Miami Grand Prix Delivers Exciting Race with Red Bull Dominance

If you read these post-race glosses regularly, then you know that last time we were quite disappointed with the new look of the race weekend. Dirty, transparent, plotless. On the other hand, in Miami, the race was to our taste!

Let’s get this straight from the start with those who say it’s boring and that Red Bull won it again. Sure, that’s how it usually goes in Formula 1. In recent years Mercedes dominated, before that Red Bull, Renault and Ferrari. There is always someone better, someone worse, and the brilliant designer Adrian Newey has built a single-seater RB19 that is like from another planet. But wouldn’t it be a race? Wasn’t it overtaking? Isn’t there something to look at? But go!

Of course, the results of qualifying were affected by the fact that it was shortened due to the accident of Charles Leclerc. OK. This time race management did the best they could because there was a minute and a half left in qualifying and it would have been a tactical mess anyway and maybe there would have been more accidents. Did the fast guys who save their performance for the last lap pay for it? This is motorsport, this is tactics, it was the same for everyone. And thanks to that, we had a starting grid that promised a dramatic spectacle.

Everyone was mainly wondering if there would be an accident on the first lap, how long it would take for Verstappen to break into the top five, when (and why) the safety car would come out, but most importantly, if Alonso would shoot from second place like a cannonball and occupy the front race.

I won’t bore you with a detailed account of the Grand Prix, that’s what we have sports servers for here, but the way all the drivers started it must have pleased any motorsport fan. Although those who watch the races only because “blood and screws” could lament. Pérez expertly guarded first place, Alonso had his wits about him and the rest of the starting field along with him. Nothing happened, it was clean and something to look at from the start.

The commentators raced each other in the predictions of the race, it was expected when what would happen, the tires were one big question mark and the only certainty was actually Max Verstappen, who went on the hunt from ninth place. And others? Combat, overtaking and tactics. How will Leclerc do? What Sainz? Can Hamilton get ahead? Will Magnussen keep up with Haas, who started from a fantastic fourth place? Will Pérez hold the lead until the finish line?

So Verstappen took the lead already in the 21st lap of the race, he was simply a level different. If anyone was expecting a battle between team rivals, Verstappen’s message came in the 36th lap, when he set the fastest lap of the race on the old and hardest tires, which should actually have been dead for a long time. Pérez was probably already starting to suspect when he was fresh out of high school. And the rest of the starting field? They raced, overtook, and when they started going into the pits for tires, the order started to spill over again.

The tires were perhaps the only problem, paradoxically because the harder compound in particular held too much. Perhaps it would require greater differences between their individual species. But that’s a separate topic and Pirelli will hopefully think about it.

The last third of the race was all about finishing. And the checkered flag was finally seen by all twenty pilots, that hasn’t happened in a long time either! The last two drivers, Sargeant in the Williams and Piastri in the McLaren, did get a lap, but the rest of the starting field, especially the middle of it, was still pretty dense.

So, after race four, what do we know for sure? That Red Bull has the best car. That the combination of Alonso and Aston Martin works better than anyone would think, after all he has already been on the podium three times. “We expected it to be like this in a year,” said the Spaniard before the race. We also know that Ferrari is worse off than we probably all thought and hoped, and that the once dominant McLaren is completely in the bucket. And Mercedes? You don’t have to be ashamed! Russel in fourth place is a solid result, but Hamilton finished sixth, and he started from thirteenth place.

And we also know that it can be a nice race even without a safety car (even a virtual one), without breakdowns, yellow flags and stewards’ intervention (the five-second penalty for Sainz for speeding in the pits was fair and ultimately did not affect the outcome of the race).

There are nineteen races left until the end of the season, and next weekend it’s Imola, where many teams will bring a number of improvements. Yes, you will want to see this!

And what did you say about the Miami Grand Prix?