Miami GP: facts & figures
9. Countries that have hosted two Formula 1 World Championship races in the same season. Italy was the first in 1957, when alongside the race in Monza, there was one in Pescara, and in total it has hosted two events per year on 20 occasions. Next up are Germany (13), United States (11), Spain (7), United Kingdom (5), Austria and Japan (2) and France and Bahrain (1). Only Italy and the United States have hosted three races in one season, the former in 2020 at Mugello, Monza and Imola and the latter in 1982 at Long Beach, Detroit and Las Vegas. Next year, the USA will once again host three races, with a new track at Las Vegas joining Miami and the Circuit of the Americas in Austin.
10+1. The United States tracks that have hosted Formula 1 World Championship rounds, to which will now be added Miami. 71 races have been held in this country, with Watkins Glen in New York State hosting 20 of them, while Indianapolis has been used 19 times, with eleven of those being the 500 Miles race, while a further eight were staged on the track built in 2000. Next up come Austin (9), Long Beach (8), Detroit (7), Phoenix (3), Caesars’ Palace circuit Las Vegas (2) and Dallas, Riverside and Sebring (1).
11. The number of Formula 1 World Championship races, including Miami, that have been named after the host city. The oldest is the Indianapolis 500, which was part of the F1 calendar from 1950 to 1960. In 1957, there was a Grand Prix in Pescara, after which came Long Beach in the USA, which ran from 1976 to 1983. The Detroit GP was held from 1982 to 1988, while in 1984 there was a race in Dallas. In 1997 and 1998, the Nürburgring hosted the Luxembourg GP, although in this case, as with Singapore from 2008 to 2019, the name of the city was also the name of the country, something which does not apply to San Marino, as the capital is officially known as the City of San Marino. 2009 saw the first running of the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, while last year the Mexican and Brazilian races were respectively renamed as the Mexico City and São Paulo Grands Prix.
22. The furthest back on the grid from which a World Championship Grand Prix was won in the United States. It happened at Long Beach in 1983 when John Watson took his McLaren to his fifth and last career win. The longest climb through the order to the podium occurred in the 1957 Indianapolis 500, when the Hopkins team’s Jim Richard Rathmann (on the Hopkins’ Epperly-Offenhauser) came through from 32nd on the grid to finish second. Both these records are currently unbeatable, with only 20 cars allowed on the Formula 1 grid. In the United States, Carlos managed to go from 20th to seventh in Austin in 2015, while the following year he got his best result at this race, finishing sixth. Charles finished fourth in Austin in 2019 and 2021.
1896. The year in which the city of Miami was founded, based around property owned by Julia Tuttle, a rich widow from Ohio, who moved to southern Florida in 1891, acquiring 640 acres of arable land. She became friends with railways constructor Henry Flager, whom she persuaded to extend the line to Miami, which led to rapid growth of the town centre.
At Ferrari 75 years ago
Scuderia Ferrari is set to race at Piacenza on 11 May, with two different versions of the 125. The 125 S is the first chassis built with a “spyder” body produced at Maranello by the local craftsman Giuseppe Peiretti and there is also a second chassis, closer to a single-seater, with removable mudguards. This version is known as the 125 C, the C standing for “Competizione” to distinguish it from the 125 S. It was designed by Giuseppe Busso from Turin, but Enzo Ferrari did not like it, calling it the “autobotte” or “truck.” The S is to be driven by test driver Franco Cortese, the C entrusted to the established champion, Giuseppe Farina. The Sporting Director was Federico Giberti, a long time associate of Enzo Ferrari. Problems arose after the first practice sessions. Farina was unhappy with the 125 C and wanted Cortese’s car, but the request was denied. The champion was not completely wrong, because in practice both drivers had tried both cars and Farina had only managed a 1’54”3 lap in the 125 C and a 1’52”1 in the S. Cortese meanwhile had stopped the clocks in 1’53 with the C and 1’51 in the S, faster in both cars, which is why Ferrari would not let them swap. Farina chose not to take part, so that Cortese, in the 125 S led for much of the race, before being let down by a trivial failure in the fuel pump. Ferrari described the result, as “a promising failure.”
