Max Verstappen hopes that his balance troubles with his Red Bull Formula 1 car in the Miami Sprint race represent the “worst-case scenario” despite taking the win.
Having started from pole, the Dutchman claimed the holeshot as he pinched Charles Leclerc to the inside to ensure that he emerged from Turn 1 still leading in first.
Despite complaining that he had “zero grip” across the encounter, Verstappen managed the gap to Leclerc to post a comfortable 3.3-second win over the Ferrari driver.
It provides an ominous warning to the rest of the grid that Verstappen was still able to triumph with relative ease, setting him up for the remaining weekend sessions.
When asked by Motorsport Week whether he was confident that he could improve the car, Verstappen said: “I hope this is [the] worst-case scenario, let’s say that, because I didn’t really feel happy with the car.
“So there is definitely a lot of room for improvement and hopefully we can find that already in [Grand Prix] qualifying.
“But I think nonetheless in qualifying, it’s always so tricky around here on this track to get the tyres to work over one lap.
“And even when you think that you nailed it, then you go out again with another tyre set, it’s still very hard to be consistent on it.
“So that is going to be the trickiest part, I think, of the weekend to try and get right again in Quali.
“And then, yeah, if we just make the balance a bit better then our deg will be better in the race and then normally yeah we maybe should be even more competitive.”
Verstappen had admitted that his set-up had been ideal during FP1 but then swung in the subsequent sessions, leaving him thankful parc ferme will now re-open.
“We changed a few things that we thought would be better, probably, going into qualifying and it didn’t work,” Verstappen explained.
“So we’ll look into what we can improve now.
“And yeah, of course, that’s why I am very happy with this new format, that at least you can make a few changes. Otherwise, you are stuck with it and basically, it can ruin your weekend.”
