The four-time world champion reacted positively after finishing fifth in Sprint Qualifying in Miami. The RB22 has made a significant step forward in terms of overall performance, but Max Verstappen admitted that “power is still missing” in certain areas of the lap.
If two years ago someone had suggested that Max Verstappen would be satisfied with a fifth place in qualifying, almost six tenths behind the pole position time (592 thousandths, to be precise), most people would probably have assumed something had gone seriously wrong with Red Bull’s competitive programme.
Instead, that is exactly what happened in the last few hours. The four-time Formula 1 world champion, widely regarded as the best driver in F1 and arguably in the world at present, stepped out of his Red Bull RB22 with a sense of satisfaction after Sprint Qualifying, the session that determined the starting grid for the Miami Sprint Race.
Red Bull brought a large number of visible upgrades to Miami for both Max Verstappen and Isack Hadjar. A high volume of new components does not automatically guarantee a proportional performance gain, but within the Red Bull camp there is clear satisfaction because the expected improvements have largely materialised.
Max Verstappen did not hide the fact that the RB22 now feels more alive and responsive in his hands. Of course, the power-related issues on the straights still appear to be present, despite the introduction of a revised rear wing concept designed to partially compensate for the previously mentioned deficit. However, the overall direction now seems to be the correct one.
“We seem more alive. We are still working on many things, but it has been a really positive step forward for us. In the first three races we were about one second behind, but I would say we’ve now practically halved the gap. That is positive,” said the Dutch driver after the first day of track action in the state of Florida.
“We are still very weak in the first sector. That is the part of the track where we lose the most time, and it is all high-speed. We will have to keep working on that.”
“For the rest, the car felt more compact, and we were able to outperform the rest of the midfield in terms of performance. And that is definitely a positive.”
Isack Hadjar, however, struggled significantly more. The French driver managed to qualify ninth in SQ3, but found himself sandwiched between the two Alpine cars of Franco Colapinto and Pierre Gasly. The most concerning aspect, however, is the one-second gap separating him from Max Verstappen, a difference that clearly highlights the current performance spread within the team.
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