Miami 2023 looked to be an exciting return to some interesting battles. The most obvious was the title decider between Checo and Max. However, Ferrari’s return to form was also something that was going to keep our attention. But, alas it was not meant to be…
What About Chuck
Quali was all but a disaster for Charles and even Max. The evolving track did help create a rather unorthodox grid with the top ten. This did not translate well in the race.
Charles’ weekend went from bad to worse as while he made a quick jump in position in the first lap, he failed to pass the Haas of Magnussen which is powered by the same engine. Kevin drove spectacularly to defend against Leclerc. Even using Charles trademark DRS switch against him. Without taking anything away from Kevin and his brilliant blocks, there did seem like something was off on that Ferrari. It just lacked pace. Most of that can be attributed to the prancing horse prone to eating through tires like a lion on a gazelle. The rest seemed to be a deeper underlying issue.
Bottom line, Ferrari need to find the issue and resolve the tire wear issue and they need to do it fast. Not taking the fight to Red Bull is one thing, getting overtaken by the Haas is another. HQ will not take kindly to seeing that.
Mad Max
Enter Max in P9, a position he would shed quickly to nobody’d disbelief. Even Alonso’s promise to wave at him when he inevitably passes him in lap 25. Well, it happened on lap 15. Max was on fire. The was in part to talent and part to the correct tire choice. Most opted to start on the mediums and then switch to the hard. Max flipped this and it delivered the right mix as the track evolved much differently to what the highly expensive algorithms predicted. Even Checo’s undercut did nothing but delay the pass to claim the top spot on the podium.
Checo
With Max starting in nineth position, Sergio should have easily won this race and be leading the championship. Even if Max passed everyone and landed in second it would have still secured him the lead. That did not materialize and is now a big blow for Perez. Having your competitor come so far back to take you with such ease can only hurt your title dreams.
Or maybe (I Hope) can light the fire to return the favour.
Miami
Other than Max lighting up the track, it was a pretty boring Miami 2023. Plenty of DRS trains and surprisingly not one safety car. Lewis made good progress once he found a way out of that dreaded DRS train as did Charles after his pit stop.
Italy comes next and we hope that this will bring some performance for the teams. Red Bull may be too far to catch but at least some proper racing for the best of the rest will give us fans something to smile about. So lets gather ourselves and see which team has the best upgrade in 14 days…
