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On Friday, the F1 drivers got their first taste of driving at the Miami International Autodrome in FP1 and FP2 ahead of the inaugural Miami Grand Prix. While the atmosphere is absolutely infectious, several drivers have revealed that real "racing" will be bad due to the lack of grip.
In a media interaction after the session, Sergio Perez, who suffered a dramatic spin at Turn 8, claimed that it will prove to be a very difficult track to go racing on over the rest of the F1 weekend:
“It’s really disappointing that there’s no grip off-line, racing will be bad because of that. As soon as you go off-line, there is no grip, it’s done. It’s sometimes wet on that side and sometimes off-line, it feels very gravelly so racing will be hard.”
In line with what Perez had to say, McLaren's Lando Norris admitted that the track is not as smooth as expected by many, emphasizing once again that the it is "game over" if a driver goes off-line:
"It’s very bumpy in some places, which we were not expecting. I think everyone was expecting it to be very smooth and beautiful. But it’s not. The surface is very tricky, you go off-line anywhere and it’s pretty much game over, you spin, you end up in the wall. It’s punishing. That’s why you’ve seen a lot of people ending up in the barriers. If you go off-line, it’s just terrible. I’m hoping they can do something a little bit better. I don’t know what."
“When they clean the track, it helps, like this morning there was a lot of marbles and stuff and as soon as you went off-line it was game over. In FP2 it started better but then as soon as there was a little bit of marbles, it was terrible. It’s not going to be great for racing. It’s like one line you’ve got to stick to and that’s it. It’s restricting, you can’t do many differences compared to other people, so it limits you a little bit."
Carlos Sainz and Valtteri Bottas brought out red flags after crashing into the barriers as a result of these issues.
Despite the challenges, F1 championship leader claims the Miami track is "really nice to drive”
The 2022 F1 championship leader Charles Leclerc as well as AlphaTauri's Yuki Tsunoda also revealed that the track is challenging and that overtaking is expected to be very difficult. However, the Ferrari driver revealed that while there is no doubt about the challenges concerning the track, it is certainly nice to drive.
Describing his expectations from the upcoming race, Leclerc said:
"The asphalt will spice things up. There is very high grip on the racing line and very low grip off it, which will make it difficult to overtake. It is also rather aggressive on tyres, so it will be important to manage them well throughout the race."
Leclerc finished the first practice session at the top of the leaderboard, while George Russell took his place in FP2.
