“Ready to change whatever we need to,” Tom Garfinkel willing to alter Miami track following drivers’ complaints

“Ready to change whatever we need to,” Tom Garfinkel willing to alter Miami track following drivers’ complaints

Tom Garfinkel and Esteban Ocon

One of Miami GP organizers, Tom Garfinkel, has admitted to a need in change in the layout of the track after we saw a lot of drivers crash in practice session and near crashes in qualifying in race. Max Verstappen openly talked about how tricky the Micky Mouse part of circuit was, which included the section from Turn 11 to Turn 16. He even went on to say that drivers should have a say in the layout of the track.

The reigning world champion almost crashed going into the chicane in Turn 14, which could have put an end to his qualifying session too and put him at the back of the grid. Same was the case with Sergio Perez and Fernando Alonso who nearly lost the car going into the same corner. But there were some drivers who weren’t as lucky as these ones and had to pay the price.

That included the likes of Carlos Sainz and Esteban Ocon. The Ferrari driver coming out of Turn 13 lost the rear and crashed into the wall which brought an end to his proceedings for FP1 and FP2. Whereas, Esteban Ocon faced a similar crash coming out of the same corner. This meant that he was out of qualifying and had to start from the back of the grid. There were too many crashes for anyone’s liking.

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Managing Partner Tom Garfinkel that next year’s Miami track will be different after drivers complain about the layout

Max Verstappen on the podium after winning the Miami GP
Max Verstappen on the podium after winning the Miami GP

Managing Partner Tom Garfinkel has taken the issues of the drivers into account and has assured everyone that the organizers will bring in the changes. He said, “I think the challenge with the [turn 14/15] chicane and I don’t know that we communicated well enough why it exists and where it exists.”

“That’s an area where it’s a tricky part because we have to really slow people down because we didn’t have enough run-off space.”

“I think from talking to some folks at F1 and the FIA, I think there’s an opportunity to maybe change that a little bit to make it better. But it’s a bit of a necessary evil through there to get them to slow down,” as reported by planetf1.

We saw an crash of 51g with Esteban Ocon into the wall and that should be unacceptable. Therefore, it’s imperative for the organizers to take the safety of the drivers into account and bring in the necessary changes.

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