Max Verstappen suspects Lando Norris would have been a threat in yesterday’s Miami Grand Prix even if the Safety Car hadn’t helped him.
Norris took the lead of the race by delaying his pit stop until later than his rivals. He lucked in when the Safety Car was deployed, allowing him to make his pit stop and rejoin at the front of the field ahead of Verstappen.However Norris had gained on Verstappen while lapping on the medium tyre compound earlier in the race.
“I didn’t really see him in the beginning because I was more focused on Oscar [Piastri] behind and the Ferraris,” Verstappen explained. “But then I boxed and I heard the pace that he was doing on the used Mediums.
“I was like, ‘I mean, that’s quite insane’. I would have never been able to do so.
“So I knew even if there wouldn’t have been a Safety Car that when he would come out on fresh tyres that I would have had to push on quite a lot to be able to keep him behind.”
Although the Safety Car worked against Verstappen, he believes he would still have had a chance to win if Norris’ car hadn’t been so quick.
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“The Safety Car came [and] it’s racing: Sometimes it works for you, sometimes it works against you.
“Even with that Safety Car, we still had all the opportunities to win today, but we’re clearly not quick enough after that Safety Car. Once I realised that, I just settled in and tried to come home in second.”
Norris “was just miles faster at the end,” admitted Verstappen, who finished the race over seven seconds behind the McLaren.
Verstappen said he struggled with a lack of grip. “I was just quite poor, I would say, in the race,” he said. “But also, I never really felt comfortable the whole weekend with it. I think on the medium it was still okay-ish, but on the hard it was quite a disaster.
“Just low grip, very tricky balance in the low-speed [corners]. I couldn’t really lean on the rear while in the high-speed I was understeering a lot.
“When you have these two issues, you cannot also balance it out because you’re chasing two different things. So yeah, just driving to the grip that I had and it was not a lot.”
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2024 Miami Grand Prix
- McLaren had superior pace before Verstappen’s damage in Miami – Norris
- Sainz ‘struggles to understand’ why he got penalty when Perez didn’t
- Alonso’s unusual brake problem and more unheard Miami team radio
- McLaren’s Miami upgrade success points to even stronger form in coming races
- Norris expects more wins this year and believes “100%” in 2025 title bid
Biskit Boy (@sean-p-newmanlive-co-uk)
6th May 2024, 8:19
Another big step by McLaren. I don’t think it was just an off weekend for Red Bull. If Piastri had all of the updates I think he would have caught Verstappen early on.
I we see more of this!
Patrick (@anunaki)
6th May 2024, 8:59
Well it was another Sprint weekend where Redbull didn’t get the balance right in one training so there are more variables here.
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
6th May 2024, 10:19
Yes, he was pulling away at a rate of 3 seconds every 1\3 of race, so in a normal race he’d have ended 9 sec ahead of piastri, but that is before taking strategy and norris’ upgraded mclaren into account, I saw immediately that red bull wasn’t as fast as we got used to in recent times, I think it was the 2nd weakest red bull this year, after australia.
According to the 2 tenths per lap I heard that the mclaren upgrades might be worth, yes, piastri should’ve been able to stick with verstappen and maybe overtake him, since drs was unusually weak here.
Osnola
6th May 2024, 9:37
Thought experiment, lets transfer this situation to the endrace of the championship and project the emotions of such a race to a major mistake made by maylander.
That would have been an incident comparable with the mistake made in 2021.
Nevertheless a very deserved victory by lando, just like then.
hunocsi (@hunocsi)
6th May 2024, 9:56
Yeah, I was immediately thinking that this is as bad a procedural mistake as AD 2021, and that we wouldn’t hear the end of it from commentators and especially Red Bull, but it seems like everyone is fine with it being just “pure luck”? Very strange.
To be honest I also thought that people would be complaining against Magnussen getting a penalty vs. Sargeant when it seemed like he was the one who closed the door/was not aware of another car being there, but people are mostly fine with that as well.
Osnola
6th May 2024, 11:10
It is strange indeed. But magnussen is the bad boy so seems to deserve every penalty.
While i.e. sainz for a same transgression only received 5 seconds.
Two things are important here for this win by Trump.
Everyone was happy for Norris and while the McLaren ceo is trying hard to be as annoying ad toto he does not really succeeds there.
The second one is indeed the fact it was an unimportant win for the standings and like verstappen in 2021 norris did nothing wrong and deserved the win.
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
6th May 2024, 10:21
Yes, agree it’s just as bad a mistake by the fia and that the reason we don’t hear complaints is that there’s no championship fights or anything.
MichaelN
6th May 2024, 14:09
It was bad, and made worse by it happening before. Wittich definitely messed with the race yesterday. The ‘where is the leader’ question should always factor into the timing of the safety car. And they know this, because there are countless examples of a SC call being delayed in the past. That said, Wittich hasn’t given any reason to suspect foul play (unlike in Valencia 2010), but it was definitely something that needs to be improved.
Keith Campbell (@keithedin)
6th May 2024, 11:43
Yeah, it’s a shame the safety car happened, because this could have actually been a very exciting race if Norris had to chase and catch Verstappen for the win. It probably would have been a tall order with all the other cars he would have to clear, but with fresh tyres, I’m not sure they would have had much of a defense or cost home significant time.
As it was, I only found it to be an average or slightly below average race in terms of entertainment, which is only highly rated because of an unexpected result and new race winner.