By Charles Bradley
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October 14, 2024
Miami’s F1 Track Just Got Four New Layouts And An Amazing...
Miami’s Crypto.com Grand Prix has become a well-established stop for the Formula 1 World Championship’s fastest show on earth, but its high-speed racetrack has been a little… underutilized – until now. The Miami GP’s promoter, South Florida Motorsports, has devised the most exclusive driving club experience that money can buy, called Precision, so not only Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen get to enjoy the sinuous twists and turns around the iconic Hard Rock Stadium. And duPont REGISTRY got a sneak preview on what’s in store.
The practicality of running its racetrack around the multi-function venue – which also hosts the Miami Open tennis event, gigantic concerts for pop stars like Taylor Swift and Coldplay, as well as the famed Miami Dolphins and Hurricanes football teams – has meant some lateral thinking was required regarding the course’s layout. The 3.363 miles of asphalt that the F1 stars lap up crosses a public road at two spots, which causes obvious disruption to the surrounding area, especially as they are link roads of the nearby Florida Turnpike. F1 circuit design guru Tilke was tasked with creating three ‘cut through’ sections of track – after Turn 3, another at Turn 10 and a hairpin before Turn 17 of the F1 layout – to give maximum flexibility, allowing it to be run without closing the public roads or impact construction ahead of other big events at the stadium.
The Miami GP’s sporting and racing operations oracle John Murphy took duPont REGISTRY on a guided tour of the circuit in one of its course cars that are used during the F1 event. The circuit that’s open today is the Marina Loop, a 2.44-mile version that takes in the first 10 turns of the F1 track before a new section takes it on to the back straight. There, it breaks left early, before the hairpin that’s Turn 17 on the GP layout, and rejoins it through the final corners before the start/finish line.
“Setting up the track, and taking it down, the whole thing is a giant jigsaw and a huge challenge,” says Murphy. “We’ve got Taylor Swift coming next week – not for a track day, though! On football days we have 130 buses pulling up on our front stretch, it’s a very busy stadium. But we’ve worked out how we can operate the racetrack around it, and it’s pretty cool.”
We also get a hot lap in a track-tuned Ferrari 488 Pista, and the new corner, christened Turn 10 Alpha, is a “typically Tilke” left-right-left sequence. That leads on to a curvy, flat-out section that rejoins the back straight just after the F1 DRS activation zone. The tight hairpin that follows, also a new section of track, is great for exploring the Ferrari’s stopping power via its huge brake discs. Just a day after our sneak preview, the FIA was due to visit, to check that the build has been carried out to its Grade 1 standards – so, technically, you could run F1 cars around the new courses.
Other new layouts are the Extended Marina Loop, which includes the F1 track’s hairpins and sweepers that follow, and the shorter 1.43-mile MIA Loop – which also has a longer 1.75-mile version – that incorporates the Turn 3 Alpha cut through. These are likely to be used when the tennis courts need to be accessed.
So that’s the track, what about the club? Precision Drive Club utilizes the same garages graced by Verstappen and Sergio Perez and their Red Bull Racing team. Inside, there’s a full-blown hospitality suite that’s available to its members, open every day that the track days are being operated. There’s also a dedicated space in the Paddock Club building upstairs to enjoy sumptuous meals from many of the best restaurants in Miami. In another neat twist, drivers can get ready for lapping sessions by getting changed into their firesuits in the very same locker room that the Miami Dolphins team uses during game days, and use their showers too.
To ensure circuit safety, the Race Control room that’s used by the FIA at the Miami GP is in play. A wall of screens relays every inch of racetrack, so if there’s an incident or breakdown, an emergency recovery can be launched within seconds. In another neat twist, the room next door hosts a broadcast team that uses in-car cameras, data logging and graphics to beam a live TV feed into the hospitality areas. This is done via the gallery that’s used for football events inside the stadium.
The message here is ‘Unmatched Driving’ and ‘Unsurpassed Membership’ that are ‘Driven By Exclusivity’. And while other racetracks and country club circuits are available to drive your supercar somewhere towards the limits of its performance, the offering from the very team that puts on a Formula 1 show every 12 months certainly delivers on its mission statements for at least 40 track days per year. And there’ll be the chance for members to drive their own cars on track during the F1 Miami GP weekend, and which other venue in the world offers that?
Miami GP President Tyler Epp says this project has been 15 months in the making. “We’re taking the sights and sounds of the F1 weekend and track to the private racing community,” he explains. “We are launching November 8, it’s unique and special, and very different from what else is out there. We want it to be exclusive, this is meant to be for 100 people – the right people, who want to spend time with each other and to experience hospitality and an unmatched driving experience at the highest level.”
And if you’re wondering about the price tag of membership, then you likely can’t afford it! If you want to sign up for this most exclusive of high-performance driving clubs, then click here.
