Formula 1 | ‘Checo’ aims for the lead at the Miami GP

‘Checo’, born 33 years ago in Guadalajara (Jalisco), signed in Baku -relegating his partner, the Dutchman, to second place Max Verstappen– His sixth victory since he started racing in F1: the second on that track (after 2021) and the second of the course, after winning in Jeddah (Saudi Arabia). The Mexican, who also won the first of the six sprint tests scheduled this year on Saturday, is still second in the World Championship, but now only six points behind the leaderhis colleague from the Netherlands.

And A Mexican can become the leader of the World Cup was an unlikely question to ask just a couple of years ago. But now I do not know. And it is not crazy to think that Mexico could celebrate an F1 world champion; as was demonstrated again last Sunday, on the shores of the Caspian Sea: combining the talent of Sergio Pérez with the performance of the almost unbeatable RB23.

With the best car on the grid, ‘Mad Max’ and the brave driver from Guadalajara -who has celebrated five of his six victories on urban circuits- they have shared the victories in the first four rounds of the season. And, on a debut track last year -where Verstappen won and he was fourth-, ‘Checo’ will become the new World Cup leader if he wins on Sunday in Miami, where he will have the support of numerous compatriots.

There are other combinations, but, even if he did not take the lead in Florida, apparently at the start of the season, the brave driver from Guadalajara has become a serious candidate to win the contest. Although he has a problem, which is not lost on anyone: his 25-year-old partner, who is aiming for a third consecutive title.

‘Mad Max’ leads with 93 pointssix more than ‘Checo’ and with 33 over Alonso, third in the World Cup. In a Formula One in which more and more is spoken in Spanish and in which, at a start to the course far removed from what he expected, the man from Madrid Carlos Sainz (Ferrari) is fifth.

After getting on the podium and raising his number of ‘drawers’ in F1 to 101 in the first three races of the year (Bahrain, Arabia and Australia), his first three with Aston Martin, Alonso finished fourth, after another sensational performance, in the capital of the former Soviet republic; where on Saturday he finished sixth in the sprint.

The Asturian double world champion has established himself in the authentic cheerleader of the championship and in the great versatile leader of Aston Martin, a team that has gone from having the seventh car on the grid to occupying second place in the Constructors’ World Championship, with 87 points; 93 less than the incontestable Red Bull at the moment; that he has signed three ‘doublets’ in the first four races of the course, and that, if things continue like this, he will resolve the Drivers’ Championship in an internal duel.

But 19 races remain until the end of the year, at the end of November and in Abu Dhabi. So Alonso and Aston Martin -and, eager for improvements, Mercedes and Ferrari- will be at the forefront; waiting for mistakes from the very dominant red bulls.

At the moment, in the circuit designed around the Hard Rock Stadium, where the Miami Dolphins, a team from the NFL, the spectacular professional American football league, play at home. A track of 5,412 meters -with 19 curves, twelve of them to the left- re-paved and abrasive; with three DRS zones; in which very high top speeds will be reached; and in which, with very high temperatures, tire management will be decisive.

Sainz, who left Azerbaijan unsatisfied, is fifth in the tournament, with 34 points; 14 less than the English seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes) and with a six lead over his partner, the Monegasque Charles Leclerc; that in Baku he signed his nineteenth pole position in F1 and also started first in the sprint on Saturday. Before finishing, on both occasions, third: behind the Red Bull.

The driver from the beautiful principality of the Côte d’Azur achieved the first podium of the year for Ferrari in Azerbaijan, the most successful team in history, but which does not go beyond fourth place in the Constructors’ World Championship, with 62 points. At 118 already from Red Bull and fourteen from Mercedes; which, after marking the milestone of winning the team competition for eight years in a row, was dethroned last season by the energy drink team and is now third, eleven points behind Aston Martin.

Carlos -with one victory and fifteen podiums in F1- will seek better fortune this weekend in Florida, where he finished third last year, behind Verstappen and Leclerc.

In Miami it will be shot with tires of the range of intermediate compounds: C2 -hard, recognizable by the white stripe-, C3 -medium, yellow stripe- and C4 -soft, red-.

After the new format launched in Baku, with two qualifications and two races -short and long, which will be used five more times this season-, in the very hot Miami the free practice sessions for a weekend will start this Friday with the usual configuration .

Rehearsals will be completed on Saturdayhours before qualifying, who will order the starting grid for the very physically demanding Sunday race: planned to 57 laps to complete a route of 308.3 kilometers.