Should Verstappen be worried after what happened in Miami?

Max Verstappen and red bull They are not identified with F1 Miami GP. It is very rare to see the Dutchman having problems driving his car comfortably, the championship’s dominant single-seater. However, in Miami, Max admits that the track choked him in the beginning and he couldn’t find the right balance. It joins the new package of improvements presented by McLaren. It worked like a charm and Lando Norris He was able to defeat Max and achieve the victory that had so eluded him. Has McLaren caught up with Red Bull? Could there be more fighting in the rest of the World Cup? We examine this below.

Red Bull problems

“Now it’s a bit complicated,” said Max after the race in Miami. “I think that in the media the feeling is incredible. We are getting away (leading), but not as we should. And when we stopped and I heard the times that the McLarens were doing, I said to myself: “Wow, they’re so fast.” So once they switch to hard tires, they have more speed. And especially Lando, he flies. But if a bad day is a second position, I’ll take it, right? And I’m very happy for Lando,” said Max.

Christian Horner attributed the car’s poor race performance in that second stint on the hard rubber to a hole in the floor of the car that had opened up due to Max leaving the track on lap 22., when he hit a bollard. And that’s it there are very clear pictures of that effect where you can see bits of fiber sticking out of the ground. That effect obviously had to affect the performance of Max’s car in that stint on hard tires and may explain why Lando pulled away. But there is more.

A lot more has nothing to do with getting off that track. Before that problem, Max Verstappen was not comfortable and he was not able to open a big gap like in other Grands Prix. And on Saturday he was not able to open a big gap in the sprint either, because he succeeded by only 3 seconds. In fact, Max admitted not finding the right balance throughout the GP: “I was not comfortable the whole weekend.”

Is it something certain? No degradation

Be careful because the result of the Miami GP can give us a misleading feeling and lead us to hasty conclusions. All due to the lack of track damage. Of Red Bull’s many strengths, the main one is lowering the tires lower than its rivals. That means they can squeeze their tires more and faster than their rivals on all types of tracks. But in Miami, Verstappen and Red Bull could not make a difference with that weapon because on the American track the degradation was minimal. The wheels are not damaged. The differences between the racing cars have to be marked by other factors. And there it became clear that without degradation in the wheels, the battle could be fierce.

However, we will have to wait for the Emilia Romagna GP in Imola to see if what happened in Miami is true or something certain. McLaren has improved a lot and taken another step forward, but now they have to confirm it on a track where the tires are cutting. Can McLaren get close to Red Bull in these conditions?

Not just McLaren

In Miami, Ferrari also showed the pace of the race to aim for victory and it is expected that in Imola the Italian team will present its first important package of evolutions. They want to challenge Red Bull and McLaren more strongly, which should be confirmed at Imola. In turn, Aston Martin is expected to make improvements, although they are starting from a worse position to think about the challenge to Red Bull.

Verstappen and Norris responded

Max Verstappen and Lando Norris were asked at a press conference if McLaren was up to the task of continuing to challenge Red Bull.

“Yeah, I mean, they came with an update. Yeah, it sure seems to work, right? So we have a little work to do on our end. “I don’t think it was our best weekend in terms of race pace, but we will analyze everything and try to come back stronger,” Verstappen said after the race.

For his part, Lando Norris trusts his team.

“At the beginning of the year I said we could win races. The team did an incredible job. We are not even in Q2 here last year. So now that we’re on top, that we’ve won a race, the team has done an incredible job to get from where we are to where we are now. And we’ve gradually drifted apart, especially in the past two months. There was a lot of hard work. And every time you bring improvement, it’s not easy to go out and execute and prove that you’re better. But little things add up and when all these little things come together, it becomes a perfect day like today,” said Lando.

“So of course I have to thank everyone at McLaren, everyone at the factory, everyone here, because I doubt… it’s more likely that I wouldn’t have won today without these improvements and without the hard work they put into everything. So I want to say that this is the beginning And now I’m still looking forward. But, yes, we will keep our heads down. We’ll keep pushing and I’m sure we’ll be here more often.”Norris added.