Saturday in Miami was a day of two halves for Max Verstappen. He claimed pole position for the main race in phenomenal fashion, but saw his sprint race fall apart owing to an unsafe release by Red Bull.
When asked in his Dutch media session whether he had mixed feelings after his pole, the four-time world champion responded: "You can’t change that now. Of course it wasn’t ideal, but ultimately the qualifying after that is the most important.
“That’s where you can score the most points for Sunday."
That said, the failed pitstop was certainly frustrating for Verstappen. He was almost certain of a podium position – Red Bull driver advisor Helmut Marko went as far as saying a win was possible – until the stop to swap intermediates for slicks, after which he was released into the path of Andrea Kimi Antonelli’s Mercedes.
The time lost to evasive action, and the inevitable collision, cost Verstappen track position even before he was handed a 10-second penalty which ruled him out of the points.
Verstappen has made it clear that execution needs to be flawless, since the RB21 is still not on McLaren’s level.
"I came into the garage after the race and of course they already knew it themselves, but you have to understand that I’m not happy about it either," Verstappen said.
When it was put to him that those mistakes could be destructive to his title aspirations in the long run, he was unequivocal
"That’s true, but they know that too. It really shouldn’t happen, but it does. We need to make sure it doesn’t happen again."
The issue in Miami was, as Marko also pointed out, different from the problems in Bahrain.
"This was a judgment error [rather than an equipment failure, as was the case in Bahrain],” Marko told Autosport. “You have to press a button, and you have all sorts of references for when you can release it and when not.
“That went wrong."
Despite this, a pattern is forming. Red Bull was for years the benchmark in the pitlane, but that can no longer be said in 2025.
"Yes,” conceded Marko, “but of course other teams are also trying to improve. You can’t say they hit a wall every year.
“Everyone improves, and right now things just aren’t going well for us."
Keen debaters will be familiar with the Latin phrase post hoc ergo propter hoc, the logical fallacy in which a causal relationship is inferred between events happening in sequence.
In this case, the popular assumption in the F1 paddock is that the pitlane glitches are a result of the recent departure of sporting director Jonathan Wheatley to become Sauber’s team principal. Wheatley was responsible for drilling the Red Bull pitcrew into one of the sharpest operations in the paddock
"Yes, of course, some people have been rotated," said Verstappen when Autosport put it to him that a popular narrative was forming which connected Wheatley’s departure to the sagging performance of the pitcrew.
"Certain people now have different roles, but I think it’s too easy to immediately blame it on that. It just shouldn't happen, that’s very clear."
Stay up to speed with the latest F1 Miami Grand Prix news, expert analysis, photos and videos
