F1 Miami Grand Prix Review
9th May 2022With all of the hype in the build up to the first-ever world championship race in South Florida, the Miami Grand Prix has now come and gone.
As Formula 1 built up the hype of the inaugural Miami GP, the talk of the town seemed to regard the ongoing battles between the FIA and the F1 drivers.
Mercedes’ seven-time world champion, Lewis Hamilton, took a stand against the jewellery ban as he arrived to the Thursday press conference wearing four necklaces, three watches and eight rings. While Sebastian Vettel was seen, just before the first free practice session, wearing his underwear outside his race suit: another regulation the FIA are clapping down on.
Another problem, besides the jewellery and underwear bans, also lies at the feet of the FIA: not listening to the drivers. In Friday’s Free Practice 2, Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz found himself in the barrier at turn 13 – in the slow, technical section of the Miami International Autodrome. Alpine’s Esteban Ocon also found himself in the same barrier later on in the weekend, in FP3. The crash cracked Ocon’s chassis and the Frenchman couldn’t take part in qualifying as a result.
The drivers requested the race director, Neils Wittich, in their regular drivers meeting, to install Tecpro barriers at the corner. However, nothing came from their meeting.
Inaction from the FIA, in an extreme extent, could have resulted in a replication of the 2005 US Grand Prix in Indianapolis, when the request to install a temporary chicane in the final corner was ignored. As a result, of the 20 entrants, only six cars – who used the Bridgestone tyres – started the grand prix while the remaining 14 drivers – on Michelin tyres – returned to their respective garages on the formation lap.
Following a choatic grid walk from Sky Sports’ Martin Brundle, which saw the former F1 driver struggle to find drivers amongst a packed grid, the race was a mixed bag. It was a great start, chaotic, thrilling, and the same could be said for the latter stages, after the late safety car. However, the middle stint of the race was less to be desired.
The race had been predicted to be chaotic by many, with frequent safety cars and an enthralling first lap. That was found to be true, to some extent. Max Verstappen’s (Red Bull) move on Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz into the second corner was exciting and promised a great fight between the old karting rivals, Verstappen and Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc. A storyline which has set the starting narrative for the season.
However, between the middle stint, the race was comparable to Monaco in its entertainment. Lando Norris’ (McLaren) incident with Alpha Tauri’s Pierre Gasly was the saving grace of the Miami GP. Fortunately, both drivers were unharmed in their collision.
As a result, a Virtual Safety Car was brought out before it was upgraded to a full safety car. This naturally allowed the field to bunch up and provided fans with another, potential, thrilling fight for the race lead between Leclerc and Verstappen. For the most part, the safety car did deliver on that potential fight in the closing stages. However, Leclerc didn’t truly seem to have the pace to topple Verstappen from the top spot.
On the other hand, Sainz looked to have a comfortable third-place finish as a result of Sergio Perez’s (Red Bull) sensor issue which limited the Mexican’s overall power.
To summarise the Miami Grand Prix: It was like starting and finishing the race on the soft tyres with a mundane hard compound tyre middle stint.
Verdict: 4/10 – not the best race we’ve had all year, but it might not be the worst one we have.
That’s it for the article: F1 Miami Grand Prix Review! What did you think of the Miami GP? Let us know in the comments!
Read more Formula One here!
- F1 Miami Grand Prix: Max Verstappen secures inaugural Florida race
- F1 Miami Grand Prix: Charles Leclerc takes inaugural pole position
- F1 Miami Grand Prix: Mercedes George Russell leads second practice
- F1 Miami Grand Prix: Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc tops inaugural practice
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Hi, I’m Kamron. I created ApexMotorsports.co.uk in the dying embers of the 2021 Formula 1 world championship. It allowed me freedom to write whatever I wanted to write about which was all things motorsports, my passion.
I have put a lot of effort in over the years to keep this website in its best shape and I’ve loved seeing the brand grow consistently, month-on-month, year-on-year. My ambition is to keep watching this brand grow into a primary outlet of news for all things motorsports whilst fueling my desire to pursue a career in sports journalism, specialising in motorsports.
Kamron Kent
Hi, I'm Kamron. I created ApexMotorsports.co.uk in the dying embers of the 2021 Formula 1 world championship. It allowed me freedom to write whatever I wanted to write about which was all things motorsports, my passion. I have put a lot of effort in over the years to keep this website in its best shape and I've loved seeing the brand grow consistently, month-on-month, year-on-year. My ambition is to keep watching this brand grow into a primary outlet of news for all things motorsports whilst fueling my desire to pursue a career in sports journalism, specialising in motorsports.
