The Madness of Formula 1 Race Week in Miami | Hitting the Apex

Covering a Formula 1 weekend has a cadence to it.

The week starts properly on Thursday, where you can get access to the Media Center.

From there, everything gets increasingly serious.

Thursday

The only set thing on the schedule was a workshop followed by a track tour.

The workshop was critical for someone such as myself, covering a Formula 1 race as media for the first time. If I knew anything from decades of following Formula 1, there are rules and regulations for everything and I wasn’t looking to break any of them.

At the workshop, which was held in the press conference room, I found out I was able to take photos of everything I had access to (no videos) and would be able to attend the formal press conferences. I also found out that from where we were sitting, there was no actual way to see the cars running.

Which makes sense. If you’re covering the race as a journalist, you can’t actually tell what’s going on from watching a car zip by at a million miles an hour. We are seated in an air conditioned room with monitors showing the race and timing data, which is optimal for producing content.

The highlight of Thursday was the track tour. We were driven around the track and stopped at various points where we were told about asphalt compounds and the nature of the circuit.

The only thing that really takes you out of the moment and makes you realize where you are is the presence of the Turnpike hovering ominously at certain corners.

When we returned to the Paddock, I was free to walk through it and took some photos, while the team crews moved in equipment.

Friday

The highlight of Friday for media is the driver press conferences. All drivers are required to participate. I walked into the Press Conference Room (this is the only place the entire weekend where masks are required), and took a seat a few rows from the front.

I was mostly able to take photos, but there were a few obstructions.

I wrote extensively on the press conference experience earlier this week.

When I exited the press conference 2 hours later, life had changed. Fans had arrived in the Paddock, and the calmness that characterized all of Thursday and Friday Morning was gone.

From this:

To this:

And then the racing started. 2 practice sessions, driver interviews, and crowds characterized the rest of the day.

Saturday

This is where things get serious. Security was tighter, with qualifying happening.

It was at this point that I realized how exhausting reporting on Formula 1 is. When I cover the Canes, there is usually one macro-event, the game itself. For a Formula 1 weekend, each session is a micro-event, culminating with the macro-event of the race on Sunday. It’s very different.

On Saturday, we get to speak to the team representatives, which is generally the Team Boss. But not all of them. In this case, it was 6 of the 10, in two 30-minute press conferences.

Leaving that press conference, I was not surprised by the crowd of fans this time. Becoming a veteran of this whole F1 Journalist Game.

Qualifying in the Media Centre is something you have to experience to see. It’s a group of journalists seated at tables in rows, watching TV, essentially. But also not really watching. Because everyone is working, pulling out nuggets from the session to incorporate into whatever they’re writing.

Fortunately, I don’t write “game summaries” with enforced deadlines, so I have a little more freedom.

And while media is definitely neutral, there are national rooting interests. The Spanish reporters want Fernando Alonso and Carlos Sainz to do well, for example. (As a side note, in Friday’s driver’s briefing, both Spanish drivers, as Madridistas, were asked questions about Real Madrid’s remontada against Manchester City. #HalaMadridYNadaMas).

When qualifying ends, there are choices to be made. The Top 3 drivers will hold a formal press conference in the press room, while all the drivers (including the Top 3) will eventually make their way through the Interview Pen.

I chose the Press Conference Room. I had seen that room (or a version of it) on TV so many times over the year, and the idea of sitting in a room with Charles Leclerc, Carlos Sainz, and Max Verstappen was too good of an opportunity to pass up.

With that said, I was in the minority. The Press Conference Room is largely empty. So did everyone else go to the Interview Pen?

No. Most stay in the Media Centre. With the Press Conference Room feed being played through speakers and into the Media Centre, the ideal place to write about the press conference is actually the Media Centre. Journalists working.

The highlight of my “journalist” day was definitely meeting with Mario Isola, the Director of Motorsports of Pirelli. He was running late, but that afforded me the opportunity to sit in Pirelli’s hospitality area and wait.

Several of the people working for Pirelli apologized to me for the lateness, and one employee tried to “corrupt” (his words) me with food and drink. We discussed the heat (not the basketball team), and he said it reminded him of Budapest.

Mario Isola was great.

But a side effect of the interview running late is I was able to see the F1 Paddock, empty, at night.

That moment of solitude, alone, in a Formula 1 Paddock at night, was the highlight of the entire weekend for me.

Sunday

Ironically, Sunday is where there is the least to do for a journalist.

At the Miami Grand Prix, there were 2 support races, one for the W Series and for the Porsche Sprint Challenge.

Outside of that, there is a lot of pomp, for fans.

There are sponsored events, a driver parade, a grid presentation. Fans have plenty of time to access fan zones and enjoy the day.

For me, it was a lot of waiting around for the race to start. Some journalists get grid access. Needless to say, I’m not one of those.

Finally, at 3:15, the national anthem. Land of the Free, Home of the Brave.

The race itself felt similar to qualifying in the Media Centre, everyone working away.

After it ended, I went down the Press Conference Room. I knew most journalists wouldn’t make that choice, but I wanted to be there, as my last official act this weekend.

Press conference over, I retrieved my gear from the Media Centre, and said good bye to the Formula 1 circus.

Not good bye to Hard Rock Stadium, of course. I’ll be seeing her in September. The Canes play Bethune-Cookman in 118 days. That won’t quite have the fanfare of a Formula 1 weekend.

But it’s home. Ain’t no place like it.

Vishnu Parasuraman is a contributor for @FiveReasonsSports. He covers the Miami Hurricanes  for Sixth Ring Canes and Formula 1 for Hitting the Apex. You can follow him on twitter @vrp2003