Max Verstappen immediately raised the alarm. “I hit this cone at turn 15. Check the front wing,” asked the leader of the Miami Grand Prix on Sunday, at his low wall. “Weak grip, I locked the wheels again!”, he warned, on the 28th of the 57 passes imposed during the 6th round of the 2024 World Championship.
In a bad mood, the three-time world champion lost everything on the following lap, when the safety car placed itself in front of the hood of his n°1 RB19, while the new leader, Lando Norris (McLaren) was preparing to return to the pit for a “free” stop.
Then, on the 30th lap, we understood that “Super Max” is in great difficulty on this Florida Sunday. Unable to contain the time bleeding behind the McLaren of Lando Norris, the future winner. “I can’t get the car to turn. It’s a disaster!”, he grumbled, once again, on the 39th lap.
Floor damage
Powerless against the pace of the Woking car, he settled for second place because he was also no match for the invisible forces of physics. “Sometimes we win, sometimes we lose,” he admitted to Jenson Button’s microphone. “Today was complicated with the ‘mediums’. It didn’t go very well, as well as expected. When we stopped and I heard McLaren’s times behind, I knew they were very fast. When we went to the ‘hard’, Lando had a lot more pace than me. This stint was difficult. , on a bad day I’m still second! Oversteer, understeer, lack of grip… This is something we need to understand. It’s not our strongest weekend in terms of performance. racing pace.”
He didn’t talk about it, but the cone ripped off his base in turn 15 may have sealed his fate. “Max was a little unlucky to suffer damage to the floor when he hit the cone on the 21st lap,” reacted his boss, Christian Horner, on Sunday. “He did well to maintain his position, but it was difficult for him to get over.”
The Milton Keynes boss also insisted on the fact that before the incident, he was managing to widen the gap on the McLarens of Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris. The team will perhaps communicate on the aero deficit generated but that will not change the basic observation: Red Bull has never managed to balance its single-seaters with everyone and its driver paid cash for one of his rare errors of the season.
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