Breaking It Down: F1 Miami Shocker - Mad Max wins again (Yawn)!

Breaking It Down: F1 Miami Shocker -- Mad Max wins again (Yawn)!,The 2023 Miami Grand Prix on Sunday saw Max Verstappen take victory with Redbull teammate Sergio Perez finishing 2nd, and Fernando Alonso took yet another 3rd place podium finish.

Breaking It Down: F1 Miami Shocker — Mad Max wins again (Yawn)!

The 2023 Miami Grand Prix on Sunday saw Max Verstappen take victory with Redbull teammate Sergio Perez finishing 2nd, and Fernando Alonso took yet another 3rd place podium finish.

The second race of the Miami track provided some great racing and overtaking, considering many fans expected a “Monaco-like race”, with very little overtaking, but that was just not the case.

Let’s get into some of the major talking points from the race as well as the entire weekend.

A Dominant Max Verstappen

Max Verstappen cruised to victory after passing his teammate at the end of the race. Verstappen was so fast that he would keep going back and forth with fastest laps no matter how worn his tires were, or even what compound his car was on.

Verstappen was putting in fastest laps on 30-lap old hard tires while somehow managing the tires at the same time. Verstappen in this race was clearly in a league of his own, and the favorite to win the race even though he started in 9th place.

The key to victory in Sunday’s race between the RedBulls was proven to be the pace during tire management. Due to the shaken-up grid, Perez started on pole with the medium tires, while Verstappen started with the hard tires.

The game plan for Perez was to lead the race and grow a lead on the medium tires. Meanwhile, the plan for Verstappen was to stay out on the hard tires and gain track time that way.

With the two pilots running opposite races, it was pretty clear that Verstappen would have to pass Perez toward the end of the race.

Verstappen proved to handle the game plan much better than Perez. The harder compound ended up being the faster tire in this race. This meant that Perez wasn’t able to build a large enough lead, and was losing time to Verstappen.

It became a tire management race for the Redbulls with Verstappen putting in faster and faster laps with the hard tires while Perez wasn’t able to build a big enough gap on his new hard tires.

This allowed Verstappen to pass Perez easily at the end of the race. Verstappen won today because of his amazing tire management and speed on the hard tires.

The Starting Grid Was Out of Order

Due to Charles Leclerc putting his Ferrari in the wall in Q3, the session had to be red-flagged. This meant that Kevin Magnussen started in fourth, and Verstappen started in ninth.

This put the race start in an “out of order” position and made the first few laps very interesting. Drivers like Verstappen and Russell were able to get around those “out of position” drivers early while drivers like Ocon, Magnussen, and Hamilton struggled in a DRS train.

Meanwhile, Hamilton and Stroll struggled throughout the race while stuck in traffic.

Although the Miami track did provide plenty of overtaking, through the slow corners drivers were very much stuck in position. Hamilton and Stroll wouldn’t start gaining positions until mid-race when all drivers were on alternate strategies.

Even Leclerc struggled, although that might not be a surprise given he crashed his Ferrari twice this weekend.

Multiple Tire Strategies

A heavy storm in Miami Saturday night meant that the track would be green for the race. This means that all the previous rubber that was laid down Friday and Saturday was washed away. This provided an unexpected situation where the hard tire was the faster tire.

It also meant that the offline would make it hard to pass due to the lack of grip. As mentioned, the braking zones on all three straights provided plenty of overtaking even if the overtakes weren’t possible in the corners. All three tire compounds were used on the starting grid, with Oscar Piastri gaining five spots on the first lap with the soft tires.

With the different tire strategies, it made viewers keep a close eye on the race and individual battles. In many portions of this race, drivers such as Ocon were in the top 3 because they hadn’t pitted yet. Some drivers pitted as early as 10 laps in. It seemed like every driver was on a different strategy in Sunday’s race.

This also was a leading cause of the increased overtakes because in many situations the overtaking driver was on an alternate strategy compared to the lead driver.

Miscellaneous Talking Points from the Race:

* Alonso had a lonely podium finish due to not having the speed of the RedBulls, but being faster than the Ferrari’s. Alonso had so much free time that he saw his teammate Lance Stroll make an overtake on Alex Albon. Alonso was watching the TV screen while going through turn 11.

* Leclerc was very fast this weekend but couldn’t keep it on-track. He would end up finishing 7th but had a very rough weekend controlling his car.

Alpine finally had a good race. Gasly and Ocon both scored points, finishing P8 and P9, respectively. Both drivers were towards the front all day and Alpine will look to build momentum from here.
Haas pace not found? You would think that with Magnussen starting 4th, the pace would be there. Both Haas drivers struggled on the hard tire stint and finished P10 and P15 respectively.
It was another nightmare race for McLaren. Even though Piastri made five overtakes in Turn 1, after he took off the soft tires, he fell off the pace. Norris would finish 17th while Piastri would finish 19th.
Finally, local boy Logan Sargeant did not have the weekend he would have wanted. He qualified last and would finish the race last.
The racing action continues. F1 heads to Italy in two weeks’ time.