The weather does not seem to want to give Formula 1 a break. The forecasts for Sunday, May 3, the day of the race in Miami, do not bode well: at the moment the probability of downpours in the afternoon even reaches 100% and the Federation is working to outline possible alternative scenarios.
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To be ready for any eventuality, the FIA is trying to understand what the most realistic options are, keeping in mind that the scenario is complicated by the Sprint format.
The options on the table
Precisely because of the intense schedule, especially on Saturday, the idea of bringing the race forward by one day seems to be ruled out. Although its feasibility has been evaluated, it is unlikely that we will see a scenario with Sprint, qualifying, and the full race all concentrated on the same day.
So the most realistic solution could be to bring the start forward by a few hours, currently set for 4 p.m. local time. This would mean sacrificing the support race programs – including F2 – but Formula 1’s priority would not cause problems in this regard.
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Instead, the possibility of postponing the race to Monday seems to be off the radar, as happened in MotoGP in 2009 due to torrential rains in Qatar. The reason is related to existing contracts with television broadcasters, which do not provide for the postponement of the weekend’s main event.
No cancellation hypothesis
So all that remains is to wait for the next few hours to understand the evolution of the weather forecasts and how the FIA and Formula 1 will decide to act with the sole interest of holding the Grand Prix regularly.
A Federation spokesperson, reached by Bild, after clarifying that there was no meeting with the FIA and drivers (which had been erroneously announced by Sergio Perez during the Thursday press conference), reiterated that at the moment there is no hypothesis of GP cancellation.
