Formula One: Miami nice for Max Verstappen

Nice victory for Max Verstappen in the inaugural Miami GP. Photo / Don Kennedy

Sky F1 commentators referred to the new Miami International Autodrome, as "Miami Nice" as opposed to say Miami Vice, the name of a popular TV series of the 1980s.

As it turned out, the circuit was nice for Max Verstappen, who won the race despite starting behind the Ferrari's of polesitter and championship leader, Charles Leclerc, and his teammate Carlos Sainz.

For Ferrari, second and third place finishes wasn't exactly vice, but nor was it really nice, as Verstappen's third win of the season, and an extra point for fastest lap, means he has closed the championship points gap on Leclerc to 19 points.

In the Constructors race, with Sergio Perez finishing 4th for Red Bull, the lead for Ferrari is down to 6 points.

When the teams and their drivers arrived for the inaugural event at the new street circuit, built around what was the carpark for the stadium that is the home for NFL team, the Miami Dolphins, it was evident the 5.41km long circuit with 19 turns, coupled with the Miami heat, could prove a challenge for the drivers and a test for the Pirelli tyres.

But it was the track surface itself that caused drivers some consternation, who complained that despite a back straight of 1.28 km in length, the cars could not go off the racing line because there was no grip on the marbles. First thoughts were that the circuit resembled the Baku circuit in Azerbaijan, where overtaking down the long front straight, especially with the use of DRS has been a feature of that event. But that turned out not to be the case with this circuit.

"This isn't a nice surface to drive on," McLaren driver Daniel Ricciardo lamented. "It's not that it's just like, 'oh it's challenging, it's just you literally have to stay on that line otherwise you're not really on the track anymore."

Perez also wasn't impressed, commenting before the race that, "the surface is a joke. On Sunday the racing is going to be difficult. And you're going to have the drivers making mistakes because we've been put into this situation."

Fernando Alonso added that, "there's a rubble out of line, so it's going to be difficult. Nothing we can do. I think this weekend we need to put on a show, but this has to change for next year. It's difficult to race like this."

McLaren's other driver, Lando Norris, who ended up tangling with Pierre Gasly during the race and crashing heavily, said the surface was "not good enough" for Formula 1.

"The fact is just offline it's really, really terrible."

As the race unfolded, Verstappen from third on the grid got past Sainz right from the start and then pursued Leclerc. Red Bull boss Christian Horner explained the team's strategy at the start was to keep the right-front tyre in good condition.

"In the early laps, Max was hanging with him and looking after that tyre, and that was always our tactic going into the race, look after the right-front and keep Charles under pressure," Horner said. "And then he was able to close up and with the straight-line speed advantage we had, he was able to make really good use of that, so a real tactical race."

Verstappen passed Leclerc for the lead on the short finish-line straight using DRS, rather than down the long back straight, due to not being able to go offline there.

He was able to pull away, building up a lead of over 7 seconds that he maintained after the one only pit-stop the leaders made. But that lead evaporated when the safety car was deployed for the Norris-Gasly incident. Leclerc made one proper attempt to pass Verstappen, but after about five laps the latter broke the DRS range and crossed the finish line with a comfortable margin of 3.5 seconds, to record his 23rd grand prix victory.

"Yes, of course, it's a very good comeback," Verstappen remarked, given he missed all of practice 2 through mechanical issues. "I didn't even do a practice start, so I didn't know what to expect in the actual race. But we had a good launch, and I saw the opportunity to go around the outside [of Sainz] in turn 1 and I tried. Luckily it worked."

"Then, of course, I was not very happy with that safety car, but of course fully understandable, what happened, and of course, you cannot be so physical out there - now the next 10 laps we had to be flat out - on a track like this it's not easy."

However, despite three victories in the only three races he has finished, Verstappen is still concerned about reliability issues, with Perez having a loss of power when looking set to overtake Sainz for third place.

"We still have issues we have to solve," the victor said. "We are quick but, as you can see, my Friday was terrible, which was not great if you want to have a good weekend. Also, I think Checo [Perez] had a few issues in the race, so we have to be on top of that. We have a lot of potential, but we need to make sure it's reliable."

For Leclerc, the high hopes for a return to victory lane disappeared. He did not make a mistake as he did at Imola, but he could not keep the world champion behind him.

"Yes, I'm disappointed," he said.

"We are very strong in terms of tyre warm-up so at the beginning of every run we are strong. But after four, five laps, they [Red Bull] seem to stabilise the tyres in a better window and there they are just quicker than us and it's very difficult to do anything."

"It is going to be a long championship. It seems that they had the upper hand for two weekends now in race pace especially, and we need to take back the advantage as soon as possible."

Leclerc was asked if he preferred to be the hunter or the hunted in the championship battle.

"I quite like this position but it's also true that the gap is slowly closing down," he responded. "I don't mind whichever position I am in. I want to be the most competitive out there."

The same question was put to Verstappen, who has been the hunter since failing to finish the season opener in Bahrain when running second to Leclerc, who won there.

"I like the position I am in at the moment, knowing the car is quick and at the end of last year I was being hunted and that wasn't great because I knew we didn't have the pace and it was going to be tricky," he said. "It depends on how competitive you are."

Speaking of competitive, Mercedes made a step forward with George Russell 5th and Lewis Hamilton 6th. But considering he started from 6th on the grid, whereas Russell started 13th, Hamilton was not happy to find himself behind his new and much younger teammate, yet again.

Mercedes had put Russell on a one-stop strategy, going deep into the race and he was able to leap-frog Hamilton in the pit stops by making his one-stop under safety car conditions.

This caused Hamilton to question the team's strategy, especially after his race engineer Pete Donnington came on the team radio asking him if he wanted to come in for a second stop like Perez had done, for instance. Hamilton said it should have been the team's call as unlike them, he didn't know where everyone was.

"That's what your job is, make the decision for me - you've got all the details, I didn't," Hamilton said. "That's what you rely on the guys for but today they gave it to me and I don't understand it, but anyways."

This was yet another weekend when Hamilton seemed distracted by other issues, such as the FIA indicating it was going to get serious about enforcing its rule requiring drivers to not wear any jewellery when driving, which can cause additional injuries in the event of an accident, and also the compulsory wearing of flame-resistant underwear.

The FIA has given the drivers a two-race exemption from the rule being enforced, after which a fine up to €250,000 could be imposed.

Hamilton's response was to turn up to the Friday press conference wearing three watches, a number of rings on his fingers and a number of necklaces, stating the crackdown by race director Niels Wittich was an "unnecessary spat" and that he "couldn't get any more jewellery on today". Hamilton was supported by Sebastian Vettel to some extent, as he took to wearing underpants on the outside of his tracksuit.

Former F1 driver Ralf Schumacher, Michael's brother, was not impressed with Hamilton or Vettel.

"I find it all a bit childish," he commented. "They should actually be in favour because it's about safety."

"The drivers who drive Formula 3 and Formula 4 should know the big ones stick to it…. and it's actually ridiculous that such experienced people who have seen so many accidents make fun of it in that way."

It wasn't a great weekend for Vettel either, as he had a crash with Mick Schumacher that was deemed a racing incident by the race stewards. Given Vettel has taken on a mentor role for Mick in the absence of his father, Michael, who was Vettel's idol, it wasn't great for their friendship that the two collided on track. But as Martin Brundle said, "You can't be friends with another driver on the track."

Vettel said it was a shame the incident meant they were both out of the points, while Mick, after hearing that Vettel wasn't angry with him, gave a mature response.

"No, the same from my side. It's nice that I can learn from him, he's so invaluable as a friend, so yeah, we'll see. Obviously, we're all racers."

Sources: F1.com; FIA.