Mario Isola: Tires played an important role

Not everyone managed to find a way to work with rubber in Miami and the conditions were constantly changing, so the tire factor again became one of the most important factors.

Mario IsolPirelli: “The race in Miami was tight, with Red Bull Racing taking their fifth win in a row since the start of the season, and Pirelli tires playing an important part in the fight between Max Verstappen and Sergio Pérez, with teammates taking different tires had choices, starting from pole Pérez predictably opted for Medium, while Verstappen, who started ninth, opted for Hard.

At the finish, Verstappen was five seconds ahead of Perez – the series of line-ups brought to Miami allowed for different strategies to be used, which proved to be quite close in terms of race times. It is no coincidence that seven out of ten teams chose to distribute the strategy among their riders.

The Hard tires showed little to no wear, allowing riders to battle them hard to the end of long and intense stretches. This was well demonstrated by Verstappen, who completed 45 laps on Hard and made a lot of overtaking before switching to Medium.

The Medium tires also performed well, and granulation was not as deterrent as expected, especially after an overnight rainstorm. For example, Fernando Alonso’s long opening lap of 24 laps on Medium was key to his fourth podium finish in five races.”