Max Verstappen claimed his third win of the season in the Miami GP, continuing his record of always winning races which he has finished this season. The race in Miami was massively hyped in the lead up to the weekend, but most of this hype came around the event and the city, with features such as a fake marina. As this is not something I watch F1 for, I cannot really comment on whether or not it was a success from this perspective, although Martin Brundle’s grid walk was entertaining. I found the actual race track was a little bit disappointing, although as I am not really a fan of this type of track or new things in general this was probably to be expected. The race was not hugely exciting for the most part, although there was some good battling outside of the top ten, which was admittedly helped by DRS but I still believe F1 should try to scrap it for 2023 with a few more adjustments to the cars. However, it got far more exciting after the late safety car with Leclerc briefly mounting a challenge on Verstappen.
One feature of the track that was very good was that it was extremely dirty off-line, meaning that any mistake would be punished. There were safety concerns regarding the concrete wall hit by Esteban Ocon in practice and causing him to suffer a 51G crash, but as many drivers said that should easily be replaced with TecPro for next year. It was still an unnecessary risk for this year, however, and it is a worrying trend that now two tracks in the last two years have been finished and signed off not long before the first race there and there have been safety concerns at both, so maybe there should be a rule whereby tracks have to be signed off a certain amount of time before they can host a Grand Prix. But this shouldn’t be an issue for next year’s Miami GP.
In qualifying, it was Charles Leclerc who claimed pole position ahead of Carlos Sainz, giving Ferrari their first front row lock-out since Mexico 2019. Max Verstappen had been fastest in the first runs but a mistake on his final lap left him third on the grid ahead of Sergio Perez. In fifth place was Valtteri Bottas, doing an excellent job to outqualify both Mercedes for the second consecutive race. Hamilton was next, followed by Gasly with his best qualifying of the year, Norris, Tsunoda who made Q3 for the first time since Abu Dhabi 2021, and Stroll who made Q3 for the first time since Turkey 2021, although both Aston Martins had to start from the pitlane as they had allowed the fuel to get too cold and risked a penalty if they had started on the grid.
Just missing out on Q3 was Fernando Alonso for Alpine and George Russell for Mercedes, the latter making a mistake on his first lap and having to go again on the same tyres. Vettel qualified 13th and then it was Daniel Ricciardo, although he was unlucky as a problem in the pits meant he had to push harder than he would have wanted on the outlap. Mick Schumacher was next, outqualifying Kevin Magnussen, while Zhou Guanyu was a disappointing 17th after showing promise early on. Alex Albon just shaded Nicholas Latifi for 18th after tyre warmup problems, while Ocon was not able to compete after the crash in practice cracked his chassis.
In the race, Charles Leclerc led from pole ahead of Max Verstappen who made a brilliant pass on Carlos Sainz for second at the start, to the delight of one fan on TV, with Perez fourth and Bottas fifth. Both Mercedes lost places at the start after minor contact between Hamilton and Alonso, and Russell struggling on hard tyres. Red Bull had gone for a lower downforce setup than Ferrari so were quicker on the straights and Verstappen used this to pass Leclerc for the lead early on and pull out a small gap as Leclerc didn’t have an answer. Hamilton fought back up to sixth.
After a retirement for Zhou, the first into the pits was Tsunoda, followed by Magnussen and Schumacher. Alonso tried to undercut Gasly but a slow pitstop denied him this chance. Lando Norris’ pitstop was also slightly slow, but extremely costly as he dropped behind both Aston Martins as a result and then went wide and lost position to the Haas drivers too. The first four all pitted with no drama except for a problem for Perez as he lost six seconds when losing power before the problem was repaired, although he still had to nurse the issue for the rest of the race. Then Russell moved up to fifth courtesy of not pitting, and ran ahead of Bottas, Hamilton, Ocon (also yet to stop), Gasly and Alonso. Then came the Aston Martin pair of Stroll and Vettel who had started from the pitlane but due to little tyre degradation were able to hang on well in the DRS train behind Alonso and keep the Haas pair at bay. Norris was just behind this group, then Albon, Ricciardo, Tsunoda and Latifi.
The next real piece of action in the race came as Fernando Alonso dived down the inside of Gasly at turn one, a move that wasn’t really on, and spun the Alpha Tauri, earning himself a deserved five second penalty. Gasly dropped back considerably and appeared to have some damage from the incident, but after going off he came back on and hit Lando Norris, spinning the McLaren putting Norris, and later Gasly, out of the race. It was a strange incident and the stewards did not penalise either driver but Gasly did appear to be at fault for turning into Norris. This brought out the safety car, and threw a lifeline to Ferrari, although Perez was the only one of the leaders to pit for fresh mediums. George Russell also pitted, having gone long in preparation for a potential safety car, as did Ocon, the Aston Martins, Magnussen and Ricciardo. Schumacher now ran ninth and looked like he might finally get his first point.
On the restart, Sainz was immediately put under pressure by Perez and the top two pulled a gap again, with Leclerc putting more pressure on Verstappen than expected, although he was never close enough for a real attack, and it was Max Verstappen who won with Leclerc second, closing the gap to 19 points in the championship. Perez had one real lunge down the inside of Sainz but went too deep and the Ferrari repassed him for another podium. Bottas was back in fifth but made an error as he went wide and let both Mercedes through. Russell then passed Hamilton off the track, pulled a gap over him, before letting him back through and repassing him to finish fifth, and continue to be the only driver to have finished in the top five at every race this season. Hamilton was sixth and Bottas seventh.
Behind there was a lot of great action totally missed by the TV director, who didn’t do a great job in the race. Esteban Ocon attempted to take Schumacher for ninth but Schumacher went wide and allowed Vettel past them both, before Schumacher dived down the inside of Vettel at turn one and hit him, putting Vettel out and damaging Schumacher’s front wing. It was very unfortunate for Mick, but very confusing that he wasn’t penalised for what was just a worse version of the Alonso-Gasly incident.
That let Ocon back to ninth ahead of Albon, as Kevin Magnussen twice had contact with Lance Stroll, both immediately on the restart and again later as he clumsily clattered into the side of the Aston Martin. Alonso crossed the line eighth from Ocon and Albon, in the points again for Williams, but a second time penalty for cutting the chicane relegated him out of the points. Daniel Ricciardo received a similar penalty and as a result Stroll finished tenth, from Alonso, Tsunoda, Ricciardo, Latifi, Schumacher and Magnussen, with Vettel, Gasly, Norris and Zhou the retirements.
Driver Ratings (I have decided to adjust the scoring system so that it is the same as Autosport’s, but with every rating deducted one point to allow tens to be reserved for great performances such as Hamilton in Brazil last year, inspired by the scoring system of Racefans):
Max Verstappen – 8. Deducted a point for the qualifying mistake that left him third on the grid but an impressive fightback in the race allowed him to take the lead and win, fending off a late threat from Leclerc after the safety car. After reliability issues earlier in the season, he is right back in the championship battle.
Charles Leclerc – 8. Another great qualifying lap to lead the race, but lost out to Verstappen and was unable to challenge him again until the safety car, after which he did very well to get so close to his rival in what seemed the inferior car. Maybe he would have been better off pitting.
Carlos Sainz – 7. Maybe a little generous as he was outclassed once again by his teammate and also crashed in practice, but he did manage to beat Verstappen to second on the grid and did well to defend against Perez’s faster Red Bull for another podium.
Sergio Perez – 7. Difficult to rate as we don’t know the extent of his engine problem, so maybe this is too generous as I would have expected him to beat Sainz with better tyres at the end, but he did appear faster than the Ferrari before he lost power, and then held on well behind him after.
George Russell – 6. Another good fightback from a poor grid position but it can’t be ignored that it was his own mistake that put him 12th on the grid, and he was lucky that the safety car allowed him to be right behind Hamilton and Bottas, althoughh he still had to make the moves himself.
Lewis Hamilton – 7. Beaten by Russell again but was the better Mercedes driver, beating him in qualifying and then would have beaten him in the race but for the safety car giving Russell a good chance. Maybe he could have done more against Bottas before the safety car.
Valtteri Bottas – 8. It is difficult to know how good the Alfa Romeo really is as his teammate is a rookie, but it might well be faster than the Mercedes as Bottas qualified an excellent fifth and was looking like he had that position under control before the safety car put the Mercedes on his tail and then he made a poor mistake, going wide and costing him a 9, to drop behind both.
Esteban Ocon – 6. This rating could be a bit harsh as Ocon fought from the back of the grid to claim points, but the practice crash was his fault and he was very fortunate with the safety car, without which he wouldn’t have scored points.
Alexander Albon – 7. A poor qualifying session but once again he was excellent in the race, staying towards the back before making up places behind the safety car and keeping out of trouble, while holding up those on fresh tyres, to claim an impressive ninth.
Lance Stroll – 7. He did well to make Q3 but was unlucky to start from the pitlane due to the team’s error. Then kept pace well with Alonso despite older tyres and the safety car gave him a chance to score before he was hit twice by Magnussen, and then scored anyway thanks to incidents for others.
Fernando Alonso – 5. A disappointing qualifying session but he made up for it with a super first lap and was shadowing Gasly before a slow stop denied him the chance of an undercut. Then the first penalty was deserved for a silly incident with Gasly, while the second was more harsh. Has been very unlucky this season.
Yuki Tsunoda – 4. A good qualifying session to make Q3 but in the race Tsunoda was nowhere, struggling with tyres, falling a long way behind his teammate and being lapped, before making progress at the end after numerous incidents for other drivers.
Daniel Ricciardo – 4. Wasn’t entirely to blame for the bad grid slot due to a quick outlap, but he had very little pace in the race and never looked like scoring until the late race chaos briefly promoted him to tenth before a penalty. Probably should have scored points.
Nicholas Latifi – 4. Continues to have a very poor season as he was not far behind Albon in qualifying but then was considerably slower than the rest of the grid, falling to the back even when he had pitted and others hadn’t.
Mick Schumacher – 5. One of his best races in Formula 1 after outqualifying his teammate and running in ninth, before a major error into turn one saw him take out Vettel and ruin his own race, thus earning him a low score. Deserves a point soon.
Kevin Magnussen – 4. Was generally slightly slower than Schumacher this weekend but was right behind his teammate before the safety car. Then had a shocker after that with two collisions with Lance Stroll leaving him to finish last.
Sebastian Vettel – 6. Outqualified by Stroll but generally seemed faster in the race and was right behind his teammate before a mistake cost him places. Then did well to make it through to ninth after the safety car before being taken out by Schumacher.
Pierre Gasly – 5. Was having an excellent weekend, qualifying seventh and running in a solid provisional eighth before being spun by Alonso and sustaining damage. However, he earns this low score for the incident with Norris which was clumsy as he turned into the McLaren.
Lando Norris – 5. Did a good job to make Q3 in qualifying but the race was disappointing as, after being unlucky with a slow pitstop, he was unable to challenge the Astons and Haases and then was not blameless in the incident with Gasly that took him out.
Zhou Guanyu – 4. Although he was impressive on his first lap of qualifying, Zhou ended up a disappointing 17th, far less than the car was capable of, and then made a bit of progress before being force to retire from the race.
Team of the Grand Prix – Red Bull. It was their low downforce setup that played a big role in allowing Verstappen to win and they also generally appeared to have the fastest car all weekend.
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