In its spell as F1 host, Miami has grow to be America’s Monaco

MIAMI — Welcome to the Miami Grand Prix, America’s Monaco.

Wow. As you all learn that sentence, I might nearly hear the seizing up of hearts and redlining of tempers amongst my fellow motorsports fanatics. It gave the impression of an all-at-once mixture of Nigel Mansell’s engine kill swap (or no matter) at Montreal in 1991 and Juan Pablo Montoya after getting knocked on the noggin by a digicam operator.

This is not a straight-up, one-for-one comparability of the 2 races. That will be too quickly, unfair and, fairly frankly, silly. The equal to sizing up Oscar Piastri vs. Juan Manuel Fangio, or the Pop-Tarts Bowl vs. the Rose Bowl. Nonetheless, after we do run this 4-year-old race up towards its almost 100-year-old granddaddy on the Mediterranean like a kind of old-school automobile journal Tales of the Tape, the occasion we will all witness this weekend does not look as janky as those that initially known as it the “Parking Lot GP” bought us again in 2022.

So, may I counsel grabbing a mojito and a pastel shirt and permitting me a second to defend that assertion of Miami as America’s Monaco?

No, the Miami Grand Prix (Sunday, protection begins at 2:30 p.m. ET on ABC and ESPN3) does not see Method 1 vehicles streak via the waterfront streets of South Seaside like they do in Monte Carlo — even after so many different races with that very same title did that earlier than, proper right here within the Magic Metropolis. From the Nineteen Eighties all the way in which as much as 2015, sports activities vehicles, IndyCars and Method E wove their manner across the similar roads the place Sonny Crockett as soon as chased unhealthy guys (for a historical past lesson on that, learn right here).

No, there aren’t multimillion-dollar yachts floating close by, lined in scantily clad stunning individuals, coming up and down in 26-century-old Port Hercules, sipping champagne and awaiting race vehicles as they launch from the exit finish of the tunnel and into the Nouvelle Chicane.

And no, this weekend’s racecourse is not lined by the signature stone-and-wrought-iron-trimmed high-limit playgrounds of the wealthy, well-known and 007-licensed to kill.

However the venue F1 is racing round this weekend does carry the title of a on line casino, Exhausting Rock Stadium. There may be certainly a whole armada of very fancy yachts full of very fancy individuals gulping down very fancy drinks, though these yachts famously aren’t truly floating, as an alternative anchored on trailers and surrounded by pretend blue waters. Nonetheless, in case you’ve been down there, and I’ve, they’re the most effective seats on the Miami GP circuit. They’re additionally very cool. Actually. One of many few air-conditioned spots at what could be a steamy fan expertise. Granted, I did not should pay for the $180 carne asada nachos or the $280 lobster rolls. They got to me to eat on TV again in 2022, however rattling, they have been superb. Do not take my phrase for it. As a result of no sooner had I wiped the lemon aioli from the nook of my mouth than a dude crashed into my desk prefer it was the primary flip at Silverstone that very same season.

“I gotta have one other a kind of empanadas, man!”

It was will.i.am.

“I am not going to behave like I’m some kind of auto racing professional, as a result of I am not,” the chief of the Black Eyed Peas, a person who is aware of when tonight’s gonna be a superb evening, mentioned to me. “However what I do know is when one thing is a celebration. An actual social gathering. This race is an actual social gathering.”

Let’s be sincere right here, the measure of greatness for any F1 occasion is not the racing. It by no means has been in a sequence the place one thrilling overtake makes it an prompt basic. And racing has definitely by no means been the trademark of Monaco, the place passing has been at a premium because the Nineteen Seventies. There have even been hearty debates lately — led by, amongst others, Purple Bull boss man Christian Horner — that Monte Carlo may not belong on the Method 1 calendar. However the true attract of grand prix racing’s signature old-school occasion and the facet that can all the time shield its place on the schedule is the occasion itself. The sensation. The vibes. The gold-plated barometer that has all the time been used to measure true F1 race weekend awesomeness.

“Have a look at this crimson carpet! It looks like we’re at a film premiere, or the Grammys!”

As with Mr. i.am’s utterance, that exclamation got here from the lips of a well-known individual, pointing at different well-known individuals, who all gave the impression to be very impressed with the variety of well-known individuals in attendance for the 2023 Miami GP, regardless that they’re all surrounded by different well-known individuals on a regular basis.

“I noticed Serena and Venus earlier, and LL Cool J,” continued Tom Cruise excitedly, as he strolled towards the grid. Sure, Cole Trickle has strolled the Miami Worldwide Autodrome, and he has completed so at the least twice. “I do know this race continues to be very new and I do know there are different superb F1 venues in the USA now, however I believe this place has grow to be the must-attend Stateside occasion.”

Mr. Trickle brings us to an important level, and one which must be made earlier than we go any additional. The Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas, now nearly 13 years outdated, is a real F1 street course and has no scarcity of celebs. See: de facto Austin mayor and United States Grand Prix host Matthew McConaughey. The Las Vegas GP, which can maintain its third version in November, is unsurpassed with regards to spectacle. Heck, it races instantly down the Las Vegas Strip! However nobody will ever accuse that course, the map of which appears just like the Klondike ice cream bear mendacity on its again, of being the best format for racing.

(That is the half the place American motorsports purists will scream, “However what in regards to the Grand Prix of Lengthy Seaside?!” Lengthy Seaside is superb. Anybody who has been there and seen racing machines streak via the Fountain Flip is aware of that, and F1 was there between 1976 and 1983 earlier than Champ Automobile/IndyCar took over and made it their very own. Everybody ought to go. Belief me. However alas, that is an F1 story and argument.)

Miami sits completely between Austin and Las Vegas with regards to an American F1 identification. The course, whereas removed from good, has come into its personal. The spectacle, whereas not fairly on the degree of racing beneath the gaze of the Sphere emoji or the curler coaster atop the Stratosphere, additionally options extra native persona than a distant, purpose-built racetrack like COTA. For proof of that assertion, one wants solely search for on the aqua-blue-and-coral coliseum that sits on the heart of all of it.

As a result of what three letters might presumably scream racing within the U-S-A greater than roaring round a stadium made well-known by the N-F-L?

“For me, that is a facet of this location that I do love,” Lewis Hamilton, by no means the largest fan of the Miami Autodrome circuit itself, however apparently a fan of Exhausting Rock Stadium, the venue previously generally known as Joe Robbie Stadium, Professional Participant Park, Dolphins Stadium, Land Shark Stadium and Solar Life Stadium. The house of the Miami Dolphins and the College of Miami Hurricanes, and the previous digs of the two-time World Sequence champion Marlins. “Once they moved a variety of our hospitality and occasions contained in the stadium the second yr, strolling onto that subject was fairly superb to consider all the nice moments which have occurred there, particularly within the NFL.”

This valuable pigskin plot of land, as soon as powered by the downfield-heavy aerobatics of Dan Marino, is now dwelling to 1,000-horsepower downforce-heavy aerodynamic wonders. The constructing the place City Meyer and Tim Tebow as soon as found out easy methods to defeat Bob Stoops and Sam Bradford to win the 2009 BCS Championship Recreation is now the place F1 groups hunker down to plan their race methods. A race that runs via parking tons which can be full of tailgaters within the fall and rattles the constructing the place Cam Ward labored his technique to prime choose of final week’s NFL draft will spend this weekend with McLarens, Purple Bulls and Ferraris truly drafting and most positively tailgating, as they gobble up almost 3½ miles and 19 turns in 90 seconds.

Is it the south of France? No. It is the south of Florida. And that is OK. As a result of if it is adequate for Brad Pitt, Shakira and Max Verstappen, then America’s Monaco must be a lot cool for the remainder of us mere Miami Mortals.

“The concept behind the creation of this race was to showcase what we love about racing, but additionally what we love about Miami,” says Emerson Fittipaldi, two-time Method 1 world champion and longtime Miami resident. He by no means received in Monaco, however he did earn a pole and three podium finishes there. Emmo additionally added a top-10 end within the Champ Automobile model of the Miami GP in 1987. “This grand prix is a superb time on the racetrack. I believe that anybody who involves the occasion or has come to the occasion, they may inform you that. And who does not need to have an exquisite time?”