Welcome to The Briefing, where you can get a jumpstart on the Miami Grand Prix with our guide to the key topics.

Every race weekend, we’ll speak to one of our engineers to discuss the key talking points ahead of the upcoming Grand Prix and simplify them so that you can dive straight into the action with a better idea of what to expect and what you should be looking out for.  

This week, powered by Google Cloud, we spoke to Henry Fidler, who discussed the implications of bringing upgrades to a Sprint weekend and our aims for the crucial, single practice session. We also explore the potential effect of the hot weather conditions on the weekend and a new pit entry, which could alter race strategy for the weekend.

Here’s what you need to know…

1. What to expect from our first aerodynamic upgrade of the season

The thing concentrating the minds this weekend is our first comprehensive upgrade package of 2024. It comprises a new front wing, front suspension and front brake duct, bodywork, floor, rear suspension and rear brake ducts.

It has been a huge effort to get as much of this upgrade as possible ready for Miami, and we don’t have enough parts for both cars to run the full package, so the car's specification will be different.

It’s a decent-sized step. It’s expected to be worth a notable amount of lap-time. We’ve seen Ferrari just a couple of tenths ahead of us, and maybe we’ve got a very small advantage over Aston Martin and Mercedes. So, a step like this could be important for our competitiveness, relative to other teams. 

Bringing this to a Sprint weekend comes with risks and rewards. There are, of course, more points on offer this weekend – but only an hour of practice to learn about the upgrade. We’ll have our normal data channels to give us information about how the upgrade is working – but not the array of rakes that we have run on a standard weekend. We’ll learn what we can.

2. The aims for practice

The intent for the practice session is much as it was in China: try to dial-in the set-up, particularly ride-height, which is the most performant thing to get right - then rear wing level, and finally some tyre learning.

3. What are we expecting from the Miami International Autodrome?

The circuit itself is fairly average. It was resurfaced before last year’s race, but there are some notable bumps. T2 to T3 has some, then more in T4-T5 at the start of the really high-speed section. Beyond that, it’s quite a smooth circuit. However, through the very low-speed section from T12-T16, the kerbs are very, very large and you need to ride those to get good lap-time. So, it’s an interesting trade: smooth for most of the track but a lot of ride content at the far end of the circuit.

The rear wings carry over from the ones used in the first five races, and most likely, it’s the wing that ran in Australia, which is the medium-low downforce version. The bigger wing is likely a bit too slow because of the lengths of the straights here. But something to verify during practice.

4. Will Miami be a one or a two-stop race?

Regarding tyres, unlike the last three Grands Prix, this is likely to be a one-stop race, which makes tyre allocation a little more straightforward than it was for the Sprint weekend in China, because you don’t necessarily have to worry about carrying an extra Medium or Hard tyre into the race.

The one thing we’d like to learn about is the new pit entry. Compared to last year, it’s moving downstream towards T19, which means the pit loss will probably be lower than it was last year. If that’s a good chunk of time, that might bring a two-stop into play - but knowing it's quite difficult to overtake, it's most likely still a one-stop.

We’ll be practicing that pit-entry for driver learning. The ideal situation will be proper pit stops, where we do a pit-entry, stop and drive through to the pit exit to get a really good idea of what the pit-loss is – but even if having the drivers push the entry is all we have time to do, that still gives us a good idea of the difference from last year to this.

5. What impact will Miami’s high temperatures have on racing?

Finally, temperatures are going to be a pretty big factor. Last year, the track was very hot – in excess of 50°C on Friday and Saturday, cooler on Sunday when clouds came over. We’re likely to have the same mix this year. The critical wear mechanism is graining, which we saw on Friday last year. Also, surface overheating – particularly on the front right through the long left-hander through T6-T7. If the clouds go away and it gets very hot, then management for that front-right tyre will get more and more important as it gets hotter. We won’t have a lot of time for study, but we’ll fit in as much as we can.

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