The Proposed Miami Grand Prix Route From Bird’s Eye View
How Formula 1’s potential Miami Grand Prix might look according to city officials still mulling a decision to allow a race on the city’s streets.
Miami's City Commission is expected meet to reach a verdict on Thursday over whether or not Formula 1 will race the city's streets. If agreed on, the deal with the sport's commercial rights holder, Liberty Media, would guarantee a Grand Prix in the city for a decade, starting with its first race in October of 2019.
Via Twitter on Thursday, member of the City Commission Ken Russell published an image of a conceptual route for the race. What is known is that this circuit design encircles the American Airlines Arena, site of the Miami Heat NBA team, crosses the Port Boulevard bridge elevated above Biscayne Bay, and takes a chunk from the end of Biscayne Boulevard, for a total length of 2.57 miles.
There was no mention of which direction the circuit would be run, and areas designated for the pit, paddock, and start line are equally undesignated. The mile markers visible, however, suggest a counterclockwise race, with a start line near the northwest corner of American Airlines Arena, facing south on Biscayne Boulevard. This opens up the opposite side of the street for use as the paddock and pits, with the junction between Northeast 8th Street and Biscayne serving as the pit entrance, and the exit presumably at the intersection of Biscayne and Northeast 5th Street.
Note that Russell describes the circuit above as "a potential map," and not "the map." Regardless of individual perceptions of this circuit, there is as of yet no guarantee that this route will be used, even if Miami does agree to have a Grand Prix on its streets. In all likelihood, we cannot know until the City Commission's meeting on Thursday.
Should the council approve of the race, it will set the paddock alight at this weekend's Spanish Grand Prix—the first to be broadcast on Formula 1's newborn streaming service, F1 TV.
