Before the opening race of the Miami Grand Prix on Sunday, the drivers criticized two key aspects of the track.
The first is that the circuit surface has proven to be far from ideal. The dirt off the line made drivers fear that overtaking would be too difficult, as if they didn’t stay on the clean part of the circuit they could risk trouble.
Sergio Pérez described the situation as a “joke” and suggested that things would be very difficult during the race.
The other aspect that not all drivers are happy with is the tight chicane area that is made up of turns 14 and 15, uphill under the highway, a sequence that reminded Lewis Hamilton himself of driving through a car park with his go-kart when he was little.
But while Miami officials were clear before the weekend that the track’s concept was deliberately designed to make mistakes, and thus improve racing, they are open to making any alterations they think will improve things for next year. .
Tom Garfinkel , the managing partner of the Miami Grand Prix, said on Sunday that the venue was willing to study possible improvements.
Asked by Motorsport.com about the track situation, he said: “We’re going to change whatever it takes to make the track better.”
“I think there is the challenge with the chicane and I don’t know if we have communicated well enough why it exists and why it is there.
“It was a bit of a necessary evil, if you want to call it that, to get the track big enough for the rest of the layout to be great.”
“That’s an area where there’s a tricky part, because we really have to slow people down because we didn’t have enough room for a breakaway.”
“I think after talking to some people in F1 and the FIA, I think there is an opportunity to maybe change it a little bit to make it better. But it’s a necessary evil at that point on the line for them to slow down.
Although new circuit surfaces can sometimes be a problem at grands prix – for example, the first race in Austin was particularly difficult due to a lack of grip – Garfinkel admitted that the situation in Miami was not perfect.
However, he assured that they will analyze the situation of the circuit after the weekend, to better judge what can be modified for 2023.
“We are evaluating the surface itself,” he said. “We want to make sure we get it right, because obviously if they [the drivers] can’t get off the ideal line, there’s not going to be as much overtaking as we’d like and that’s not good.”
“The direction we wanted to go with the track was to have as much overtaking as possible. But if you can’t get off the ideal line, you can’t overtake either. So let’s take a look at that.”
“And we will make any changes that we need, if necessary, to make the track the best it can be.”
