There were a lot of concerns about the track surface at the Chinese Grand Prix, but drivers seemed to be having even more difficulties at the Miami Grand Prix.
The circuit is difficult to overtake on at the best of times, but a lack of grip made qualifying at the Miami Grand Prix even more complicated with only one practice session under their belt during the weekend.
Commentating on qualifying for Channel 4, former F1 race winner David Coulthard was particularly worried about one driver during the final part of qualifying.
Unsurprisingly, Max Verstappen was once again on pole position although he was slightly surprised that an untidy second lap in Q3 was enough to maintain his 100% record of starting at the front of the grid during every Grand Prix.
What he didn’t know is all of his rivals struggled to improve on their lap times in their final runs as well, with Mercedes and McLaren both trying new tyre compounds to see if they could catch up to Red Bull or Ferrari.
David Coulthard was watching on board with Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton in Miami as he struggled to keep his car pointing in the right direction.
The seven-time world champion had an eventful Sprint Race on Saturday, missing out on points due to a drive-through penalty for speeding in the pit lane.
He’s put himself in a stronger position to score points in Sunday’s Grand Prix albeit he’s still nowhere near where he’d want to be compared to Verstappen.
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David Coulthard says Lewis Hamilton looked ‘all at sea’ during Miami Grand Prix weekend
After missing out on the top ten shootout for the Sprint Race, the 39-year-old launched a daring move down the inside of turn one to try and make up some positions.
He played his part in the contact between both Aston Martins and Lando Norris colliding but somehow came out of the clash unscathed.
That led to a fierce battle with Kevin Magnussen that saw the Dane pick up several penalties and three penalty points on his license.
When he finally got past the 31-year-old, he had to find a way past Yuki Tsunoda which he did so on the final lap, but at that point, he had already been handed a penalty for speeding in the pit lane that ended his chances of scoring points.
Coulthard was watching Hamilton in qualifying closely but his car simply couldn’t cope with the levels of grip in Miami.
He’s not alone in his complaints, with Alex Albon suggesting his tyres were only lasting six corners before being unusable, as his inability to negotiate the last hairpin in Q2 demonstrated.
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Watching Hamilton’s final run in Miami qualifying, Coulthard said: “Well that’s Lewis Hamilton practising for his post-Formula 1 drifting career and yeah it’s absolutely clear to everyone that the car is just not generating the grip.
“He’s driving as clean as he can, look, he’s turned in to turn 16 and immediately had to turn away, yeah he’s all at sea with a lack of balance.”
It’s going to be interesting to see what strategy Mercedes use for Sunday’s race with both of their drivers lining up on the fourth row of the grid.
They could take a risk and split their strategies and Yuki Tsunoda and Logan Sargeant showed during the Sprint Race that the soft tyre is incredibly effective off the grid.
However, if there was anything that could be learned from Saturday’s Sprint Race, it’s that the first corner could bring an end to a driver’s race regardless of strategy.
The drivers who started 7 and 8 in the Sprint Race – Lance Stroll and Fernando Alonso – both had their races ruined during the first lap, in part thanks to Hamilton.
The British pair will hope for a much cleaner getaway this time around.
The post ‘He’s all at sea’: David Coulthard says ‘drifting’ F1 star was really struggling during Miami GP weekend appeared first on F1 Oversteer.
