After the one in China, F1 reserves another Sprint weekend for the Miami GP. The event in Florida will be particularly full of home-grown news Ferrari, with the Maranello team competing for the first time with the new title partner HP to make a statement both in the name of the team, which has become Scuderia Ferrari HP, and on the livery of the single-seaters. And, speaking of liveries, there is great anticipation to discover the colors of the two SF-24s which will have a unique chromatic appearance for this weekend and which will be revealed on Wednesday. Among the surrounding events, also the conclusion of the International Cavalcade in Miami, with 70 customers of the Prancing Horse who will arrive with their cars after traveling along some of the most beautiful roads in Tennessee and Florida, finally taking part in the World Premiere which will lead to the unveiling of a new road model.
Special Ferrari liveries: we’ve seen them… in all colours
As anticipated by the many videos and photos already published by Ferrari in recent days, in Miami the color blue will appear on the cars and drivers’ overalls, in the Dino and La Plata shades, to celebrate 70 years of the Prancing Horse in the United States. The first time light blue appeared on Ferrari’s F1 livery was in 1952 on the car of Alberto Ascari (photo below): a stripe, blue like the Italian driver’s lucky clothes, appeared on the nose of the 375 Special that took part in the Indianapolis 500. A particular case is that of the livery used for the last two grand prix of 1964: Enzo Ferrari was in controversy with the Italian sporting authorities and Ferrari’s John Surtees and Lorenzo Bandini they were entered by the American team North American Racing Team, competing with a dark blue and white color.
Another color that has found ample space in Ferrari liveries is the yellow, also present in the official livery of this season. For yellow’s grand debut, however, we must go back to 1958 and 1961, when the Belgian driver Olivier Gendebien competed at Spa with two yellow Ferraris in homage to the national color of his country. Then there are special cases such as blackinserted on the nose for the Italian GP held after the attacks of 11 September 2001 in the United States and reappeared in the 2005 Bahrain GP following the death of Pope John Paul II, and theamaranth used at Mugello in 2020 to celebrate the 1000 GP of Scuderia Ferrari, recalling the color of the first car created by the Maranello company, the 125 S of 1947. In the last championships the special liveries they have often appeared throughout the year, from the yellow inserts seen in Monza to the white ones in the inaugural edition of the GP Las Vegas.
Another Sprint in Miami: why Ferrari is optimistic
Returning to the sporting aspect, Miami will be the fourteenth Sprint in the history of F1. So far Ferrari has taken one pole position and eight podiums in the short race, without ever taking victory. In Florida the aim is to do better than Shanghai, when Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz finished fourth and fifth respectively. As we anticipated, it will also be the last weekend without any particular updates on the SF-24, before the long-awaited package of new features that will make its debut in Imola. The team principal Fred Vasseur he has declared: “Let’s go back to comparing ourselves with the Sprint format that we suffered a bit in China. We do it on a very different circuit, on which this time we have data from the last two seasons available. We expect to do better than two weeks ago and I am convinced that we have the potential, especially considering how close the values on the field are behind those who command the championship“.
The new arrangement of the sessions on the Sprint weekends makes the work carried out in the only free practice session fundamental: “Again it will be important make the most of the only free practice session that we will have available, especially for work on qualificationwhich has recently seen us struggling more than we should” underlined Vasseur. The French manager then recalled the special flavor of the Miami weekend: “This weekend is special for our company and also for the team since the new title partner HP makes its debut with us. As a team we will do our utmost to inaugurate our collaboration with an important result“.
