May 6 – The 2022 Formula 1 World Championship season will continue with the inaugural 2022 Miami Grand Prix at the Miami International Autodrome in Miami Gardens, Florida, USA. The event is expected to be huge and glamorous, and the track could provide some exciting images over the weekend.
Current F1 Championship situation
The race in Miami could provide us with another battle between Red Bull (Max Verstappen and Sergio Pérez) and Ferrari (championship leader Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz). Of course, Leclerc and the Scuderia seriously need to cut out mistakes in the upcoming race, as the woes in Imola were definitely avoidable.
Leclerc arrives into the fifth race of the year with a 27-point gap over Verstappen, while both have taken two wins apiece. The Miami event could be critical and it could mean a strong boost for those who come out on top. It’s obviously early in the year, but early advantages could prove necessary towards the end of the fight for the World Drivers’ Championship.
Will Mercedes turn the tide this weekend?
Another interesting topic will be about Mercedes’ performance. The team looked as the clear third-fastest in the first few races, but the performance did not look great at all at Imola, apart from a fantastic start to the race by George Russell, which eventually helped him get to P4. Lewis Hamilton will desperately need to score big points if there’s any hope of a title fight in case Mercedes gains an extreme level of pace.
Formula One – Mercedes-AMG Petronas Motorsport, 2022 Emilia Romagna GP. George Russell
The German team is expected to bring some new solutions in order to try and gain pace on their W13 challenger.
Behind the Top 3 in the World Constructors’ Championship, McLaren (Lando Norris and Daniel Ricciardo) reached the fourth spot in Imola after Lando Norris’ podium and the team’s P5 and P6 finishes on Saturday’s Sprint.
Valtteri Bottas seventh spot in the Sprint and fifth in the main race at Imola has put Alfa Romeo in fourth place in the WCC, even though Guanyu Zhou could not score in the Emilia Romagna weekend.
Alpine (Esteban Ocon and Fernando Alonso) is sitting in fifth place in the WCC mainly due to Ocon scoring in three of the first four races. However, the team is coming off a point-less weekend at Imola and needs to steer into the right direction. The Spaniard, to be fair, needs to find some luck in the upcoming weekend as well.
AlphaTauri (Pierre Gasly and Yuki Tsunoda), Haas (Kevin Magnussen and Mick Schumacher), Aston Martin (Lance Stroll and Sebastian Vettel), and Williams (Alex Albon and Nicholas Latifi) round out the positions of the World Constructors’ Championship.
Aston Martin scored points for the first time in the year at Imola, and it helped the team reach ninth in the WCC with five points, leaving Williams in last place with just one point.
2022 Miami GP Facts & Figures
The United States of America will have the 11th different venue in the history of Formula 1 with the addition of Miami to the Formula 1 World Championship calendar.
The event will be the 72nd Grand Prix celebrated in the USA, and the firt race at the country titled differently to the ‘US Grand Prix’ since the 1988 Detroit Grand Prix.
The United States has hosted the most different Grands Prix by different name in Formula 1 history, with six different GP titles taking place in the country:
Indianapolis 500 (11 times between 1950 and 1960 – held at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway).
United States Grand Prix (42 times, starting in 1942 and the most recent in 2021. 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 will be 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).
Miami International Autodrome track
The Miami International Autodrome will be 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 accelerations that could give overtaking chances to drivers. Moreover, three DRS zones should definitely help in terms of wheel-to-wheel combat.
According to Formula1.com, the layout could give us qualifying laps around 1:28 min, while we could also expect a speed average of 223 km/h. Although the initial and middle part of the track seem to have some nice flow, the final sector includes a really twisty section of six seemingly consecutive corners (from T11 to T16).
“The sequence from Turn 11 to Turn 16 is tight and winding – the rest of the corners are a more typical mix of slow, medium and high-speed [turns],
“So, teams will likely be biased towards their normal higher-downforce range. It won’t be anything unique in terms of challenge versus the range of other circuits; it will feel more like a street circuit due to the temporary nature of the circuit. However, the layout echoes that of a permanent track,” FIA’s Head of Vehicle Performance, Craig Wilson, told Formula1.com.
2022 Miami Grand Prix – Tyres
The dry tyres for the 2022 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, the same from the previous Grand Prix.
Pirelli explained their choice with a statement in a press release: “For the very first visit to the eagerly-anticipated Miami street circuit, Pirelli has chosen the three tyres in the middle of the range: P Zero White hard is the C2, P Zero Yellow medium is the C3, and P Zero Red soft is the C4. This combination is the most commonly-used one all year, and also the most versatile.
The 5.41-kilometre Miami International Autodrome is set in the Hard Rock Stadium Complex in Miami Gardens – the home of the Miami Dolphins – with 19 corners, three straights, elevation changes and a chicane. Top speeds are expected to be in the region of 320kph with an average of around 223kph and drivers on full throttle for approximately 58% of the lap. Turns 11 and 17 are the two main overtaking opportunities, with three DRS zones.
With the 11th venue to host a grand prix in the USA being brand new to everyone, Pirelli has had to rely on simulation data to come up with the tyre nominations. This information indicates that the tyres in the middle of the range will be most suited to the 57-lap race, with smooth asphalt that offers reasonable grip and the forces at work on the tyres being about average for the season.
The brand new asphalt is likely to lead to a high degree of track evolution, especially at the start of the weekend, with the Porsche Challenge and W Series as support events. The weather could be unpredictable, with ambient temperatures of around 20 degrees and quite a high risk of rain and wind on the Florida coast at this time of year.”
The minimum starting pressures will be 24.5 psi (front) and 20.5 psi (rear).
2022 Miami Grand Prix – Weather Forecast
Friday, May 6th – FP1 & FP2
Conditions: Partly sunny
Max. temperature: 32°C
Chance of rain: 24%
Saturday, May 7th – FP3 & Qualifying
Conditions: Scattered showers
Max. temperature: 39°C
Chance of rain: 40%
Sunday, May 8th – Race
Conditions: Mostly sunny
Max. temperature: 34°C
Chance of rain: 24%
Who will be on the 2022 Miami Grand Prix podium?
Rain did not really shake things up in the most recent Formula 1 Grand Prix at Imola, however, it could definitely be a game-changer in a new track that drivers have never competed on during such conditions.
The last podium in Italy. (Photo by Andy Hone / LAT Images)
Weather reports could still change from now to the time the lights go out for the start of the race, but we can still see Red Bull and Ferrari struggling for the main positions on Sunday. Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz definitely need a big result for Ferrari, while Max Verstappen and Sergio Pérez will look to extend their fantastic result at Imola with maybe another 1-2 finish at Miami.
Mercedes could again be alone in P3, as it looked at Bahrain in the season-opening race or in Australia (third race of the year). However, it has been tricky to know what to expect from the Silver Arrows from race to race this year, and McLaren, Alpine or even Alfa Romeo could put some pressure on Toto Wolff’s team if it cannot gain lots of lap time with their expected upgrades.
The prediction for the top three of the 2022 Miami Grand Prix is 1. Charles Leclerc, 2. Max Verstappen, 3. Carlos Sainz.
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