TRACKSIDE VIEW
The view hides the delight to come. Basically underneath a sprawling grandstand, the end of the Miami International Autodromo unfurls before us. Across the track, screens hide the back straight’s end, where the drivers arrive at 200mph. Thus, you hear them first – before they burst out at Turn 17’s apex. It’s a low-key setting on the Formula 1 calendar, but we’re not going to be moving for FP1’S duration. There’s simply too much to see.
First up, line variety piques our interest. Oscar Piastri and Lewis Hamilton are going deep past the apex, then sweeping left late and so hugging the wall beneath our feet. On the two times he comes by before a spin at the other end of the track’s main straight caps his session, Charles Leclerc is much tighter – bouncing on the kerbs, his SF-24 oscillating wildly as it’s pushed unexpectedly wide. Yuki Tsunoda bounds between the two lines – one lap very deep, the next tighter towards the kerbs. But no matter what, his RB is snapping as the power comes down, requiring urgent corrections. The Williams and Alpine drivers are consistent in between the two extremes, as is Carlos Sainz in the sole remaining Ferrari and George Russell, too. Lando Norris is going regularly even wider than Piastri.
“In a class of one is Fernando Alonso. He’s on the wide line from the off”
The challenge here is twofold. First, the drivers must use the massive traction factor to heat their tyres ahead of flying laps on the tricky surface, but not overdo it and so find the overheating limit that’s tripping the teams up so easily this year. A change in the conditions sums up the scale of this dark-art task, as a brief spell of cloud cover interrupts the blazing sun with 25 minutes left. When it moves on, Nico Hulkenberg leads a small train of drivers deep and nearly into the vast run-off area far to our left.
Max Verstappen has a surprisingly tricky time here. Twice he ends up sailing into the run-off – his left-front locking briefly. Then, on what will be the lap that nets him FP1’S top spot, he’s unsettled by Lance Stroll’s Aston Martin coming through Turn 17 a few seconds ahead and so misses the apex and must run deep towards the wall. But Verstappen still ends up quickest because – unlike Sergio
Perez – he can chuck the RB20 in and live with a lively rear, without needing the steering snaps that rob his team-mate of momentum.
In a class of one is Fernando Alonso. He’s on the wide line from the off, but simply gets closer to the wall than any of his rivals. As Tsunoda and co tidy things up, Alonso’s more perilous line means the thrills keep coming. But he’s seemingly in command, bar one snap that lights his rears and has him stepping off the gas to avoid spinning. Stunning.