Red Bull has revealed that Max Verstappen’s hopes of challenging Lando Norris for the race win in Formula 1’s Miami Grand Prix were derailed by floor damage.
It’s not like Max was flying before the damage either. He was pulling away a little, sure, but nothing like usual. It’s clear the McLaren was just really fast here, just look at the relative laptimes of both Piastri and Norris before Max’s supposed damage.
I’m more inclined to think Max’s pace was lacking due to setup problems. It has happened before for Redbull, in particular on sprints. We’ll see in Imola just how well the new McLaren upgrades work. I suspect we’ll be back to our regularly scheduled programming, but I hope I’m wrong.
Verstappen himself said the car didn’t feel any different after he hit the bollard.
Sure, maybe it damaged something. Or maybe he picked up damage from something else, debris or whatever. But it’s also clear that Red Bull didn’t get the setup right in Miami and that McLaren had serious pace.
Imola is going to clear all this away. No sprint setup excuses, a normal race weekend. We will see if the challenge from McLaren is real (please be real) or not.
Important to remember that just because lightning struck once they still bolted on a ton of new parts to the car and it will take time to optimize it all.
I would fucking love to see Lando and Oscar up front again next race but I won’t be shocked if they’re closer to the P2-P6 hunt they’ve been in either.
Maclaren have been really bringing their a game. Hope they don’t fall off like amr did. It feels as thoufh redbull has not been as consistent this season so far …so at leeast it might be a interesting year even all the way to the front in some of the races.although doesnot look like anyone will challange max for championship
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