Once again, the qualifying session in Miami yielded another Red Bull-Ferrari outcome.
After a Sprint qualifying that almost ended in a pole position for Lando Norris but did see Daniel Ricciardo qualify P4, it was business as usual in qualifying for the Miami Grand Prix with a Red Bull-Ferrari mix.
Jenson Button urged Formula 1 to “eliminate practice” in order to disrupt the established hierarchy.
F1 urged to drop the practice sessions
Norris returned to the track for the second consecutive Sprint weekend, coming close to securing back-to-back pole positions for the shorter race. The McLaren driver took the lead on the medium Pirelli tires and was on the verge of achieving two poles out of two races.
However, when the McLaren MCL38 switched to the mandated soft tyres for SQ3, it lost its momentum, resulting in a ninth-place finish, while Max Verstappen claimed the pole position.
Ricciardo was the big surprise as he put his VCARB01 up into fourth place, a starting position that allowed him to put in an epic defensive drive in the Sprint to finish fourth and claim his first points of the season.
After some time had passed, the Australian driver’s position dropped to 18th during the official qualifying session. Both Red Bull and Ferrari secured the front two rows, surpassing the McLaren teammates, thanks to their increased track time and data.
It was business as usual.
Button proposed that Formula 1 should eliminate the three practice sessions during a traditional Grand Prix weekend and instead dive straight into qualifying. This change has the potential to stir up the starting grid, ultimately resulting in thrilling races.
According to Sky Sports, the 2009 World Champion expressed the belief that practice should be eliminated.
“Instead of practice, let’s jump straight into qualifying. As we’ve seen in Sprint qualifying, it always brings a mix-up.”
In my opinion, Lando had a strong possibility of taking the lead initially. However, as they gather more laps, the team receives data information, makes setup adjustments, and ultimately heads back out onto the track.
Despite the slight scruffiness, they are still somewhat in team order.
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Button is not the only person who would like to see Formula 1 ditch practice sessions with Pedro de la Rosa revealing Fernando Alonso would like the weekend to start with qualifying.
The F1 Nation podcast featured the Aston Martin ambassador stating, “Fernando’s preference is to skip directly to the qualifying round.”
He would occasionally bring it up, emphasizing that he doesn’t require any warm-up or a fresh set of tires to increase his speed. Right from the start, on the very first lap, he effortlessly achieves his peak performance for the entire weekend, without needing to gradually accelerate.
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