On the weekend after next (6th to 8th May), Formula 1 will hold a Grand Prix in Miami for the first time. The venue is a 5.41-kilometer track with 19 corners designed by the British company Apex Circuit Design. It is located on the grounds of the Miami Dolphins’ Hard Rock Stadium and is traveled counter-clockwise.
The lap time calculated in the simulator for the Formula 1 cars is 1:35 minutes. The average speed will therefore be over 200 km/h. It is assumed that at least three places on the route can be overtaken. The approach to turn 17 – a left-hand hairpin located at the end of the 1.2-kilometre-long back straight (top speed: 320 km/h) – is considered to be the best overtaking opportunity.
“Racing is at the forefront of our corporate philosophy,” said Charles Metcalfe, designer at Apex Circuit Design, who has been involved with the Miami Grand Prix project from the very beginning. “As a company, our ethos is to challenge all Formula 1 teams, their cars, their race engineers and of course their drivers,” he says.
“To do that, we do a lot of simulation work. It’s about making sure there are different types of curves that accommodate different vehicle set-ups,” explains Metcalfe. The Miami International Autodrome was designed with exactly that in mind.
“The passage from turn 4 to turn 8 is a very fast one with high lateral acceleration forces. It will be difficult to overtake there. The performance of the car out of turn 8 is crucial for the lap time. What follows are two fast corners, namely curve 9 and 10. It’s easy to imagine driving side by side there,” says Metcalfe.
“In the third sector there are slow curves that lead under the entrances to the turnpike (highway with toll; editor’s note). We deliberately designed this sequence to be very technical,” explains the track designer and speaks of “sources of error”. that you installed. As an example, he cites “changing height and grip conditions” in the apexes of the corners in this sector.
What do you expect from it? Position changes on the subsequent straight, “since a team may opt for a setup with more downforce for optimal traction,” says Metcalfe, underlining: “Our goal is to challenge the race engineers and the setup of their vehicles as much as possible.”
“What we want to see are different approaches”
“Basically, it’s a street circuit with some really demanding corners. Normally you would prefer a setup with a lot of downforce. But there are also very long straights and high-speed corners that require a setup with little downforce,” says the designer, describing the compromise , to be entered on the latest track on the Formula 1 calendar.
“What we want to see is a lot of different approaches to make racing as exciting as possible,” notes Metcalfe. The Miami International Autodrome was not only designed with racing in mind, but also with the spectators in mind.
“Right from the start of planning, we developed concepts for the racetrack and thought about how these could be integrated into an event for the spectators and how it could work well for the teams and Formula 1. Ultimately, it was about the balance between everyone Track and venue characteristics to find the optimal approach and solution,” said Metcalfe.
Grandstand tickets for the first Miami Grand Prix in fall 2021 sold out within hours of going on sale.