Fernando Alonso, to break the dominance of Red Bull in Miami

The Mexican Sergio ‘Checo’ Pérez (Red Bull), excellent winner on Sunday in Azerbaijan, points to the leadership of the Formula One World Championship this weekend at the Grand Prix in hot Miami (USA), the fifth course; wherein Fernando Alonso (Aston Martin) -in the second youth at the age of 41- will try to respond to the massive dominance of the Austrian team so far in the championship.

‘Checo’, born 33 years ago in Guadalajara (Jalisco), signed in Baku -relegating his partner, Dutchman Max Verstappen, to second place- his sixth victory since racing in F1: the second on that track (after one in 2021) and the second on the course, after winning in Jeddah (Saudi Arabia).

The Mexican, who also won the first of six sprint tests scheduled this year on Saturdayis still second in the World Cup, but now only six points behind the leader, his teammate from the Netherlands.

Whether a Mexican could lead the World Cup was an unlikely question to ask a few years ago. But now I don’t know. And it is not crazy to think that Mexico can celebrate an F1 world champion; as demonstrated again on Sunday, on the shores of the Caspian Sea: the talent of Sergio Pérez combined with the performance of the almost incomparable RB23.

With the best car on the grid, ‘Mad Max’ and the brave driver from Guadalajara -who celebrated five of his six victories on urban circuits-they shared 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 be the new leader of the World Cup if he wins on Sunday in Miami, where he will have the support of many of his countrymen.

There are other combinations, but, although he did not lead in Florida, apparently at the beginning of the season, the brave pilot from Guadalajara became 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 straight title.

‘Mad Max’ leads with 93 points, six more than ‘Checo’ and Alonso has 33, third in the World Cup. In a Formula One where more and more Spanish is spoken and where, at the start of the course far from expected, Carlos Sainz (Ferrari) from Madrid is fifth.

After finishing on the podium and taking his F1 ‘drawer’ tally 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 the sprint finished sixth.

The double world champion from Asturias emerged as the true entertainer of the championship and at the great versatile head of Aston Martin, a team that went from having the seventh car on the grid to occupying second place in the Constructors’ World Championship, with 87 points; 93 less than the undisputed Red Bull at the moment; that he has signed three ‘doubles’ in the first four races of the course, and that, if things continue like this, he will decide the Drivers’ Championship in an internal duel.

But there are 19 races left 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 first; waiting for mistakes from the dominant red bulls.

Today, on the circuit designed around Hard Rock Stadium, where the Miami Dolphins play at home, NFL team, the amazing professional American football league. A track of 5,412 meters -with 19 curves, twelve of them on the left- re-paved and abrasive; with three DRS zones; where a very high top speed can be reached; and where, 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 seven-time English world champion Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes) and six ahead of his partner, the Monegasque Charles Leclerc; who in Baku signed his nineteenth ‘pole’ in F1 and also started in the sprint on Saturday. Before finishing, on the same occasion, third: behind 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 will not go beyond fourth place in the Constructors’ World Championship, with 62 points. Already 118 from Red Bull and fourteen from Mercedes; which, after marking the milestone of winning the team’s competition for eight consecutive years, was dethroned last season by the energy drink group and is now third, eleven points behind Aston Martin.

Carlos -with one victory and fifteen podiums in F1- will be looking for better luck this weekend in Floridawhere last year he finished third, behind Verstappen and Leclerc.

In Miami it will be shot with tires of the range of intermediate compounds: C2 -hard, distinguished by a 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-, free practice for a weekend starts this Friday in very hot Miami with standard configuration.

Practices will be completed on Saturday, hours before qualifyingwhich will dictate the starting grid for Sunday’s extremely physical race: scheduled for 57 laps to complete a 308.3-kilometer route.