F1 Miami GP live updates (2024)

Max Verstappen won the 2023 Miami Grand Prix on Sunday to extend his lead in the F1 Drivers World Championship.

Sergio Pérez, who started in pole position, finished second. Fernando Alonso came third. Full results.

Our three reporters are headed back to their hotels and, soon, back home after a great week in Miami. Thanks for following along. We'll see you back here tomorrow and all week – there's plenty more to say about Miami and the upcoming European schedule.

In the meantime, be sure to subscribe to our new bi-weekly F1 newsletter here!

Baku features so few overtakes that F1's shortening of DRS zones became a talking point heading into Miami. Earlier in the week, the FIA shortened two zones. But the race action seemed to pick up a little on Sunday, and Fernando Alonso didn't think DRS was an issue.

"(There was) plenty of DRS distance and a lot of overtaking," he said. "But then, eventually, you are in the position you deserve. And your car (is at) pace, and there are no more overtakings from that point. But it's not a problem of the rules or the circuit. It's just the nature of Formula 1."

Sergio Pérez was summoned by the stewards after the race for showing up late to the pre-race driver's parade. Reporters asked him about it during the podium presser, which led to a funny exchange.

Pérez: "Basically, my marketing team left it too late. So I need to tell the stewards that it was marketing, I think, (that made me) late for the driver's–"

Verstappen: "He's too busy! He needs more free time."

Alonso: "Like, thirty seconds more."

Max Verstappen started P9 – not where he or race fans are accustomed to seeing the Red Bull driver when the lights go off. And everyone knows the midfield is a scary place to be heading into the first few corners. So, how did Verstappen survive the first few laps to mount his charge?

Patience.

"I mean, just really staying out of trouble in the beginning," Verstappen said. "Because, of course, the people around me, you know, they try to gain positions as quickly as possible. But knowing that, of course, you have a quick car, once it all settles down, you just start to pick them off one by one. And that worked out quite well."

It even sounds like Verstappen had fun back there!

"I had even a three-wide on the on the straights," Verstappen laughed, "which was quite entertaining."

Fernando Alonso's spent the last two weeks offering in-race advice to his younger teammate. Last week, Alonso suggested teammate Lance Stroll change to his brake balance. This week, Alonso lauded Stroll's late-race overtake.

After the Miami GP, Max Verstappen and Alonso shared a laugh about the Aston Martin drivers' in-race relationship.

"You're like a life coach in the race!"

Gasly thinks so.

"I think we were all disappointed with the start in the first four races," Gasly said. "We didn't manage to capitalize on all the opportunities we had, and that's why I think it is good to score with both cars (today). We will obviously want more, want to be fighting with the Mercedes and Ferrari cars ahead of us, and I think today we shall see we are not too far from that."

That was a pretty good answer from the Alpine drivers after their CEO called them to the carpet.

Alpine boss Laurent Rossi told French television on Sunday morning that he expects more from Pierre Gasly and Esteban Ocon, who came into the Miami GP with four points apiece on the season. They responded by turning in two top-ten finishes. Gasly, in particular, started strong before falling prey to Carlos Sainz, Lewis Hamilton, and Charles Leclerc in the final laps.

He blamed it on fuel-saving – "a little annoying," he admitted, but it didn't take away from Alpine's day.

"On one side of it, tough not to get that P6," Gasly said. "On the other, if we fight one Ferrari and one Mercedes so close from the checkered flag, it really shows we made a big step forward this weekend. So got to look at the positive: double-point finish for the team, and hopefully, we can build up from there and close the gap with the four teams ahead of us."

The rookie driver agreed with Lando Norris that the McLaren didn't have the pace as the rest of the midfield caught up to their cars in Miami. But it's worth noting Piatri's tone after the race was a little more positive than his teammate's.

"We didn't understand why this weekend was so poor," Piastri said. "I think in saying that, you know, it's still incredibly tight. Even in Baku, we were sort of just at the front of the, I guess, mid-to-back-of-the-field train behind the top four teams. And this weekend, we were at the back of it, and we didn't understand why we were sort of fluctuating a bit. Hopefully, Imola's a bit better. But yeah, we won't really know, I think, until we get there."

A lot's been made of the track improvements to the Miami International Autodrome. After all, drivers who raced in the debut last year had pretty negative feedback on the track surface and layout.

So far, the returning drivers have given the changes a passing grade. But what about someone who's never raced here before? So The Athletic was among a few media who got a review from McLaren rookie Oscar Piastri.

How's the traffic?

"It's not my favorite traffic, I'll be honest."

Favorite sectors?

"I think the first sector is quite cool with all the high-speed sections. But yeah, the second half (has) really slow, clunky bits. Being in these cars. It's really quite slow and awkward.

Okay, but how about the corners?

"A lot of the corners that was lined and depressed, so you actually can't see half the corners.

Track surface?

"I didn't drive last year, but it looks like it was a million times better than last year. But yes, it was just very low grip, especially off the line.

'So yeah, it's sort of in the middle of my tracklist."

Earlier, we mentioned how resigned Lando Norris seemed to be to his team's backmarker finish in Miami. It was almost as if he knew the McLarens didn't have it in them this weekend. An interesting note from Oscar Piastri after the race seems to confirm that.

"We went into the race with two hard tires to try something a bit different," Piastri told The Athletic. "Because, to be honest, we weren't gonna get to the points on pace today. So yeah, tried something different. Didn't really work."

You'll recall that Aston Martin's Lance Stroll didn't even make it out of Q1 on Saturday. The team tried to advance on one set of tires, but got out-qualified by cars with newer sets.

So Stroll started P18 on Sunday. Once the "DRS train" (as he called it) began, he had a tough time making up much ground and ended up P12.

"The damage was done yesterday," Stroll told The Athletic. "I'm pretty pissed off with my weekend. Just disappointed, wanted more out of it."

When asked about the long pre-race ceremonies in Miami, Russell first gave a diplomatic answer. At first.

"I guess it's the American way of doing things, doing sport. Personally, probably not for me. But you know, that's just my personal opinion."

Was it distracting to wait that long to start driving? Yes, Russell said – not just distracting, but hot.

"We were on the grid for half an hour in all of our overalls in the sun," Russell pointed out. "I don't think there's any other sports in the world that, 30 minutes before you go out to do your business, that you're out there in the sun, all the cameras on you, and making a bit of a show of it. Can appreciate that in the entertainment world, but as I said, we only want the best for the sport. We’re open to changes, but I guess we wouldn’t want to see it every weekend."

Just popped down to Red Bull to speak to Christian Horner - and the trophies are in pride of place.

As one of the most colorful radios on the grid every week, it's never unclear how George Russell feels about his race.

But singing while he passes other cars? That was new. He did it a few times as he passed cars on the way to a P4 finish.

"Really satisfying race for us, I think," he told The Athletic. "Finished P4 on merit. To jump ahead of the Ferraris was really satisfying. Couldn’t have done any more. Today was a more normal day for us after the challenges in qualifying. But of course, still want to at least jump ahead of Aston Martin and close the gap to Red Bull."

It's not an impossible jump – after both Mercedes landed points today, the gap to Aston Martin in second is just nine points.

"We know where we are at the moment. Imola is a new weekend. We’ll have some new bits in the car. Hopefully, they’re positive. It's not going to change the world for us in the short term. But hopefully, it’s a step in the right direction.

It's coming up a lot in their post-race interviews, and they're (for the most part) on the same page: it took too long, there were too many people, and they don't want it to happen every week. Here's just one take from Charles Leclerc.

"I think it could have been organized a bit better, and the time that we have spent there could have been made better. But I think for the fans, it’s always nice to have a different way of introducing us on the grid. So that, I’m not against. The timings need to improve."

As one reporter suggested, it's a long time out in the sun, eh Charles?

"Exactly."

In one corner, the car can oversteer. In the next lap, in the same corner, it can be "oversteery," as Leclerc put it. The car also bottomed out at high speeds, which Leclerc said was not something he'd struggled with on Saturday. Thus, a P7 finish that Leclerc isn't too happy with.

Consistency, he told The Athletic, continues to plague Ferrari.

"We are going from one compound to the other, and we never know what’s going to happen on the new compound," Leclerc said. "It’s always an unknown whether the car is going to react well, whether the tires are going to be in the right window. This is just very difficult also as a driver to gain confidence and to adapt your driving. You get from one set to the other, and the car is completely in a different window."

Asked in the post-race press conference how he feels about the crowd booing him at points today, he said it doesn’t bother him, as long as he’s winning. “I take the trophy home and they go back to their houses and have a nice evening.”

Alonso confirms that during a lonely race, he was watching TV screens on slower corners – that’s how he saw Lance Stroll's nice pass late in the race. Fernando Alonso is better at driving than you.