During Friday in preparation for the F1 Grand Prix of Miami, Max Verstappen finished the first free practice in third. In the second free practice, things went from bad to worse and the world champion finished without setting a time at P19.
At the Miami International Autodrome, George Russell in his Mercedes set the fastest time ahead of Charles Leclerc’s Ferrari. Max’ teammate at Oracle Red Bull Racing, Sergio Perez, was third. Lewis Hamilton’s Mercedes and Fernando Alonso’s Alpine rounded out the top five.
“It was not a good day and that is especially painful on this track. You want to be outside as much as possible, get to know the track and also find the speed, but basically I was only able to do four or five fast laps. That is absolutely not what you want”, says Max after the second training.
Max continues: “We had hydraulic problems. From the moment I drove out, I couldn’t steer properly. The brakes also caught fire, so yes, a lot of problems. Those problems have cost important laps and so there is work to be done.”
Looking ahead to the rest of the weekend, Max says: “Of course we are trying to make up for the gap, but this is far from ideal. Other drivers have a better idea of the track and it’s not just that. We don’t have any data from my car either, so this is extremely painful.”
Other teams also suffered from the red flags but Max is clear about that. “That doesn’t excuse what happened to us today, we have to look at ourselves and we could have done more today.”