F1 News: Damage Reported At Miami GP Track Before The F1 Even Starts

It’s been reported that the track for the Miami GP has already sustained damage as we head into the racing weekend. The issue occurred on Turn 17 of the track, a hairpin left just moments before the final corner onto the straight. Damage was also found on Turn 7, which is a left turn that tightens next to the much-talked about marina.

The damage was found on Thursday evening just off the apex of the corner but right in the middle of the line that will be hit by the outside wheels of the F1 and other race cars hitting the track this weekend. What’s even more strange is this damage occurred before any racing car even touched the track.

Damage found and repaired at the #miamigp. This could be an interesting weekend… #f1 pic.twitter.com/H9jh69mXFP

— Grand Tour Nation (@GrandTourNation) May 6, 2022

In fact, the only cars to have driven it were the safety and medical cars, and a few supercars which were doing demo runs. A few trucks and cranes were also seen on the track as the surroundings were being built. Fortunately, reports are saying that there are no concerns about the rest of the track, and the repair work came to a close this morning.

The track was built using 24,000 tons of asphalt, expertly put down by British circuit designers Apex, This company has worked on several of the F1 tracks of the calendar, but this asphalt was sourced from 60% US-mined granite from Georgia, and the rest from locally-sourced lime rock from Southern Florida. Bitumen was then used to mix the two.

Once laid, the top of the tarmac is seen to and flattened to allow F1 cars to extract as much grip as possible from their Pirelli tyres, and as per FIA regulations, it was laid at least 60 days ahead of the weekend.

Is this something to worry about? Probably not, but it will certainly be a weekend to remember if the track surface does start to deteriorate.