Spectacular First Images: F1 Miami Grand Prix Moving Paddock INSIDE Hard Rock Stadium

• Formula 1’s Miami Grand Prix debuted in 2022 at the semi-permanent street-style Miami International Autodrome,

• For 2023, the heart of Formula 1’s operations will be moved inside the stadium and known as the Team Village.

• Fans with general admission campus passes will be able to visit the Hard Rock Stadium’s 300 level and look down on the F1 paddock and its inner workings through the course of the weekend.

The Formula 1 paddock at this year’s Miami Grand Prix will be moved inside the Hard Rock Stadium, organizers have revealed, while the entire track will be resurfaced.

Formula 1’s Miami Grand Prix debuted in 2022 at the semi-permanent street-style Miami International Autodrome, constructed around the Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens.

The paddock itself was situated behind the pit straight, nestled in a gap between the pit building and the stadium, but for 2023, the heart of Formula 1’s operations will be moved inside the stadium and known as the Team Village.

That will mean organizers will have to swiftly deconstruct the Miami Open’s Center Court – which remained in place through the 2022 Miami GP—to make way for the F1 paddock. Fans with general admission campus passes will be able to visit the Hard Rock Stadium’s 300 level and look down on the F1 paddock and its inner workings through the course of the weekend.

The track layout itself will not be altering for 2023 though organizers have responded to some criticism that arose in 2022. Drivers complained that parts of the circuit were unusually slippery off-track, meaning there was only one line, which prohibited overtaking attempts.

Ahead of this May’s event the entire circuit will be repaved while there will also be minor revisions to some run-off areas in order to accommodate tweaks to hospitality units.

Construction is also ongoing on a new three-tiered permanent Paddock Club structure on top of the existing pit building after last year’s temporary set-up encountered a handful of issues.

“We could have just come back with the race track that we had last year,” Miami GP managing partner Tom Garfinkel told media, including Autoweek.

“The goal we set out was to have great racing, a lot of overtaking, side-by-side racing, and with the track we had last year there were parts of it where there was one line where there should have been the possibility to overtake, and so we weren’t happy with that.

“We’re going to go through with the investment and expense to go ahead and repave it in an effort to get it where it races better. It raced well enough according to the teams and drivers but we want it to be as good as it can possibly be so that’s why we’re going to repave it.”

The layout of the 3.36-mile track received generally positive reviews in 2022 though there was a mixed response to the fiddling chicane prior to the backstraight. The slow complex was designed such due to the lack of run-off and the height regulations owing to the overpass that traverses the circuit.

Garfinkel explained that “there were differing opinions about the chicane” following consultation after the 2022 event.

“Some of the drivers didn’t like it, some of them thought it was fine, and throughout the grid it was the same feedback: some liked it, some didn’t, some didn’t care. We went through it with F1, the FIA and Tilke (the circuit company) and decided right now we’re not going to make changes.

“We thought about flattening it out a bit, we’re still looking at that as we finalize things, but right now it’s going to stay the same.”

The Miami race, scheduled for May 7, will be the first of three visits Formula 1 makes to the United States this year. The United States Grand Prix at Austin will take place on October 22 while the inaugural Las Vegas Grand Prix will be the penultimate round on November 18.

Formula 1 confirmed on Tuesday that this year’s schedule will be fixed at 23 events after opting against replacing the canceled Chinese round.