F1 drivers shrug off Red Bull dominance at Miami GP
MIAMI GARDENS, FLA. — Red Bull rolled into the first of Formula One’s three stops in the United States undefeated and its challengers already waving the checkered flag on the championship.
Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez have been so strong through the first four races that rival drivers have openly wondered if any other team will win a race this year.
Boring? That’s the narrative that followed F1 to the Miami Grand Prix, a highly anticipated event a year ago when it debuted now working through a bit of a hangover. With F1 races scheduled later this year for Austin, Texas, and Las Vegas, the early Red Bull dominance has created the perception that F1 will have a snoozer of a season that could dull the growing American interest.
“What if you go to the cinema and after 15 minutes the movie is (crap), but the last hour and a half is amazing?” asked Alpine driver Pierre Gasly. “I don’t think it’s fair to already make such a claim. I think you need to give the season more time.”
The grumbling reached every corner of the paddock last Sunday after a lackluster Azerbaijan Grand Prix, where Red Bull posted its third 1-2 finish of the season. As Perez and Verstappen drove away from the competition, the rest of the field struggled to pass.
Charles Leclerc said Ferrari will do its best to put on a good show Sunday. “I’ll do my best to not make it boring, but at the end it’s a sport,” Leclerc said. “It’s like in every sport, sometimes a team is just better than others and at the moment it’s the case with Red Bull. We are working flat-out ... to try and recover the gap to the Red Bulls.”
There was early promise Friday when George Russell and Lewis Hamilton paced the first practice for Mercedes, while two-time champion Verstappen was fourth-fastest and Perez 11th.
“It’s not boring for me, I’m challenged every single day trying to get back to the front,” said Hamilton, a seven-time F1 champion. “But as a racing fan watching, I can understand because there’s not as much competition as perhaps they are used to with the NFL and NBA. They have tried to bring the teams closer but it never seems to work.”
Russell suggested spectators simply turn their focus to the action behind the Red Bulls. “The competition we’ve got at the moment between Ferrari and Aston Martin, at every race we go to it’s really close between us in qualifying, the pace is really close in the race,” said Russell.
“It’s obviously just a shame that there’s two more cars well out in front. So forget about those two and just watch the race for P3. It may be a bit more exciting.”
Return to Miami
The inaugural Miami Grand Prix was one of the hottest tickets in sports a year ago. Former first lady Michelle Obama was among those who came out to see the cars and stars and the fake marina.
Although F1 has said it expects 270,000 spectators over this week’s event, seats that sold for thousands of dollars last year can be found for about $300 on the secondary market. An additional 6,000 seats were added this year.