The world of Formula One will be delighted with the events at the recent Miami Grand Prix. Its always good thing when a new driver claims their first victory and there were signs that Max Verstappen’s dominance could be on the wane. 

The world champion took both pole positions at the Miami International Autodrome and although he won the Sprint race, the winning margin was vastly reduced from the Sprint result in China as Max came home just three seconds of Charles Leclerc. The timing of the safety car cost Max the lead as at the time Norris hadn’t stopped for fresh rubber. The reduced speed behind the safety car meant Lando was able to come in and out of the pit lane and retain his lead.

 

 

 

McLaren upgrade beats Ferrari

The expected challenge from Verstappen never came, as the British driver increased his lead over the closing laps of the race. Max hit a bollard marking the edge of the track which he revealed damaged the floor of his RB20.

“There was a hole in the floor,” Verstappen said. “But I don’t think that’s why. We didn’t have enough pace.”

Meanwhile Ferrari who had no upgrades on their SF-24 showed good pace with Charles Leclerc able to match the lap times of Verstappen. The Ferrari driver though believed Norris deserved the win: “I don’t think I could have won,” said Leclerc. “McLaren was too strong. But I did have the same speed as Max.”

Its expected that the Scuderia have a large upgrade package similar to the one McLaren brought to Miami. This will come at their first home race of the season in Italy next time out. Ferrari chose to wait until the Imola Grand Prix to bring their big upgrade, because they have struggled with correlation issues between what is expected from simulations and what actually happens when the car is on track. 

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Ferrari more practice time for upgrade

With F1 returning to its traditional format in Italy with three practice sessions instead of just the one in Miami, Ferrari believe it will be easier to work through the effect of the upgrades more easily given the extra two hours of track time testing available to the team.

“It will also be a very important upgrade,” Leclerc said. “It will determine how the rest of our season plays out. I’m looking forward to that and I hope that we can take a big step forward.

“It’s going to be an arms race of upgrades this year, and I’m glad that we’ll soon have new parts on our car that will hopefully be as good as McLaren’s.”

Fred Vasseur is more cautious over the upcoming upgrade and doubts it will be sufficient to bring them up to the pace of the Red Bull in the hands of Max Verstappen.

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Vasseur cautious of upgrade impact

“We are at the point in the development of the car where if you put something new on the car it is not a matter of seconds, it is a matter of tenths,” said the Ferrari team boss.

“It’s not like years ago when every new thing brought 3-4 tenths, there is a gap that varies from track to track, from compound to compound, and it is a bigger difference than an update.

“The update at Imola will certainly help us, but it will depend more on the work we do on the track.”

Since taking over the reigns in Maranello, Vasseur has changed the way Ferrari go about bringing upgrades to their cars. He insists the team work first on the baseline setup before adding new parts intended to improve the pace of the car.

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McLaren “need another” upgrade to catch Red Bull

Despite a glorious victory in the heat of Miami, McLaren team boss Andreas Stella is refusing to get carried away over the effect of the Miami upgrade noting Max Verstappen, “didn’t have a clean weekend.”

“If we want to challenge Red Bull in the long term, we need another (upgrade) package like this one,” added Stella.

The track surface in Miami was a bit of an outlier having been treated with a high pressure water treatment. This opened up the resin between the stones in the surface making it according to Pirelli, “30%” more abrasive than in 2023. Red Bull can suffer at venues where the grip is low as evidenced by Carlos Sainz worthy victory at last seasons Singapore Grand Prix.

The boss of the world champion team admitted the progress made by the Woking based outfit. “McLaren have taken a step, but only the next races will show how big it really is,” said Christian Horner after the race.

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F1 championships closer than in 2023

There are those who believe Max Verstappen is and will dominate this season even more than in 2023, but after six Grand Prix he sits at the top of the driver’s championship on 136 points, 33 ahead of team mate Sergio Perez (103) who is in second.

Last year after six rounds of the championship, Max had 144 points with his team mate in P2 on 105.

The constructors’ title race is closer this year too after a quarter of the season has been completed. Red Bull sit at the top on 239 points, with Ferrari their closest challengers on 187 – a gap of 52 points.

After six races in 2023, Red Bull were on 249 points with their closest rivals Aston Martin on 120 – a gap of 129 – so the pack is indeed finally closing in.

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Another Norris win predicted

Former F1 driver Ralph Schumacher also believes the tide has turned and that Red Bull’s domination is in decline.

Speaking to Sky Germany he said: “This is an exciting season. The pressure is coming from all sides. Ferrari has gotten stronger, but now McLaren has too.

“Either way, I’m convinced that we haven’t seen Lando Norris’ last victory of the season,” concluded the German pundit.

Last year the race in Imola was cancelled due to torrential rainfalls and extensive flooding in the region. The coming visit to Italy will commemorate the 30th anniversary of F1 legend Ayrton Senna, who died in 1994 at the circuit in an event formerly named San Marino Grand Prix.

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Ricciardo out for Imola Grand Prix

The headlines following Formula One’s visit to Miami in 2024 are all about the maiden victory for Land Norris. The McLaren driver holds the record for the most podiums before claiming an F1 win but his win in the state of Florida was certainly no fluke.

McLaren had brought almost a B-Spec car for Norris to Miami but  his team mate had to be content with receiving just half the number of upgrades. Practice One on Friday was a frenetic affair as the team tried to find the base line setup for the weekend and when the one hour session was complete, Lando languished down in P16…. READ MORE