace they are, a 5-6 finish is good points for them. I think the team made a mistake not to let Russell by Lewis right away, even if watching them race is entertaining. Though it really didn't make a difference.
Alfa Romeo a very strong performance, even in quali. Zhou had bad luck and DNF'd early, but Bottas was looking like a 5th place until he messed up and let both Mercedes go by. That had to hurt a bit. Still a solid drive and hopefully not the last.
Alpine a bit bitter sweet. Ocon toughed out a hard race and with a little luck from the SC and other's having problems, was able to score some points. Alonso might be able to drive like his old self for 90% of the race, but in the last 10% he finds a way to do something that really hurts his result. His 5 second penalty was deserved, and it sounds like he probably deserved another penalty for cutting the chicane (which we did not see on replay). Of course a lot of his poor results have been from some bad luck, but Alonso has always been able to get the best result possible, and so far that hasn't really happened this season.
Williams another point? Alex Albon is a gem to that team and has a strong case for MVP on the grid. That car is lousy and yet Albon just stays out of trouble, puts in his laps, and gets the best result the car is capable of, and beyond. Latifi? Not so much.
Aston Martin has to be pretty embarrassed to not make the grid because of a fuel temperature issue. They had one of their stronger qualifying results and were forced to start from the pit lane from their own mistake... on both cars! The drivers fought back, were dabbling in the points. But the drivers also made enough errors to prevent that. Stroll probably got the best result he could hope for. Vettel looked good till he was crashed into by his buddy.
AlphaTauri going home kicking rocks. Tsunoda had a great quali but had nothing to show for it in the race. Perhaps the TV didn't show his struggles, but he fell back instantly and never recovered. Gasly, who was arguably the 2021 MVP, has driven pretty badly all season. Getting tapped by Alonso which allegedly broke his car, and then the collision with Lando which was basically a racing incident, doesn't excuse why he isn't fighting for the 7-10th places every weekend.
McLaren will go home eating the rocks that AlphaTauri kicked. Lando should have scored points. Their poor pitstops certainly didn't help their strategy, but the car just wasn't very good either. They expected a struggle, but Ricciardo finishing just 9 seconds ahead of Latifi who is in the worst car... dude come on!
Haas had the opportunity for a good result in what could be called a home race for the American based team. Instead they tripped over themselves enough times, as well as other cars to throw it all away. Both cars with a chance for points right at the end.... instead disaster. Mick Schumacher was optimistic to say the least in his pass attempt on Vettel which destroyed both their races, and ruined his hopes for his first F1 points. I don't even know what happened to Magnusson at the end, but a late DNF was not what the team wanted or deserved.
Driver of the Race: Max Verstappen. Made a clear hard pass on Sainz which was critical, then made the pass for the win on track and then defended perfectly against Leclerc after the restart.
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Originally Posted by jgonzalesm6
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