Sergio Perez brands Miami Grand Prix a "joke" as Red Bull star qualifies fourth

Red Bull star Sergio Perez has slammed the state of the track in Miami ahead of the inaugural Grand Prix later this evening.

Throughout practice and qualifying, drivers have been complaining about a lack of grip when they stray off the rubbered-in racing line, leading Perez to label the surface "a joke", and there are serious concerns that the track isn't up to usual Formula 1 standards.

"I think most importantly the surface is a joke," the Mexican driver said on Saturday. "Tomorrow the racing is going be difficult. And you're going to have the drivers making mistakes because we've been put into this situation."

Both Fernando Alonso and Daniel Ricciardo echoed Perez' comments and it's understood that concerns about the track were raised during Friday night’s drivers’ briefing.

"It's still very difficult to go offline," Alonso said. "There's like rubble out of line, so it's going to be difficult. We said yesterday that the track, the tarmac, is not F1 standards.

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"Nothing we can do. I think this weekend we need to put on the show, but this has to change for next year. It's very difficult to race like this."

Ricciardo added: "You literally have to just stay on that one line. Otherwise, you're not really on the track anymore. So I don't want to lie and say I like the surface." The Australian's McLaren team-mate Lando Norris had similar complaints and even suggested that race organisers were simply "winging" it.

Fans have also hit out at the track's aesthetics after designers built a bizarre fake marina for drivers to race past, with some even comparing it to graphics from the World of Warcraft video game.

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