Weather the big story at the F1 Miami Grand Prix

Formula 1 is finally back after an extended absence, with this weekend’s Miami Grand Prix.

But it is shaping up to be a rather soggy return to the track.

Weather was the dominant story during Thursday’s media day sessions, as current forecasts call for thunderstorms and heavy rain on Sunday during the main event. That forecast has all the drivers talking about what they might encounter, and even has the sport considering changing the schedule for the weekend.

“It’ll be interesting. I don’t think many of us have driven these cars in the rain before, maybe a couple of people in Barcelona at the shakedown,“ said Oscar Piastri during Thursday’s FIA Press Conference. ”But I think they’re going to be challenging cars to drive in the rain just because of some of the quirks that they have. And obviously the weather, normally if it rains in Miami, it does it properly, so we’ll wait and see. But it’ll be interesting one way or another.“

“I understand that there is a meeting later on with the FIA to double-check the scenario for Sunday because apparently, it’s looking really bad. So, we’ll see if there are any changes on the schedule for the weekend,” added Cadillac’s Sergio Pérez.

The sport’s governing body, the FIA, issued a statement on Thursday.

“We are closely monitoring the weather forecast for this weekend,” an FIA spokesperson said. “Having faced a similar situation last year in Miami with threats of thunderstorms, we have a contingency plan in place and will activate it if needed to minimise disruption to the on-track [program].”

Last year, wet weather on Saturday forced the cancellation of the second F1 Academy race at the Miami Grand Prix, and the F1 Sprint race began in tricky conditions. Charles Leclerc crashed in those conditions ahead of the F1 Sprint race, and did not make the start.

As of Friday morning, forecasts are calling for showers in the morning with heavy thunderstorms on Sunday afternoon, with an 85% chance of rain and up to a half-inch of precipitation during the afternoon:

Complicating matters is the fact that few drivers have operated this year’s machinery in wet conditions, as noted by Piastri. Drivers are still coming to grips with the impact of the new regulations, which were tweaked during the extended break.

Mercedes driver Kimi Antonelli, the current championship leader, is one of the few drivers who has experienced the new cars in wet conditions. He described that experience as “tricky” on Thursday.

“Yeah, I drove the car when we did the shakedown in Silverstone in the wet and definitely it was very tricky,” said Antonelli.

“Although now with the changes, they clipped the power to 250 kilowatts for the wet and no boost, so that’s already a step forward in that regard. And definitely I think it’s going to be tricky because there will be a lot of unknown, and obviously we’re also going to be racing if the wet weather presents. But I think also another big topic is that we will need to increase tire blanket [temperatures] for the wet because I think as they are now, probably they will be a bit too low for the conditions.

“So yeah, it’s going to be interesting to see, tricky, but let’s see. If it’s thunderstorms, like they say, we probably also won’t get under way for quite a bit of time. So, let’s see how that goes,” added Antonelli. “But definitely it’s going to be very interesting because there’s so much unknown in the wet at the moment, especially no one really used the inter tires, so we don’t know how it’s going to feel, how much grip there will be, especially with the new regulation. And I think also one thing with this year’s cars, it’s a bit harder to build temperature with the tyres, so in the wet they might be tricky and that’s why we probably would need to increase tire blanket [temps] in order to make it a bit better and a bit easier on that side. But yeah, let’s see what’s going to happen.”

As Antonelli pointed out, ahead of the Miami Grand Prix, the FIA announced that the new boost mode would not be accessible for drivers in wet conditions, like we may see on Sunday.

Regarding what F1 could do to the schedule, the 2024 São Paulo Grand Prix may be a guide. Ahead of that race, qualifying for the Grand Prix was moved from Saturday to Sunday morning due to severe weather, and the start time of the Grand Prix on Sunday was pushed up by 90 minutes as well.

With these forecasts, we could see something similar in Miami this weekend.