“We’re getting there, we’re not the same yet.”
This was Max Verstappen’s reaction to McLaren team boss Andrea Stella’s comment that there are “four teams in such a tight competition”, following an encouraging Miami Grand Prix for Red Bull, with Mercedes prevailing and Ferrari also in the mix.
Isack Hadjar had a nightmare weekend, well off Verstappen’s pace before being excluded from qualifying over illegal car floorboards and crashing out of the grand prix on lap five.
The Dutchman, however, qualified and finished fifth in the sprint, before clinching a front-row start for the main race, which he finished down in fifth again after spinning on the first lap.
“There is a definitive step forward,” team principal Laurent Mekies rejoiced. “We left Japan 1.2 seconds away from pole, China 1.0 second away from pole. The competition was not going to wait for us with their updates, so everybody has updated the car. But certainly we knew that on top of the development race, we had to solve some of our issues. And we knew there was lap time in it.”
Laurent Mekies, Red Bull Racing Team Principal
Photo by: Chris Graythen / Getty Images
“So, to see us this weekend qualifying six tenths away from pole on Friday and less than two tenths away from pole on Saturday is a big indication of the size of the progress. What number is the correct one, we don’t know. But compared to where we were, it’s something much better than anything we have been able to show this year.
“Race pace was strong, confirming the good sign shown in quali. Not strong enough for P1 and P2, but perhaps able to put us in a fight between P3, P4 and P5. So again, some things that we had not shown so far this season. And it’s credit to everyone back in Milton Keynes for such an important step forward.”
Mekies’ analysis is spot on. Miami marked the first time a Red Bull got any closer to pole position than Hadjar’s 0.785s deficit in Melbourne; this was the second time the team was ‘best of the rest’ behind Mercedes.
| Gap to pole position | Gap to best non-Mercedes | |
 Australia |
0.785s | 0.000s |
 China |
0.938s | 0.587s |
 Japan |
1.200s | 0.846s |
 Miami |
0.166s | 0.000s |
Hadjar’s performance at Albert Park was partly down to finding a decent set-up, while the car was out of its ideal operating window in China and Japan, where it was outqualified by the other three top teams as well as Alpine’s Pierre Gasly.
In Miami, Red Bull was aided by a comprehensive upgrade package featuring an updated floor, engine cover, sidepod inlet and front and rear wings among other parts, which delivered what the team expected, technical director Pierre Wache confirmed to Autosport.
As far as race pace was concerned, Verstappen’s 44-second deficit under the chequered flag hardly was representative of his potential; he finished lap one in ninth following his spin, and his sole pitstop during the early safety car period dropped him down to 16th, setting him up for a mammoth 51-lap stint on hards, during which he performed a whopping 10 overtaking moves.
Regardless, there is no overconfidence at Red Bull, which has further upgrades coming up – including weight-reducing items which may be introduced near the Austrian Grand Prix in late June.
“Don’t get me wrong, we have not cracked everything we wanted to,” Mekies said. “So us against us, there is more we want to extract out of our package. And then we are conscious that the development race will be on and the competition will bring stuff in the next race.”
Additional reporting by Stuart Codling
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– The Autosport.com Team
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