Oracle Red Bull Racing driver Max Verstappen celebrates winning the 2023 Miami GP as he holds the first place trophy on the podium. Photo: PHOTOSPORT
Red Bull's Max Verstappen can complete a hat-trick of Miami Grand Prix victories on Sunday but the announced departure of his team's star designer Adrian Newey is the big talking point going into the weekend.
The sixth round of the season was, for the second weekend in a row, run to the sprint format with only one practice session and a 100km race on Saturday before qualifying for the main event.
Verstappen won the first sprint in China last month and arrived in Florida with four wins from five races and a 25-point lead over team mate Sergio Perez.
The Dutch 26-year-old won the first race around the Hard Rock Stadium in 2022 and then again from ninth last May, a big blow for Perez after the Mexican started on pole with a chance to take the overall lead and ended up second.
"It should normally be a good race for us," Verstappen said after winning in Shanghai.
"It's normally a little bit more straightforward with the strategy, but it's always quite a difficult track, you know, so I'm excited. It's always quite a crazy weekend there, so it's going to be quite a busy one."
Verstappen had started all five races this season from pole position, making him the only driver this century to achieve that feat. French great Alain Prost, with Williams in 1993, was the last driver to take the first six poles of a season.
Versatappen was also on a run of six successive wins in the United States.
In a blow to Red Bull away from the track, the team confirmed on Wednesday that Newey, the sport's highest-rated and multiple title-winning designer, would be leaving next year.
Red Bull said the 65-year-old would step back from Formula One design duties but would continue to attend specific races until the end of the current season.
McLaren, who had Lando Norris finish second in China, and Ferrari were likely to be battling for best of the rest in Miami but Mercedes were bringing a big upgrade for Lewis Hamilton and George Russell.
"Our challenge will be to make sure we don't try and replay China at a Miami that is a very, very different beast and wants different things from the car than China will," Mercedes technical director James Allison said last week.
"We definitely learnt during this weekend (in Shanghai) that if you're going to be ambitious, be ambitious in the sprint race and then tune it down for the main race rather than the opposite way around."
Seven times world champion Hamilton was second in the sprint but then qualified only 18th for the main race and finished ninth.
Logan Sargeant, at Williams, is the only local driver in the race with his team still searching for their first point of the campaign.
Renault-owned Alpine and Swiss-based Sauber are also yet to open their accounts.
Max Verstappen driving the number 1 Oracle Red Bull Racing car pulls out of his garage during a practice session at 2023 Miami Grand Prix. Photo: PHOTOSPORT
Statistics for the Miami Grand Prix at the Hard Rock Stadium, round six of the 24-race Formula One championship:
Lap distance: 5.412km. Total distance: 308.326km (57 laps)
2023 pole position: Sergio Perez (Mexico) Red Bull One minute, 26.841 seconds
2023 winner: Max Verstappen (Netherlands) Red Bull
Lap record: Verstappen 1:29.708 (2023)
Start time: 2000 GMT (1600 local)
Miami
The race was the third to be held in Miami and Verstappen won the previous two in 2022 and 2023.
Miami was also the first of three US rounds on the calendar, with Austin and Las Vegas, and was being held in the sprint format for the first time.
The Hard Rock Stadium was usually home to the Miami Dolphins NFL team. The temporary street circuit has three straights and 19 corners, with cars reaching top speeds of 340km/h.
A one-stop strategy was generally the favoured approach, with most going from medium to hard tyres.
Last year the track temperature hit 55C.
Championship lead
Verstappen has led the championship for a record 44 successive races dating back to Spain in May 2022 and arrived in Miami 25 points clear of Red Bull team mate Sergio Perez and 34 ahead of Ferrari's Charles Leclerc.
Red Bull were 44 points clear of Ferrari.
Sprint
Miami hosted the second of the season's six sprint weekends, with just one practice session on Friday.
Verstappen won the season's first in China and Red Bull won five of six sprints last year.
Wins
Verstappen had won four of five races this season, with Ferrari's Carlos Sainz triumphant in Australia.
Sainz was the only driver to have beaten Red Bull since 2022.
Hamilton had a record 103 career victories from 337 starts but is chasing his first since 2021 - a run of 50 races without a win.
Red Bull won 21 of 22 races last year, with Verstappen victorious in a record 19, and had won 35 of the last 38.
The team had won 117 races and were fourth in the all-time list of winners. Ferrari lead with 244, McLaren had 183 and Mercedes 125.
Verstappen had won 58 grands prix and was third on the all-time list. Michael Schumacher was second on 91.
Pole position
Hamilton had a record 104 career poles, his most recent in Hungary last year.
Verstappen was the first driver this century to take the first five poles of a season. Another on Saturday would be his seventh in a row, including the last race of 2023.
The last driver to take pole in the first five races was Mika Hakkinen with McLaren in 1999. The last to take the first six poles of a season was Alain Prost with Williams in 1993.
Podiums
Verstappen had 102 career podiums, Hamilton 197.
The Red Bull driver set a record of 21 podiums in a season last year but Michael Schumacher remains the only driver to have stood on the podium in every race of a season (2002).
Milestone
Ferrari were starting a new title partnership with HP and will have a special Miami livery this weekend.
- Reuters