STRATEGY: Pirelli expects one-stop strategy despite softer compounds
Despite having brought softer compounds to this year's Miami Grand Prix, Formula One's sole tyre manufacturer Pirelli expects drivers to base their approach around a one-stop strategy.
McLaren scored a one-two finish in the Miami F1 Sprint, with Lando Norris ahead of Oscar Piastri, while Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton completed the podium trio. This was the English McLaren driver’s second win in a Sprint, the fourth for the Woking squad.
The 100km dash was conditioned by heavy rain that fell before the start, while later the track surface pretty quickly dried out. It produced a race where the Intermediate tyres were used for two thirds distance, although Williams driver Calors Sainz gambled on extreme wets at the start, but a red flag and the delayed restart saw him also switch to the green-banded intermediates, followed later by slicks.
Of the eighteen drivers who saw the chequered flag – Ferrari's Charles Leclerc failed to start due to his heavy crash on the sighting lap while Fernando Alonso ended up in the barriers – four of them, Norris, Lewis Hamilton, Verstappen and Jack Doohan, drove their final stint on Softs while the rest ran Mediums.
Commenting on the sprint race, Pirelli's motorsport director Mario Isola noted: "The Sprint was also action-packed, mainly due to the weather. The heavy rain that fell before the start meant that the Intermediate was the only choice. Once a dry racing line began to appear, these tyres started to wear a lot, especially the front right and the lap times got significantly slower.
"The switch to slicks immediately proved to be the way to go, to the extent that eventually the entire field pitted for dry tyres, including those at the front who had built up a good margin over their pursuers.
Nail-biting qualifyingIt was a day of extremes for Max Verstappen. The Dutchman was classified last in the Sprint race because of a penalty for an error that was not really his fault. However, he then went on to set the fastest time in qualifying, beating the McLaren of Lando Norris and the Mercedes of Andrea Kimi Antonelli.
Verstappen, who has just become a father to baby Lilly, took his third pole of the season, with his best time of 1’26”204 having become a new outright lap record for the Miami International Autodrome circuit.
McLaren’s Lando Norris will start alongside Verstappen, securing his place on the front row with a time just two thousandths of a second quicker than Andrea Kimi Antonelli, third for Mercedes in 1’26”271. Current leader of the Drivers’ championship, Oscar Piastri is fourth in 1’26”375 in the other McLaren.
As for the tyres, the C5 was the only tyre used in qualifying, with almost all drivers making their first run in Q1 on a used set. The set that had seen the most action belonged to Verstappen, the reigning world champion using it in FP1 and in the closing stages of the Sprint.
Pirelli brought a tyre selection that was a step softer than in the previous season, with the C3 serving as the Hard, the C4 as the Medium and the C5 as the Soft compound. Despite the softer selection, the Milan-based manufacturer expects drivers to pursue a one-stop strategy at today's Miami Grand Prix.
"If the race is run in the dry, the small amount of data gathered yesterday and today, with just one free practice session and the Sprint run almost entirely in the wet, only serves to consolidate the strategy forecasts from before the weekend.
"Despite the move to a trio of compounds one step softer than in 2024, the one stop is on paper, the quickest, with Medium and Hard as the obvious choices.
"Nine of the ten teams – Racing Bulls being the exception – have kept two sets of C3 per driver, not necessarily with the intention of using both in the race, but to have a backup in case of safety cars or red flags, something which is far from unlikely at this track," noted Isola.
