Formula 1 drivers believe the track surface at the Miami International Autodrome needs to be addressed before the championship’s return in 2023.
Miami made its debut last weekend and while the layout itself was largely positively received drivers were unimpressed by the low grip that was encountered away from the racing line.
Several drivers compared it to driving on gravel, or in the wet, and hope the situation can be remedied before next year’s event.
“I mean we heard before coming here that these stones from Georgia, they are the best in the world, and it’s one of the best tarmacs in the world, and it’s a disaster,” said Alpine’s Esteban Ocon.
“We cannot overtake. Mick [Schumacher] touched with Seb [Vettel] partly because of that. You cannot do a dive on the inside of anybody, when you go off line you lose half a second.
“There is only one line. It’s not working at all. We should go to a tarmac like Jeddah.”
GPDA Chairman George Russell concurred that “they need to do something, as one it’s a safety issue, and secondly it just does not offer good racing.
“You can’t go side by side with a car, there’s zero grip off-line, it’s like driving in slicks in the wet when there’s one dry line. It’s driveable, but depends if you want to offer good racing.”
Race winner Max Verstappen said that “during the race it got worse and worse again”, having been pleasantly surprised by the grip available on the first lap.
“Of course, the racing line has a bit more grip than offline. But I think the difference here is a bit too much in places.”
And all the roads we, the great unwashed, drive on are as perfectly manicured as the greens at The Masters.
This is why F1 is thought of as a collection of Prima Donna’s.