Lead Up to Lights Out: Miami International Autodrome

As we approach the first American track of the year, let's learn more about the Miami International Autodrome.

TRACK STATS

Location: Miami, USA

Time Zone: UTC−5

First Grand Prix: 2022

Number of Laps: 57

Number of Turns: 19

Number of DRS Zones: 3

Circuit Length: 5.41km/3.36mi

Race Distance: 308.326 km

Top Speed: 320km/h

Capacity: 65,000

Temperature: Highs of 28° and lows of 23° in May

Track Elevation: n/a

Lap Record: 1:29.708 Max Verstappen (2023)

Most Wins: Max Verstappen has two wins, both with Red Bull Racing

Designed By: Apex Circuit Design

Interesting Fact: In 2022 Miami became the 11th American venue to host a round of the Formula 1 World Championship.

2023 MIAMI GRAND PRIX

Miami is one of the newest tracks on the Formula 1 calendar so we have only seen the street circuit in action on two occasions.

Last time out Sergio Perez started from pole position and got a good start off the line keeping his Red Bull in front. Fernando Alonso lined up beside the Mexican and managed to maintain the P2 position until 15 laps into the race, the Spanish driver drove a great race and took the final podium position.

Early on in the race Max Verstappen was able to cleverly use DRS to pass both Charles Leclerc and Kevin Magnussen, who were too busy fighting each other to stop the fast paced Dutchman. Having started in P9, Verstappen once again proved his car was in a different league and progressed up to P2 by lap 15.  

Heading into the final 10 laps the Red Bull drivers battled for the top step on the podium, Perez led the race but Verstappen was on fresher medium tyres compared to his teammates hards. On lap 48 Verstappen overtook Perez to claim the second Miami Grand Prix win in a row.

Carlos Sainz was running in the high end of the points for most of the race, despite a five second penalty awarded for speeding in the pits he still managed to finish in P5. His teammate, Leclerc, finished in P7 after spending a lot of the race battling with Magnussen who ultimately finished in P10.

It was another difficult race for McLaren who saw both their drivers finish outside the points in P17 and P19 respectively.

At the waving of the chequered flag, Verstappen finished 1st, with Perez in 2nd and Alonso in 3rd. The rest of the top ten drivers finishing in the points positions were as follows:

4. George Russell - Mercedes

5. Carlos Sainz - Ferrari

6. Lewis Hamilton - Mercedes

7. Charles Leclerc - Ferrari

8. Pierre Gasly - Alpine

9. Esteban Ocon - Alpine

10. Kevin Magnussen – Haas

2024 MIAMI GRAND PRIX

Red Bull took their 100th pole in the Chinese Grand Prix which Verstappen converted to his fourth win of the season. The Dutch driver continues to look unstoppable though the same can’t be said for his teammate Sergio Perez who finished third.

The team looking closest to disrupting Red Bull’s dominance is McLaren. After earning their first podium of the season at China, the papaya side are bringing upgrades to Miami this weekend in the hopes of not only improving the performance of the car, but also the tyre degradation.

Despite some anxieties surrounding the upgrades, Lando Norris commented that “ the great news is our last handful of upgrades have done exactly what we thought they would, so there's no reason to believe these upgrades won't have that same impact." (GP Blog). The Woking based side have come a long way since their last visit to Miami, beating the second Red Bull two weeks ago so will be hoping for a repeat on Sunday!

A big difference to the format of this year’s race in sunny Florida, is the introduction of a sprint race – which follows on from China’s Sprint just two weeks ago. I think one thing we learnt from China is that the sprint and actual race results don’t correlate!

Mercedes looked strong in the sprint with Lewis Hamilton finishing second, but when it came to the race the silver arrows struggled with both drivers taking the checkered flag in the lower half of the points.

Team principle, Toto Wolf, labelled the Chinese Grand Prix as “not good enough” but went on to say a more positive comment of “we have something coming for Miami that looks like a good step – let’s see where that brings us out” (F1).

Williams are currently joint bottom of the constructors standings with zero points. James Vowles has acknowledged that they have fallen behind their competitors, but they are hoping upgrades which will be implemented in the next few races will help get them points.

Alex Albon added how he thinks they will “be more competitive in Miami already, just because of the nature of the circuit, not for anything else.” (F1).

This is the first race since Nico Hulkenberg announced his move to Kick Sauber in 2025. Heading into the race we still don’t know who will have the other seat, having not been able to pick up any points in the opening races, Valtteri Bottas and Zhou Guanyu have a lot counting on the next 19 races which may cause some more tension!

The final thing to look out for is Ferrari’s new unexpected livery, the team are ditching their classic red for just a week and instead will race in blue. This marks the 70th anniversary of Ferrari's presence in North America where they drove in white and blue for two races, as well as playing homage to previous Ferrari drivers such as Ludovico Scarfiotti, Chris Amon and Niki Lauda who wore blue racing suits.

In both of the previous races at this circuit Max Verstappen has finished in first place, will he extent his unbeaten streak in Miami this weekend? Well with many teams bringing upgrades, it’s all to play for! One thing we do know for certain is Miami know how to host sporting events so you won’t want to miss it!