Formula One returned to the grounds of the Hard Rock Stadium in Miami for its third visit since the inaugural event held in 2022. In year one, tickets were restricted so as to deliver a ‘soft launch’ to ensure the logistics were all properly in place.

The race sold out in just thirty minutes, with F1 fans complaining over the sky high prices. This year’s event saw ticket prices rise again, with the cheapest three day admission with no seating costing $359. General admission for Sunday alone was $240 and to sit close to the start finish line is $500 a head for race day only.

 

 

 

 

$14,000 for The 72 Club

Miami was selected by F1 because of its glamorous image and the Florida city is home to a number of international celebrities. For them the $14,000 entry price for The 72 Club isn’t worth a blink of the eye. The nearby unque Hard Rock Beach Club is a more affordable $1,150 but a social media post shows once inside, you can spend the same again just on food and drink for the day.

A packed lunch will be the order of the day for the ordinary fan this weekend as one fan shared the menu and prices at the Hard Rock Stadium. F1 was criticised last year for its “elitist” and out of touch hospitality and food menu in Miami, and it now seems this fell on deaf ears.

One fan shared a picture of the food prices which read $120 for steamed buns with an additional $400 to add 1 gram of caviar, clearly something only the celebrities will be splashing out on. The race in previous years has attracted the likes of David Beckham, Michael Jordan, Tom Brady, and Serena Williams to name just a few. 

On track the opening day of the action was compelling with Sprint qualifying replacing the regular practice two session on Friday afternoon. Charles Leclerc had a remarkable turnaround after he’d spun his Ferrari just minutes into the practice session.

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Leclerc heroics in qualifying

On cold tyres Leclerc underestimated the lack of grip on his cold tyres and flipped his Ferrari adorned in the historic North American blue racing livery as he went under the freeway overpass. Facing the wrong way on the circuit Leclerc attempted to spin up his rear wheels and flip the car around but the monegasque failed leaving his car across the track and wedged between the barriers on a section of the circuit which is particularly narrow.

Leclerc was forced to abandon the car, which was returned to the Ferrari garage after the session was over. Yet despite the lack of practice and setup time, Charles planted his car into second place in the Sprint Qualifying as the closest challenger to Max Verstappen.

Elsewhere Daniel Ricciardo continued to benefit from his new chassis first used in China. The under pressure Australian easily escaped the first qualifying session ending up 11th on the timesheet and improved in SQ2 to P5. Leaving his last run late and risking not setting a time if there was an on track incident, Ricciardo lit up the time sheets clocking a fastest sector overall along the way. Daniel brought his RB home in fourth place and was just 0.4 seconds behind the time of Max Verstappen.

Ricciardo’s recent improvement in form now puts the spotlight firmly on his team mate Yuki Tsunoda, given one of them will be making way for Liam Lawson next season. Tsunoda crashed out of the second qualifying session without setting a time and later admitted there were, “A lot of things I could’ve done better.”

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Ricciardo dominant as focus falls on Tsunoda

The battle between the two RB team mates is set to remain tense over the next eight weekends before the summer recess. They are literally battling for their F1 future, with Christian Horner preferring the Australian to Marko’s choice of Tsunoda which in they end may be the most telling factor.

George Russell and Lewis Hamilton demonstrated the efforts to date of the Mercedes team are just not working. Russell had set the sixth fastest time in SQ1 but both he and Hamilton struggled with tyre preparation with the seven times champion clipping the wall on his final push inn SQ2.

For the fifth time this year, Russell out qualified his world champion team mate but both failed to make it into SQ3. Nico Hülkenberg continued to impress for Haas F1 and he nipped in front of Russell to claim P10 by the merest of margins, just 0.023s quicker than the British driver.

McLaren brought a huge raft of upgrades to their MCL38 and for a while it looks as though Lando Norris might be a match for Max Verstappen. Lando topped the timesheets in SQ1 and SQ2 before failing miserably to get closer than 0.8seconds to the pole sitter and will start the Sprint down in ninth place.

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Drivers complain about new Sprint format

Having run the revised Sprint format for this season last time out in China, the drivers almost universally agree they find it strange having a race on Saturday morning and then qualifying next time out on track.

Yet the key change was made to free up the driers and their engineers to make modifications on the setup before Grand Prix qualifying. Logan Sargent appeared oblivious to this fact stating, “If I was just to add anything, I would just prefer having a Sprint qualifying and then having the GP qualifying the next morning,” said the Florida born driver

“I don’t think it’s great having a Sprint race where you’re much slower than a qualifying lap and then straight to qualifying.”

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Piastri praises parc ferme change

Oscar Piastri however whilst agreeing with Logan’s sentiments did though make reference to the parc ferme improvement. “I would say the same,” agreed Oscar Piastri. “It felt a little bit weird having the Sprint race, because it’s obviously a race in itself, kind of, and then preparing again for qualifying kind of feels like the race should be, I guess, the end of the day.

“But I think opening up parc fermé was a good thing for the drivers and the engineers,” he added. “I’m not sure the mechanics appreciated it that much, but I think to repeat some of the stuff that happened last year, you know, with like, Lewis and Charles getting disqualified, I think we don’t want to see people getting disqualified because they set their ride heights a bit wrong and they can’t change. I think that was a good step forward.”

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Daniel Ricciardo remarkable P4 explained

Daniel Ricciardo became a Formula One fans favourite as he broke into the Red Bull Racing’s top team for one full season’s competition against the quadruple world champion Sebastian Vettel. The Aussie replaced the retiring Mark Webber and was immediately on the pace of his world champion team mate as F1 entered the V6 turbo hybrid era in 2014.

Ricciardo picked up three wins that year despite the dominance of the Mercedes AMG F1 all conquering power unit, while Vettel was made to look ordinary in his final year with the Red Bull team before departing to race for Ferrari….READ MORE