Formula One is coming to Miami for the 3rd year in a row and fans are pumped. This year it’s being held at the same track as always (the Miami International Autodrome) but with some interesting new news.
For starters, Ferrari is going blue this Grand Prix to mark their 70th anniversary in the American marketplace. This began in 1964 when Ferrari first had their breakthrough, so they celebrated by sporting the new blue and white livery, which was worn in final two races of the season.
Next, Daniel Ricciardo was slapped with a three-grid drop, after Lance Stroll’s collided with him while heading into the Turn 14 hairpin, during the Shanghai Grand Prix.
The minor crash happened before a Safety Car restart triggered by Valtteri Bottas after his mechanical DNF. This penalty was given due to Ricciardo appearing to overtake Niko Hulkenberg under safety car conditions on turn 28, which is a breach of the rules.
This adds insult to injury for Ricciardo who was already heated by Stroll, who claims it was Ricciardo’s fault because he “braked too harshly”. Ricciardo fired back by saying “F*** that guy!” and that he saw the footage from inside his car and he wasn’t even looking at Ricciardo’s car.
Ricciardo isn’t the only driver who was disappointed about the results in Shanghai, Sergio Perez was disappointed about his performance due to not providing a 1st-2nd place finish to Red Bull Racing. He blames bad luck with the Safety Cars and that he is going to do better in Miami.
“We did most of the race on the hard [tyre], once you’re fighting like that in the early laps then the life of the tyres just goes off dramatically. At least we managed to get onto the podium, but it would have been good [to be] one and two,” said Perez in an interview with Formula 1 after the Shanghai GP.
Moving into some race predictions, it’s quite clear who’s most likely going to win the Miami Grand Prix, Max Verstappen, unless something happens putting him at a DNF. However, after looking at Lando Norris’s performance at the Shanghai GP, some fans are hopeful of scoring another podium position for McLaren.
Mercedes’ Toto Wolff says that they have something in the works for the Miami GP.
“Considering where we put the cars altogether, our team was not [in] a good position for today,” says Wolff after the Shanghai GP “Not good enough overall, P6 I think it was and [P9], but it’s lacking pace so we’ve got to dig deep. We have something coming for Miami that looks like a good step – let’s see where that brings us out” Said Wolff.
Both MAST Academy english teacher, Mr. Nicholas Partagas and environmental science teacher Ms. Noemi Soto are attending the Grand Prix this year and are also hoping for Mercedes to perform well in this race, particularly Lewis Hamilton.
“My father is a motorhead and used to drag race as an amateur, so I’ve been a racing fan since I was a kid, and F1 has the best racing cars in the world,” said Partagas when asked about his love for Formula 1.
This is going to be a new experience for a lot of people considering F1 has gained quite the popularity recently on social media.
“It’s going to be a surprise for both me and my husband,” said Soto
