The hotly anticipated Miami Grand Prix weekend has begun, and the two practice sessions that have been held thus far have led to some interesting talking points…
Red Bull – Red Bull with a reliability issue? Surely not. Once again, Red Bull are suffering from reliability issues, with Verstappen having to contend with a gearbox change after FP1 and a period without steering in his one lap FP2 session. Perez managed to salvage it for them with P3.
Williams – A session where Williams showed flashes of brilliance – there was a time when Albon was P2 in FP1 – but ultimately, they are still stone dead last of all that set a lap time in FP2 with P17 and P18 after Latifi suffered engine failure towards the end.
Haas – Home race for Haas (we’ll gloss over the fact their main base is in the UK) and the results from practice suggest they may get a point this weekend, P10 for Magnussen and P15 for Schumacher.
Alfa Romeo – A tale of two halves for Alfa Romeo, Bottas flung himself (and his Alfa) at the tech pro scenery in FP1, missing FP2 as a result. But Zhou just kept going round, not troubling anyone with times, just gathering data, P8 in FP2.
Ferrari – Carlos’ contract curse strikes again with yet another F1-75 ending up in the barriers in FP2, what is it with him? Leclerc once again performed constantly well with P1 in FP1 and P2 in FP2.
Aston Martin – Remarkably, nothing untoward happened to Aston Martin, they weren’t particularly quick, but they got round – which is a result. P14 for Vettel and P16 for Stroll.
McLaren – McLaren (following a podium in Imola) appear to have found some pace and seem to be in exactly the same position as last year. Nobody crashed or broke down and it was P6 for Norris and P12 for Ricciardo.
Alpine – A team who got both blue cars into the top ten but nobody really heard a word about, no drama (which is good at a new circuit). Ocon P9 and Alonso P5.
Mercedes – Mercedes have found their form once again, and that can only be a good thing. Russell P2 in FP1 and P1 in FP2 (you don’t know how much glee it gives me to type that). Clearly the upgrades are working and people may have been right about the W13 having untapped potential.
AlphaTauri – Can they please do something exciting so I don’t have to say ‘another uneventful session for AlphaTauri’? No blisteringly quick times, no mechanical issues, no crashes – just driving around. Gasly P7 and Tsunoda P13.
Did you enjoy the session?
Do comment your thoughts below.
Published in F1
