Credit: McLaren F1
Like I'm sure a lot of F1 fans, I expected the 2024 Miami Grand Prix to be somewhat of what we have experienced most of in 2024 and in 2023 for that matter. Max Verstappen taking pole position, leading the race from the front and winning by a comfortable margin. That's not a criticism of Verstappen at all, in fact it's a testimant to his consistency and the dominance the Red Bull has displayed in the last few seasons.
And with the Dutchman taking pole position again, fresh off taking a pole position in the sprint qualifying and winning the sprint race prior, we all anticipated another weekend of Verstappen's excellent performance in 2024.
But the race result was far from what was anticipated. The race and the results took everyone by surprise, with Lando Norris becoming the 114th different race winner and the 21st British driver to win a Grand Prix.
In an effort to detail my thoughts on F1 races, this post will be the first of a series of blog articles that give a brief summary of my opinions and things that I felt were worth noting, creatively names PressF1 Ponders (and no, I didn't use ChatGPT to come up with the name... well, not this one at least).
Norris' Maiden F1 Victory is Well-Deserved
It may have taken him 110 races to reach the top step of the podium, but Lando Norris drove a fantastic race after starting from fifth to win his first race in Miami. Despite a not-so great start after being held up by Sergio Perez's early divebomb and losing a place to teammate Oscar Piastri, Norris' pace combined with the overall strengh of the McLaren during the race kept him in line with those in front. Norris then capitalised on the safety car brought out by Kevin Magnussen and Logan Seargent, handing him the lead of the race whilst all others had pitted prior. From the restart, Norris never looked back as he stretched out his lead to over 7 seconds before the end of the race.
There are multiple variables that all led to a well-deserved win for Norris. Firstly, Norris himself drove a fantastic race. His consistency throughout the race was brilliant, not making a mistake throughout the race and showing strong pace, passing Perez with relative ease as well as closing up to the Ferrari's before the Scuderia made their pitstop.
Speaking of pace, the performance of the MCL38 was another variable that made the win that much more sweeter, so credit also should go to the McLaren team. Upgrades were brought for the Miami Grand Prix by the team, with the full upgrades going onto Norris' car whilst Piastri only had half of them. Despite this, both cars had incredibly strong pace, evidenced by Piastri being able to maintain a three second gap to Verstappen in the early stages of the race. The upgrades made a big difference in performance, and has really contributed to putting Norris in that race-winning position.
But there is also another variable that came into play... luck. The timing of the safety car worked perfectly for Norris, as others that were ahead had made their pitstop prior whilst Norris still kept going. The low tyre degredation did aid in Norris being able to stay out longer, but without the safety car in play, the British driver would have had to pass a lot of cars to get to the lead.
The luck element definitely helped, but without the other two variables mentioned in play, Norris would never have been able to take advantage. Norris and the whole McLaren team deserve all of the celebrations and applause for their strong performance this weekend!
Where was Red Bull's Dominant Pace this Weekend?
Since 2023, we've become accustomed to Red Bull winning the race by a healthy margin under the control of 3-time world champion Max Verstappen. Only on the rare occasion when the Red Bull is unable to find the right balance for their setup on a race weekend or when the car hits a reliability issue does it seem any other team (or driver) could take the victory.
And in the 2024 Miami Grand Prix, Red Bull were unable to find that perfect balance they are so used to finding.
Some people might be surprised hearing this given Verstappen took pole in the sprint and main qualifying sessions as well as winning the sprint race, and that's completely understandable. But if you look into these sessions more, they paint a different picture.
Despite his pole position for the sprint race, Verstappen seemed surprised he secured it given he was unhappy with the lap. On top of that, the sprint race saw Verstappen winning the race by 3.3 seconds from 2nd place driver Charles Leclerc. Given the gap in the sprint race prior in China was 13 seconds to the next car behind, it definitely seemed far from a dominant performance despite the gap was pretty high.
The balance didn't seem to be any better for the main race as Verstappen was only able to maintain a 3.5 second gap to Oscar Piastri before the pit stop and safety car came out, reinforcing the argument Red Bull were not in their finest form that weekend. Sure, the McLaren was quick and its performance had rapidly improved, but it was also clear the Red Bull was not the quickest car in the race.
Still though, to have a not-so great balance and to finish 2nd is still very impressive so the Milton Keynes team will be confident in that sense. But with rising threats from Ferrari and now McLaren, Red Bull needs to analyse and reflect quickly for Imola to address these concerns and return to their dominant ways. After all, it is only race 5 and anything could still happen...
Perez was Very Lucky
Red Bull could have had a bigger problem than the balance issues during Sunday's race. As the race begun and in the approach to Turn 1, Perez steamed down the inside of the corner and had a nasty lockup on his tyres. This resulted in him going deep into the corner and almost colliding with a number of cars. One of which included teammate, Max Verstappen.
Perez is already fighting pressure for his seat due to his contract expiring at the end of the season, so colliding with his teammate wouldn't exactly make his performance review look that spectacular to say the least. Thankfully for the team, they barely managed to avoid each other and Perez and Verstappen would continue on, with Perez admitting after the race a lack of grip on his tyres.
Perez would finish the race in 4th, albiet 14 seconds behind his teammate, a sight we are also becoming far too familiar with. Perez will likely need to do more if he is to retain his seat for 2025...
Spare a Thought for Oscar Pisatri
Despite not having the full upgrade package that his teammate did, Oscar Piastri had a great start to the race on Sunday. Capitalising on Perez's turn 1 shenanigans, Piastri dived ahead of the Ferraris to take second place before continued a close battle with Leclerc.
He was able to maintain a fairly close gap to race leader Verstappen and that speaks volumes about the performance of the McLaren as even with around half the upgrades, the McLaren was keeping good form with the top teams (even if the Red Bull wasn't exactly at its best).
The Safety Car didn't come to the aid of Piastri and he found himself losing out to Norris as well as being behind Leclerc due to the Ferrari driver undercutting him. He then duelled with the sister Ferrari and Carlos Sainz. The defensive driving by Piastri was aggresive but not dangerous, though questions have been raised about whether Piastri should have had a penalty. Personally, it was hard but fair racing and he was entitled to the corner given Sainz was not fully ahead.
The race went from bad to worse when Sainz lunged at Piastri at Turn 17, where the Spaniard lost the rear of the car and damaged the front wing of Piastri. Losing pace and positions, the McLaren driver pitted for a new front wing, dropping him way out of the points. Whilst Sainz may have had a post-race penalty for this, it doesn't change Piastri's results and diminishes his strong performance at the start.
Piastri will need to bounce back from this setback in Imola as he will have the remaining upgrades installed onto his car. There's evidence the car can now be quick and it's up to him to make sure he can take advantage of it.
FIA's Post-Race Penalty Leaves a Grey Area
I touched upon Carlos Sainz being handed a post-race penalty for his collision with Oscar Pisastri, amounting to a five-second time penalty, but the outcome does open up a few questions for me.
The penalty was anticipated to be a 10-second penalty and two penalty points, but the penalty looked to have been halfed as a result of 'mitigating factors'. These were described as below:
"In this case, we took into account, as mitigating factors, the fact that but for the slight loss of control of the rear by Car 55, the collision would likely not have happened and it would have been hard but good racing"
This raises a few queries. What would classify as a 'slight' loss of control? What happened if a scenario occurs where a car slightly understeers rather than oversteers? Was the loss of control not a result of the driver?
These are questions I am thinking when reading this and there may be more. It's important for the FIA to be clear on this as there is a risk of ambiguity and lack of clarity on what could be classed as a mitigating factor. One to keep an eye on...
PressF1 Final Thoughts
My Driver of the Race: Lando Norris
Lando drove a great race and fully deserved his maiden win, so deserves my driver of the race.
Best Overtake of the Race: Lewis Hamilton on Yuki Tsunoda
Hamilton passing Tsunoda around turns 13/14 shows great aggression from the Mercedes driver as well as good awareness by Tsunoda.
Special Driver Shoutout: Esteban Ocon
Great drive from him to get his and Alpine's first point of the season. The car looked much better this weekend so fingers crossed for them it will translate to better performance.
Driver who didn't deliver: Kevin Magnussen
Despite his solid defense against Hamilton in the sprint race to aid teammate Nico Hulkenburg, he culminated a multitude of time penalties and penalty points, with only two points needed for him to receive a race ban. His crash in the main race with Seargent tipped off a bad weekend for Magnussen.
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