Miami chaos incoming: F1 drivers raise fears over extreme weather racing

Both Carlos Sainz and Kimi Antonelli, when asked about their concerns regarding wet-weather running at the Miami circuit, spoke about their enthusiasm for racing in the rain. However, they were also quick to underline the safety risks such conditions could pose, while suggesting potential changes that could help improve racing in the wet.

Sainz, the first to respond during Thursday’s press conference, said adjustments may be needed to support safer wet-weather racing. The Williams driver pointed to the risk of aquaplaning on a circuit prone to standing water, as well as the ongoing visibility issues faced by drivers.

“Obviously I think in the back of everyone's heads what's going to happen when it's wet. I've always been a bit of an advocate for the 350 kilowatts are not needed and I hope that we could find a way to maybe reduce it down to 250 or 300 for the race. We saw last year in the straights, a lot of standing water here, it's a super flat track, the water stays on the surface and whether that's going to be safe enough or not with the walls close to you and the visibility that we have with these cars is certainly going to be a concern,” he said.

The former Scuderia Ferrari driver added that, despite the concerns, he hopes the right measures will be in place to ensure safe and competitive wet-weather racing. “I hope that we can take all the appropriate actions for it so we can have a good show, a good race. I think all drivers want to drive in wet races, they’re a lot of fun. I am the first one, you guys know I love the wet, but hopefully with the right system and tools in place to make it safe. And also there's this lightning risk that I don't know what will happen with. There are a few things like the SLM in the wet only at the front that I really don't understand why we have that. It doesn't reduce the drag much. A few things to analyse, to put together. If something is going to be wet, maybe to discuss in the drivers’ briefing so we can have everything clear in our heads about what we should expect and what we should go racing with,” he concluded.

Mercedes driver Kimi Antonelli also raised concerns about the challenges of wet conditions, noting the difficulties already identified in testing. The 19-year-old admitted that even limited experience in the wet highlighted how tricky it can be.

Antonelli also pointed to the broader uncertainty surrounding Sunday’s race, especially with thunderstorms forecast for Florida. The Mercedes driver concluded by suggesting changes to tyre preparation could also help improve safety and performance.“Hopefully, we're also going to be racing. The weather, you know what the wet weather presents. But I think also another big topic is I think we will need to increase tyre blankets for wet because I think as they are now, probably they will be a bit too low for the conditions. It's going to be interesting to see, tricky, but let's see. If it's thunderstorming like they say, we probably also won't get underway for quite a bit of time. So, let's see how that goes. 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 intermediate tyres, so we don't know how it's going to feel, how much grip there will be, especially with the new regulation.”

The weather conditions across the opening stages of the Miami Grand Prix weekend are expected to remain relatively stable, with both Friday and Saturday currently forecast to stay dry despite the high temperatures expected in Florida. That means Free Practice, Sprint Qualifying, the Sprint Race, and qualifying for Sunday’s Grand Prix should all theoretically go ahead without rain affecting the sessions.

Sunday, however, remains a far greater concern. As previously mentioned, current forecasts are still indicating around a 40% chance of rain during race day, a figure that, while lower than earlier predictions, continues to keep both teams and FIA officials on alert. According to the regulations, the race director has the authority to declare a “Rain Hazard” up to two hours before the start of the Grand Prix if the probability of rain exceeds 40%, officially signalling potentially dangerous low-grip conditions.

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