Grand Prix thread CRYPTO.COM MIAMI GRAND PRIX 2024 - Sprint Weekend

'****'
lol

 

Hope that's the first of many for him. Always makes me smile.

 

Brilliant by Lando, and what a job McLaren have done too. Dead chuffed for him (though feel a bit sorry for Oscar having his race rather spoiled in that incident with Sainz).

Hopefully they can carry on taking the fight to RBR along with Ferrari now.

 

****e race, but who cares really. A great story.

Lando has deserved this for three years. Delighted for him

Imola will be really interesting now. Is it a one off bad day for RBR or is the McLaren really this quick? Ferrari are supposed to have a big upgrade there as well

 

Yessss get in Lando!

Those upgrades looked very tasty on Friday but crucially they are also all about tyre management on Sundays too- real potential for McLaren to unlock now!

Ferrari bringing a chunky one to Imola too - here’s hoping we’ve got a season on our hands, but fully acknowledge Max and RBR are the benchmark and we’re on the back foot with tyre set up all weekend.

Heres hoping we have some great races ahead!

 

ched99uk picks the winner yet again !!

Congrats,ched and well done.

 

As fun as that was we all need to face the reality that if not for a safety car and the timing of covering le clercs pit stop vertsappen wins that one easy.

He was in control there and nobody could pass really so like for like red bull are still quicker.

 

I missed all of this because with Verstappen on pole I did not see a race happening

Pleased for Lando and McClaren but more to the point does this show that if Verstappen is not in the FASTEST car and not on POLE he is not a winner

 

Not strictly true

https://www.statsf1.com/en/statistiques/pilote/victoire/detail-max-verstappen--sans-pole.aspx

 

so he had some luck .It happens .

There is a possibility that Max might win all the next races , but he might not .

However ,the fact remains Lando DID WIN .

and that , for today , is good enough for me

 

I do think Lando was lucky with the safety car but Max was right behind him on the restart and Lando pulled out something like 8 seconds from Max!
I do think the McL upgrades have closed the gap to Red Bull but I think they have their own big upgrade coming very soon!

 

Which was due to tyres.

The brat made out he had damage from perez who didn't look like he touched the guy. Ego could take being driven away from

We saw le clerc not make an impact either who pitted before verstappen.

In the end quali performance plus performance in the race pre safety car doesn't say that that gap is closed

However it does say that ferrari have got to get worried.

I really don't see the red bull having huge time from upgrades at this point. They are scraping round the margins for performance. I'd hope that within a few more races it will close right up, maybe after summer.

 

We didn't see the full pace of the McLaren in the first stint. Piastri didn't have all the upgrades (plus is usually slower than Lando in the race anyway) and Norris was bottled up behind Perez.

When he did get free air in the last couple of laps before the safety car, Norris was immediately quicker on old mediums than Max, even after max pitted for fresh hards.

Without the SC, he was still looking very good to extend that stint then come out right behind the leading group on much better tyres. Difficult to overtake of course, but the pace to win was there.

 

I do wonder how much the bollard played in slowing Max down. Was there damage to the floor after that excursion?

 

Yes apparently so.

That would make sense as Lando was pulling away from Max on like 25 lap old mediums with Max new hards, which just wouldn’t happen.

Dont get me wrong - McLaren were quick, but not that quick haha.

However, on the flip side, Miami on paper is one of Maccas worst tracks.

Key takeaways for me is that McLaren have improved their DRS and top speed, and potentially improved tyre management on race days. They ended up going higher downforce with Lando on Sunday but there is more straight line speed available than we saw in the race- as well demonstrated by Piastri defending from Ferrari very well indeed.


Imola is fascinating - it should suit McLaren well, we know Red Bull will be incredibly fast, and just to spice it up we see a Ferrari upgrade package too.

 

I would like to know who decided to build the equivalent of Monaco in miami.

New track.

I've a great idea, let's make it almost impossible to pass.

 

I think it was Ted on sky sport said that Verstappen did have floor damage and that there was a hole in it.