Along with Imola, this race has to go down as one of Verstappen’s greatest victories. In the trickiest of conditions, no driver was perfect, but Verstappen made the least mistakes, in a car that seldom appeared the fastest.
2. George Russell-
George may have made a few mistakes throughout the race, but it was still a fabulous performance. In a track that his teammate has often excelled at, George once again proved that he is currently the fastest and most reliable Mercedes driver, to duly deliver his team their first podium of the year.
3. Alexander Albon-
Whilst a late spin from Sainz took Albon out of the race, he reminded everyone the fighter he is with his performance throughout the race. In particular, his double overtake on Ricciardo and Ocon, where he slipped through the tiniest gap in the middle of the two cars, was sublime.
4. Daniel Ricciardo-
After justified criticism from Jacques Villeneuve, Daniel decided to show up this week, qualifying in fifth and finishing the race in eighth, despite a jump start penalty. It was a solid performance and if Daniel can keep these up, he will justify why he should stay in Formula One.
5. Alpine-
I’m breaking my rules again and giving half a point to each of the Alpine drivers. Esteban Ocon drove from the back of the grid into the points, which is always worth a shout out and Pierre Gasly also delivered a points finish. Despite a post-race controversy about a controversial driver swap at the end of the race, both drivers showed their talents still shine through in a bad car.
I have collated the fastest laps by each driver in qualifying, to show the average gap to the fastest driver. Whilst this extends the gap between drivers who made it to the top ten and those below, I’ve ruled using the overall fastest times a better grounding point for the true limit of the top cars, as the cars most likely to compete for points are my primary focus in these analyses.
Qualifying Pace-
Additionally, I have collected the data for the gaps between teammates. I did this by using their lap times set in the same qualifying session. I generally compare the last session both drivers competed in, however if the fastest driver their fastest time in earlier sessions, I count these instead.
Race Pace-
I have calculated the average pace of the drivers, removing the first laps, laps in the pit lane and laps under the safety car as these are all too slow to be representative. Additionally, I removed any laps with major errors I noticed, such as when Perez or Hamilton crossed the gravel trap in Imola. I have only included drivers that completed at least 75% of the laps to not skew the season averages against drivers that never got the chance to run their cars on low fuel.
As different drivers have a varying number of race stints, this skews the overall pace. Generally, if a driver makes more stops, their pace will be faster on average. This will be considered in my final thoughts and analysis. Additionally, the average pace per stint and number of stints are recorded at the bottom of this article, for those interested in viewing more precise estimates of pace relative to other drivers on the same stint.[1]
Analysis:
Pace was generally quite similar between the top three drivers, who all were fastest at some point in the race. Whilst the track did not suit Ferrari, their upgrades appear to have put them in the fight with Red Bull, as well as McLaren’s upgrades nearly delivering another win to Lando Norris.
Aston’s upgrades have not appeared to correlate very well and at present, their pace is similar to the lower midfield. This could be a very bad sign for their season, as upgrades not correlating was the cause of their downfall last season. If they don’t get a handle on their development, they may start to be regularly beaten by the likes of RB and Haas.
Several teams ran terrible strategies, stopping their drivers onto hard tyres incredibly early, failing to account for high tyre degradation. These drivers tended to deliver slower second stints than their initial stints, a rarity in the post-refuelling era.
Haas in particular, made a mistake when they reacted to Tsunoda’s early stop with Hulkenberg. If Hulkenberg had copied Magnussen’s strategy and stopped later he could have banked a ninth place, as he would have been able to overtake Tsunoda on newer tyres and would have covered off Stroll’s ability to overtake him. Magnussen finished less than two seconds behind Hulkenberg on this strategy, when he started in eighteenth.
Albon’s pace seems to have been bolstered by his retirement, due to the suboptimal strategies of other drivers, as usually if a driver retires, their pace is relatively worse.
Further Resources-
Qualifying Pace:
Driver
Fastest Qualifying Time
Max Verstappen
74.746 (0%)
Oscar Piastri
74.82 (+0.099%)
Lando Norris
74.837 (+0.122%)
Charles Leclerc
74.97 (+0.300%)
Carlos Sainz
75.233 (+0.652%)
George Russell
75.234 (+0.653%)
Yuki Tsunoda
75.358 (+0.819%)
Lewis Hamilton
75.504 (+1.014%)
Nico Hulkenberg
75.569 (+1.101%)
Daniel Ricciardo
75.674 (+1.242%)
Sergio Perez
75.706 (+1.284%)
Esteban Ocon
75.906 (+1.552%)
Lance Stroll
75.992 (+1.667%)
Pierre Gasly
76.015 (+1.698%)
Alexander Albon
76.2 (+1.945%)
Valtteri Bottas
76.626 (+2.515%)
Zhou Guanyu
76.834 (+2.793%)
Kevin Magnussen
76.854 (+2.820%)
Fernando Alonso
76.917 (+2.905%)
Average Race Pace:
Driver
Pace
Lando Norris
80.857 (0%)
Max Verstappen
80.876 (+0.024%)
Charles Leclerc
80.959 (+0.127%)
Oscar Piastri
81.07 (+0.263%)
George Russell
81.121 (+0.326%)
Carlos Sainz
81.199 (+0.423%)
Lewis Hamilton
81.31 (+0.560%)
Sergio Perez
81.578 (+0.891%)
Lance Stroll
82.078 (+1.510%)
Alexander Albon
82.078 (+1.510%)
Fernando Alonso
82.289 (+1.771%)
Pierre Gasly
82.434 (+1.950%)
Yuki Tsunoda
82.449 (+1.969%)
Kevin Magnussen
82.46 (+1.982%)
Nico Hulkenberg
82.55 (+2.094%)
Daniel Ricciardo
82.571 (+2.120%)
Zhou Guanyu
82.759 (+2.353%)
Logan Sargeant
82.81 (+2.416%)
Esteban Ocon
82.81 (+2.416%)
Valtteri Bottas
82.987 (+2.634%)
All Stints:
Best Stints
Pace
Russell 3rd (10L/UM)
79.934
Perez 2nd (25L/NM)
80.49
Norris 2nd (40L/UH)
80.612
Leclerc 2nd (37L/NH)
80.659
Verstappen 2nd (38L/NH)
80.723
Piastri 2nd (39L/UH)
80.779
Sainz 2nd (35L/NH)
80.91
Hamilton 2nd (35L/NH)
80.992
Verstappen 1st (22L/NM)
81.14
Russell 2nd (28L/NH)
81.156
Stroll 2nd (25L/UH)
81.276
Norris 1st (20L/NM)
81.348
Leclerc 1st (23L/NM)
81.412
Alonso 3rd (17L/UM)
81.492
Sainz 1st (25L/NM)
81.604
Piastri 1st (21L/NM)
81.609
Russell 1st (19L/NM)
81.692
Magnussen 2nd (24L/NH)
81.727
Hamilton 1st (24L/NM)
81.774
Albon 5th (21L/UM)
81.788
Albon 3rd (12L/NH)
82.007
Hulkenberg 1st (11L/NM)
82.256
Tsunoda 1st (10L/NM)
82.259
Gasly 2nd (20L/NH)
82.331
Sargeant 2nd (30L/NM)
82.35
Perez 1st (34L/NH)
82.378
Ricciardo 1st (9L/NM)
82.386
Zhou 2nd (28L/NM)
82.415
Gasly 3rd (31L/NM)
82.455
Tsunoda 2nd (49L/NH)
82.488
Ricciardo 2nd (50L/NH)
82.604
Albon 1st (8L/NM)
82.612
Hulkenberg 2nd (48L/NH)
82.617
Alonso 2nd (31L/UH)
82.626
Stroll 1st (35L/UM)
82.651
Gasly 1st (6L/NS)
82.666
Ocon 2nd (36L/NH)
82.745
Bottas 1st (6L/NM)
82.825
Ocon 1st (23L/NM)
82.912
Magnussen 1st (35L/NM)
82.962
Bottas 2nd (53L/NH)
83.005
Zhou 1st (31L/NH)
83.071
Alonso 1st (5L/NS)
83.145
Sargeant 1st (29L/NH)
83.286
Key: 1L= One Lap, 2L= Two Laps, NH= New Hards, UM= Used Mediums, NM= New Mediums, NS= New Softs
[1] I only include stints in the stint table if a driver has completed five or more representative laps, in an attempt to avoid fastest lap attempts. This has led to exclusions from the chart of Alonso’s fourth stint and Albon’s second and fourth stints.
Fantastic pace in the upgraded McLaren, combined with a well-timed safety car, earned Lando Norris his long-deserved first win. He managed the race perfectly and whilst some may argue that he got lucky, Lando wouldn’t be the first F1 driver to take his first win with the help of luck and doubtless he will achieve many more wins.
2. Oscar Piastri-
Oscar showed great race craft and pace through the first half of the race, even without all of the upgrades that Lando received, to be running second for a long time. His pace comparable to Verstappen was solid and whilst an unlucky collision with Sainz lost Oscar his chance of points, he showed off his potential this weekend.
3. Yuki Tsunoda-
Whilst more headlines were focused on Ricciardo’s fantastic fourth place in the sprint, it was Yuki who delivered during the race itself. Managing to comprehensively outpace George Russell in a theoretically slower car in the final stint, Yuki took a well-deserved seventh place and continues to cement his place as one of F1’s most consistent performers.
4. Esteban Ocon-
Like in China, Ocon had a fantastic performance in Miami, this time earning him (and Alpine) their first points of the season. Alpine look to be slowly moving up the grid as this season progresses and this week they seemed clearly ahead of Sauber and Williams, hinting that their long-term plan is starting to pay off.
5. Kevin Magnussen-
I never defined what a ‘star-driver’ was. For most, Kevin Magnussen caused absolute chaos in Miami, fighting beyond the limit in the sprint and causing a collision in the race. From my perspective however, Kevin was responsible for all of the entertainment this weekend. Without him, we would have had a boring sprint and may not have received a new winner. So Kevin is quickly becoming my problematic fave, hence his inclusion.
Once again, Max dominated. He drove away from the field and had a pace advantage over everyone else. There’s little else to say, his performance was next to perfect, as it is every weekend.
2. Sergio Perez-
Whilst his teammate still dominated, Sergio Perez also had a fantastic weekend. On a track he has struggled at in the past, he nearly matched Max in qualifying. Whilst missing his chances to pass Max at the start and win the race, Sergio still delivered fantastic pace and audacious overtakes to ensure that Red Bull achieved their third 1-2 of the season.
3. Carlos Sainz-
Carlos once again proved the stronger Ferrari driver over the weekend. He maximized his good starting position to continue his 100% podium rate this season.[1] People are already starting to question why Ferrari made the call to replace Carlos, he is clearly one of the best drivers in F1. After spending years being underrated, it appears that F1 fans, teams and casual spectators are waking up to this fact. Ferrari currently have the best line-up in F1, let’s hope they don’t lose it.
4. Charles Leclerc-
Whilst not having the best qualifying performance, Charles more than made up for it in the race. Charles and Ferrari executed a fantastic one-stop strategy that no other driver could make work. Charles’ ability to post consistent lap times with minimal degradation (even compared to his own teammate) show that he is maximizing that Ferrari in the races. Once he has improved his qualifying, Charles could be unstoppable this season.
5. Yuki Tsunoda-
Last, but definitely not least, is the home hero Yuki Tsunoda. He was able to beat his teammate in qualifying, run a sublime strategy in the race and finish in front of an Aston Martin to get the last point on the table. His attitude is amazing, he puts the team before himself and combined with Perez’s strong performances, he has guaranteed that Daniel Ricciardo will never drive a Red Bull again. Getting a point at home clearly meant so much to Yuki and as someone who remembers his first year, when he was consistently outqualified by Pierre Gasly and swore too much on the radio, it has been a pleasure to see Yuki grow into one of F1’s most solid performers.
Ryan's Lil' F1 Blog 