After the Miami Grand Prix, Max Verstappen contradicted himself by saying he was having trouble with understeer and lack of grip, even though he had earlier stated that his accident with the bollard at the Turns 14 and 15 chicane did not result in any damage that would have harmed his lap time.
When Verstappen missed the chicane entry at Turn 14, he was leading the race. The Dutchman scrambled over the kerb to avoid losing too much time on the difficult portion of the circuit. This caused damage to the underside of his RB20 and clattered the bollard, sending it onto the racetrack and finally igniting a virtual safety car.
Lando Norris took the lead later in the race after a safety car was activated by Kevin Magnussen and Logan Sargeant. Verstappen started the race in second position but was unable to catch up to the McLaren driver, who built up a lead of more than seven seconds, forcing the Red Bull star to settle for a P2 finish.
After the race, Verstappen was questioned about if the damage from his collision with the curb had cost him any time. He said, “It didn’t feel different, so I don’t know.” It might have already sustained harm. I’m not sure. I didn’t really know if there was damage because I hit that thing and continued at the same rate.
However, Christian Horner, the team principal, did not agree with these remarks. “He hit the bollard around Lap 20, and that’s actually done quite a bit of damage to the underside of the car, so we’ll have to look at exactly what the effect of that has been,” Verstappen’s manager stated in an explanation.
Verstappen changed his tune after making these remarks, as the three-time world champion was described by Red Bull in their press release following the race as lamenting understeer and a lack of grip at the Miami International Autodrome.
Verstappen qualified his performance by saying, “When we took the car back to the garage, we also found that the floor was damaged and had a hole in which could have been picked up from hitting the cone.””
“In the end, we were not quick enough today,” he continued. We had plenty of chances to win the race even without the assistance of the Safety Car; sadly, we lacked pace. Throughout the weekend, we also had trouble with the car’s tyres and balance, and I never felt very at ease driving.
“I was understeering at the high speed, and we also had a lot of tire grip issues. We didn’t have the best weekend, which truly demonstrates that winning races requires a lot of work and is harder than most people realize.
Verstappen has actually increased his lead in the championship to 33 points after his P2 finish in Miami. However, the Dutchman now regularly faces Norris, Charles Leclerc, and possibly future teammate Carlos Sainz, as Ferrari is getting ready to launch a significant upgrade package for the race in Imola.
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