At the end of qualifying in Miami, all ten drivers left their respective cars without big smiles, including poleman Verstappen. As happened on Friday, yesterday too Max was surprised when his engineer Giampiero Lambiase confirmed via radio that he had won his sixth pole of the season. Once they took off their helmets and exchanged first impressions, the riders themselves realized that no one had managed to complete a perfect lap.
Some had complaints about the first sector, some slipped in the guided section of T2, some found themselves with overheated tires in the last section. From subsequent briefings it emerged that in the conditions in which qualifying was held yesterday in Miami, a perfect lap was effectively impossible. The blanket available was short for everyone. “All it really took was a small slide – explained Lando Norris – a pass of 2 km/h more and you found yourself with the hottest tires for the rest of the lap”.
Once again, in a scenario that could potentially be an opportunity for his opponents, it was Verstappen who emerged. Managing the tires in the track conditions present in Miami was made very difficult by the high level of unpredictability, the slightest correction was enough to trigger the feared increase in temperatures and goodbye to the usage window. The teams worked on pressure, on out-lap and there are those (like Mercedes and McLaren) who decided to use medium tires hoping that in some way it could be a winning choice. In the end, however, Verstappen once again made the difference.
Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing RB20
Photo by: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images
“We needed to find the best compromise – commented Helmut Marko – and Max found it. I think everyone was looking for something that in the end it wasn’t possible to have, no one had the situation under control, as confirmed by Mercedes’ choice to use a set of mediums in Q3, practically a desperate move. Perez didn’t make any mistakes, he too, like Max, sought the mix between speed and tire protection, but it’s a passage that requires a lot of feeling and also a pinch of luck, because if you have a small slide it’s already over. And Sergio couldn’t quite put it all together like Max did.”
There are days when Red Bull’s technical superiority takes over, but that’s not always the case. Yesterday in Miami we needed a cool head, to understand where we could try to dare something more and where to avoid even the slightest forcing. “It’s not really fun to drive in these conditions – explained Verstappen – you take a corner exactly like the previous lap but suddenly at the exit you lose a tenth or two and you don’t know why, you lose grip but you don’t understand what you did differently. When the behavior of the tires is constant it’s simply a matter of pushing, but on this track you really have no idea if it will be good or bad in terms of times.”
The 57 laps of the race scheduled for today should not be as complex as the single qualifying lap. There are no unknowns regarding the strategies, net of the ‘safety car’ variable, the race will see only one stop, with the most popular scenario seeing a start on the medium compound and a subsequent transition to the hard one. Even for Verstappen, like Sainz, the choice made by Pirelli to use the C2, C3 and C4 compounds over the weekend is probably too conservative. “I don’t think there are many doubts about the strategies – confirmed Max – personally I find races with two or three stops more fun, there are more variables and different possible scenarios. But there are also many factors to keep in mind, these are issues that must be addressed with Pirelli.”
Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing RB20, Charles Leclerc, Ferrari SF-24
Photo by: Andy Hone / Motorsport Images
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