A mixed start to the weekend for Red Bull in F1. The second row secured by new father Verstappen is perhaps the most positive note, along with Kimi Antonelli’s pole. The team led by Christian Horner is trying to climb back up by speeding up its upgrade schedule. For the Miami Grand Prix, a new floor was introduced—only one version, made available to the world champion.
Max Verstappen still makes the difference
Even in the sprint qualifying session of the Florida Grand Prix, it was clear that the four-time world champion had managed to bring the Milton Keynes car to a position above its actual value. Only this time, it was just enough to start from fourth on the grid, compared to previous occasions where he had managed better starting spots.
Things went much worse for Yuki Tsunoda, who was eliminated in Q1 due to a delay during his warm-up lap, which caused him to cross the line after the session had already ended, leaving him unable to complete a second run. There may also have been a misunderstanding with his Dutch teammate, who was slowly ahead of him before heading back to the pits.
As often happens in the Red Bull family, when Max Verstappen’s teammate starts at the back of the grid for Sprint Races, Yuki Tsunoda could take on the role of gathering useful data for Sunday’s race. After all, with so few laps, the Sprint Race becomes a session run mainly due to contractual obligations when starting from the back.
Overall, the Austrian team didn’t do a great job on track yesterday. While their operational abilities are often praised, two serious errors were made. The first involved Yuki Tsunoda’s track position in the second Q1 run, which led to his elimination. Secondly, the pit wall failed to quickly alert about Lando Norris’s approach into the very fast turn 3 during SQ1.
This incident went unsanctioned by the stewards, as did the impeding of Stroll at the end of the long straight approaching turn 17. Lastly, the Dutch champion was summoned by the FIA for not respecting the minimum time between the two Safety Car lines. The FIA penalized the team with a reprimand.
In short, despite the double transatlantic flight due to the birth of his first child, Max seemed more alert than his engineers, who risked getting him penalized. Fourth place on the grid can be considered a good result, especially if Antonelli proves to be just as fast in the Sprint Race. At that point, there could be conditions for a fight with the McLaren pair.
Max: A result consistent with the current limits of the RB21
Despite understeer issues in the slow corners, Max managed to limit the gap to Kimi Antonelli to around two and a half tenths. The Dutch superstar admitted he had maximized the car’s potential, even though during the very first hour of free practice, he began experiencing a clear lack of rotation in all the low-speed corners, losing precious hundredths throughout the lap.
Verstappen emphasized that the RB21 performed well in sector 1 of the circuit, characterized by a series of very fast corners. In the second sector, however, there was not enough grip to properly attack the slower corners of the Florida track. Max confirmed he was not satisfied with the result; nonetheless, with a dose of realism, the result must be accepted in light of the car’s current limitations.
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