Everything you need to know about the coming 2023 Miami Grand Prix

After the first Sprint weekend of the 2023 Formula 1 season, we're back to a normal format with the 2023 Miami Grand Prix, the second-ever event at the venue in F1 history.

1. Red Bull Racing Drivers Battle

The race could be an interesting one, mainly due to some threat of rain during the day of the Grand Prix. However, there could still be an interesting fight at the front, with the pair of Red Bull drivers, championship leader Max Verstappen and second-placed Sergio Pérez, looking to beat each other for the World Drivers' Championship.

Of course, Pérez is in front of a tall task, given the optics of Red Bull's Team Principal Christian Horner and his message to Verstappen at the end of the Azerbaijan GP, suggesting that race-winner Pérez got lucky with an early Safety Car which came out after Verstappen had pitted. Whether the Safety Car proved costly for Verstappen or not is debatable, but Red Bull allowing both drivers to fight for a title seems far from reality.

With two wins on each side at the moment, Verstappen's consistency still puts him at the top, as four Top 2s give him 93 points in the season, six more than Pérez.

2. Current Championship Standings Summary

Fernando Alonso has taken full advantage of Aston Martin being the second-best team in 2023 so far and sits third in the WDC with 60 points and three podiums in four events. Alonso's teammate, Lance Stroll, is eighth with 27 points, but Aston Martin remains second in the WCC with 87 points, 11 ahead of Mercedes (Lewis Hamilton and George Russell) and 25 more than a seemingly resurgent Ferrari (Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz).

Lando Norris, McLaren MCL60 during the  2023 Azerbaijan GP at Baku City Circuit

Between fifth in the World Constructors' Championship (McLaren - Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri) and the last-placed team (Williams - Alex Albon and Logan Sargeant). there's a 13-point gap so far, which isn't huge at the moment. However, McLaren is already 48 points behind Ferrari in only four events.

The Top 4 has clearly put lots of distance over the rest of the field, but the battle for fifth in the WCC seems wide open between McLaren, Alpine (Pierre Gasly and Esteban Ocon), Haas (Nico Hulkenberg and Kevin Magnussen), and even the struggling Alfa Romeo (Valtteri Bottas and Zhou Guanyu).

AlphaTauri has two points with Yuki Tsunoda and the Nyck De Vries, one more than Williams.

3. 2023 Miami GP Facts & Figures

The United States of America has 12 different venues in the history of Formula 1 with the addition of Miami to the Formula 1 World Championship in 2022 and the Las Vegas Street Circuit will be the newest addition later in the year.

The event will be the 74th Grand Prix celebrated in the USA.

The United States has hosted the most different Grands Prix by different names in Formula 1 history, with seven different GP titles taking place in the country already, and an eighth set to join later in 2023:

• Indianapolis 500 (11 times between 1950 and 1960 - held at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway).
• United States Grand Prix (43 times, starting in 1942 and the most recent in 2022. The race has been held at Austin, Indianapolis, Phoenix, Riverside, Sebring, and Watkins Glen).
• US Grand Prix West (eight times between 1976 and 1983. Held at Long Beach).
• Caesars Palace Grand Prix (twice in 1981 and 1982. Held in Las Vegas).
• Detroit Grand Prix (seven times between 1982 and 1988).
• Dallas Grand Prix (held once in 1984)
• Miami Grand Prix (since 2022)
• Las Vegas Grand Prix (set to debut in 2023)

Miami is the seventh different GP by title in the United States in Formula 1 history, while Italy stays second on that list with five (Italian, Pescara, San Marino, Tuscan, and Emilia Romagna Grands Prix).

Max Verstappen and Red Bull won the inaugural Miami GP in 2022, followed by the Ferrari of Pole-sitter Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz in the other Ferrari.

4. Miami International Autodrome Track Info

The Miami International Autodrome was the 11th different race track located in the United States to host a Formula 1 Grand Prix.

Despite having lots of different race tracks in Formula 1 throughout different eras, there isn’t a single US track on the Top 10 in terms of circuits with most races held. Watkins Glen has held the most Grands Prix amongst the US tracks, with 20 (which ranks 17th, only a spot ahead of Indianapolis’ 19 races).

The Miami International Autodrome is a 5.412-km track that goes around the Hard Rock Stadium, home of the NFL’s Miami Dolphins.

The circuit includes 19 corners but has some big areas of acceleration that give overtaking chances to drivers. Moreover, three DRS zones should definitely help in terms of wheel-to-wheel combat, but it seems that the sweet spot for the length of DRS zones hasn't been found yet, with Australia offering perhaps too easy of a chance to overtake (depending on the battling cars) and Azerbaijan proved quite difficult to overtake even with DRS and a long straight.

In the 2022 Miami Grand Prix, Charles Leclerc produced the fastest lap in qualifying with a 1:28.796 min lap in Q3 to set Pole Position in his Ferrari F1-75, while Max Verstappen set the GP's Fastest Lap with a 1:31.361 min lap during the race, in his Red Bull RB18.

5. 2023 Miami Grand Prix - Tyres

The dry tyres for the 2023 Miami Grand Prix will be the C2 as P Zero White hard, C3 as P Zero Yellow Medium, and C4 as P Zero Red soft.

Pirelli explained their choice with a statement in a press release: “The track, with 19 predominantly slow corners and three straights, is moderately demanding on tyres. The choice of three compounds from the middle of the range, rather than softer sets, is mainly due to the usually high track temperatures which reached 59°C last year.

The most used compounds in the 2022 race were medium and hard. Most of the drivers competed the grand prix with just one pit stop. The race was neutralised twice by a safety car and a virtual safety car, which allowed some teams to make a second pit stop.

The Miami circuit made its debut on the calendar in 2022 and winds around the Hard Rock Stadium, where the paddock will be set up this year: the team hospitality units will be located on the American football field where the Miami Dolphins usually play.

The organisers of the grand prix have had the 5.41 kilometres of track resurfaced for 2023. The previous surface, composed of limestone and granite, had been treated with powerful jets of water. The new surface is an unknown factor and will be analysed by Pirelli technicians during a track inspection carried out on Wednesday during the week of the race.

The Azerbaijan and Miami Grands Prix are the first consecutive race weekends in this year's Formula 1 calendar. The trip is particularly demanding because of the eight-hour time difference between Baku and the Atlantic coast of the United States.

While in Baku the teams had very little practice time to test updates on their cars due to the debut of the new Sprint format, in Miami they will return to a more traditional schedule, with three free practice sessions preceding qualifying and the race.

The weather on the coast of Miami is very changeable. In 2022 the race was spared by rain, which fell only when the starting grid was being assembled with the high temperatures meaning that the track dried out before the race started. The possibility of downpours has to be taken into serious consideration."

The minimum starting pressures will be 24.0 psi (front) and 20.5 psi (rear).

6. 2023 Miami Grand Prix - Weather Forecast

Friday, May 5th - FP1 & FP2
Conditions: Partly sunny and pleasant
Max. temperature: 31°C
Chance of rain: 3%

Saturday, May 6th - FP3 & Qualifying
Conditions: Partly sunny with a thunderstorm in parts of the area
Max. temperature: 30°C
Chance of rain: 41%

Sunday, May 7th - Race
Conditions: Cloudy with a thunderstorm
Max. temperature: 28°C
Chance of rain: 56%

7. Who will be on the 2023 Miami Grand Prix podium?

2022 Miami F1 GP podioum: 1. Max Verstappen (Red Bull), 2. Charles Leclerc (Ferrari) & 3. Carlos Sainz (Ferrari)

There are some pretty high chances of seeing a wet race on Sunday, or maybe just a wet part of the Grand Prix, which could definitely shake things up if some teams manage to make the exact moves if and when the rain arrives at the Miami circuit.

Red Bull should easily have the upper hand at Miami again and perhaps even more than last year, when Ferrari achieved a 1-2 in Qualifying and Verstappen won from third on the grid. Now, both Saturday and Sunday are expected to be a fight between the pair of Red Bull drivers, who have two wins each in the first four Grands Prix of 2023.

Behind the RB cars, Aston Martin and Ferrari could be a hard-fought battle, while Mercedes remains unpredictable from race to race and could be in the mix for a podium place under favorable circumstances.

The podium prediction of the 2023 Miami Grand Prix is 1. Max Verstappen, 2. Sergio Pérez, 3. Fernando Alonso.

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