Formula 1, owing to the increasing popularity of the sport, especially in the American subcontinent, introduced a second venue in the country. The Miami Grand Prix was announced as the newest entry to the 2022 calendar. The Miami GP quickly became the talk of the town. The talk of the town also had to live up to the very high expectations. However, not only did the organizers fail to please the fans, but they also received complaints from the drivers.

There were high expectations from the city in South Florida, especially for its reputation of being a party town. The lavish opening party to build up race weekend definitely lived up to the billing. However, the organizers forgot to pay attention to the core experience of the weekend. Let us tell you about these problems in a little more detail.

What were the controversies with the F1 Miami GP?

Without fans, there is no revenue, there is no engagement, there is popularity and there is no sport. The more passionate the fans are, the more successful the sport is. This is the case around the globe with every sport and everyone knows you have got to keep the fans happy. This was the first misstep of the organizers of the Miami GP.

The organizers did not fulfill their duties to the fans in various aspects, as reported by DailyMail. There wasn’t proper seating, fans did not appreciate the 20-minute walk in the soaring sun from the parking lot to the track. There was ambiguity and difficulty in finding the seating. The faux Monaco GP aura with imported sand and yachts on blue-painted concrete also did not quite cut it. In fact, it was mocked all over social media and fell quite short of expectations.

Couple that with extremely high ticket prices, as much as $30,000 for the VIP club and $800 for the cheapest general admission, and the fans felt disappointed, to say the least. In fact, the ticket prices saw a hike after the first batch was cooped up by ticket gouging sites. This increased the prices of the back row tickets to $2,200 by secondary sites.

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Around the race weekend, hotel prices in and around the city also skyrocketed. These added costs without the experience were a major blow to the inaugural Miami GP. The fans were left disheartened and disappointed and definitely without feeling the “luxuries” of the luxury sport.

However, it wasn’t just the fans that were disappointed by the inaugural Miami GP. The drivers had their fair share of complaints as well.

What were the drivers’ complaints from the track in Miami?

Apart from the fans, the drivers also criticized Miami Circuit. The drivers communicated various complaints about the track throughout the weekend. The drivers had plenty of concerns about the track layout and safety as well.

For starters, most drivers did not like the tight and technical section around the Turn 14/15 chicane. In fact, race-winner Max Verstappen believed the chicane was too congested for a modern F1 car. His main rival Lewis Hamilton compared the track to a B&Q car park. Both Carlos Sainz and Esteban Ocon hit the barriers on the aforementioned corner. In fact, Sergio Perez labeled the track a “joke” after the initial few sessions.

These comments from the drivers embarrassed the track designer Clive Bowen who created the track in conjunction with FIA and F1 engineer Craig Wilson. Bowen told the media, “Actually, it was embarrassment on my part personally because there’s a lot of time invested in getting this right. There’s professional pride involved, isn’t there?”

“There was a lot of research undertaken. We didn’t go off-piste, it was conventional thinking, it was conventional engineering. And you’ve got to remind yourself that first races at venues often have this happen,” he added.

Bowen mentioned how Instanbul, Singapore, and even COTA experienced similar criticism. Every track takes time to mature and Bowen is confident the Miami track will experience a similar fate. In fact, the designer condensed the track will undergo some modifications and there will be conditioning beforehand, something they did not do in 2022.

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Despite all the criticism, the race in Miami was one of the best in terms of overtaking opportunities. The track produced 45 overtakes during the race, a number that is second to only Bahrain’s 58 overtakes.

It will be interesting to see if the revamping of the track works and if we will see more overtaking in 2023.