The unique surface did not get the pilots to speak well of it, and it is that some affirmed that the race accused him because outside the line he was unable to shoot, thus denying the possibility of overtaking.
But while things were far from ideal, and improvements will no doubt be sought for the return of Formula 1 next year, the test was not as bad as some drivers thought.
In fact, Fernando Alonso realized that there was more grip than expected on the outside of the first corner during the Drivers Parade , something that he took advantage of to gain positions at the start. Later, Charles Leclerc was surprised by the fact that Max Verstappen was able to brake so late when the Red Bull man took the lead.
The head of Mercedes, Toto Wolff , considered that the nature of the asphalt, and even some of the works that were done during the weekend, were good for the show.
“Even with the track breaking, at Turn 17 for example, we saw a great race,” he explained. “It was very difficult to brake there, if you lost the line, you lost one or two positions, and clearly the drivers will say: ‘well, that’s not ideal’.
“But for the race it was good, that’s how it should be. It’s the case when there’s gravel, to make it exciting. I’d say for his first event, it’s been nine out of ten,” said the Austrian.
An unusual asphalt for Formula 1
What most caught the attention of many is that other new circuits in the Great Circus, such as Jeddah, have had asphalt with more grip and without problems in their premieres. However, you have to be careful with the comparisons, since the Saudi Arabia was a night event, played in colder conditions, which provides better grip.
The temperatures in Miami were hotter than we’ve seen so far this season, so the feeling for the drivers would be different. Over the weekend, the question arose as to why Americans had not used the same building materials as elsewhere.
The matter was aggravated when some work had to be carried out to resurface the track before the activity began on Friday. The damage was caused by the machine used to clean the bitumen present there, which was placed in the wrong place and dropped hydraulic fluid on the runway.
This caused the tarmac to break up when the cars first passed through, but it was something that would have happened at any other location with the same incident.
As for the composition of the asphalt of the Miami track, it is very different from that of the rest of the Formula 1 circuits. Due to its location in the world, certain government guidelines from the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) are required, which dictate that certain materials , some of which must be local, must be used in the composition of any placed surface.
According to David Woodward , of the R3 company, a specialist in circuits of the Great Circus, which collaborated in the installation of the Miami track, the demands imposed on the track are not similar to those of any other place.
“We had to use local materials and companies, and we had to be within the requirements of the local FDOT, and what they ask for on their materials,” he explained. “So it was quite a difficult assignment in a sense, because we had to come up with something that was a bit different to the typical Formula 1 track.
“On an F1 circuit there’s a much wider range, whereas here we’re stuck with the local FDOT stuff, so it was much more difficult in one sense,” he continued.
The end result was the use of a limestone aggregate, combined with a mix of granite mined from the United States, from the state of Georgia, at 60%, to try to get it to work well for the category.
However, the limestone of South Florida has slightly different characteristics. Its high silica content resembles the texture of small shards of glass, so breaking when cars pass over it exposes more of this silica which offers decent grip.
The theory was that this unique combination would work, as the silica fragments outweigh the normal drawbacks of using limestone. This explains why Pirelli’s analysis of the Miami asphalt showed it to be very smooth on its macro measurement scale, but rough at the micro level.
The head of the company that supplies the tires to the Gran Circo, Mario Isola , said: “In terms of numbers, this tarmac was different from the others because the macro roughness was very, very low, but the micro roughness I think was the highest in the championship”.
“So the grip level was good from the start with obviously a lot of track evolution,” he added.
However, what seems to have happened is that, as the tarmac deteriorated with the passing of the single-seaters, the small stone fragments that came off had to go somewhere.
Pirelli discovered during the Miami weekend that the tires were returning to the pits with stones, and that meant there would be plenty on the track and off it: “The cars are removing stones from the surface.”
“Some stones are shedding, because we find them on the compounds, and these are off the line, and when that happens you lose a little bit of grip,” Isola explained.
Things improved during the Grand Prix, going from an extreme situation on Friday to a good feeling on Sunday, mainly thanks to the action of a machine that swept the track.
What is essential now is to understand how the surface will react a year out in the open after its inaugural appointment. Will the small fragment phenomenon go away over time as more cars pass or is it something that will need resurfacing?
That is something that will only be known once we have another post-race analysis of the 2023 Miami Grand Prix.
