“Was Confident Coming Into…”: Red Bull Boss Explains How a Frustrated Max Verstappen Plotted His Miami GP Masterclass

 “(Winning is) not impossible,” said Max Verstappen after Miami Grand Prix qualifying. In the final race, the reigning world champion has proven that nothing is truly impossible for him. The moment the lights went out, the race began, and with it began Verstappen’s chase to the top. He masterfully scythed through the field and finished on the top. One might wonder how was he so confident about the win despite starting from ninth place. 

Verstappen was the pole favorite in the Qualifying, but he made a costly mistake in Q3 and didn’t get the chance to rectify it. He abandoned his lap after suffering an oversteer moment during a high-speed section, hoping a final lap, in the end, would be enough to top the timesheets. But Charles Leclerc’s late crash threw water on his plans by bringing Q3 to a premature end. Frustrated by his qualifying mistake, the 2x champ decided to do something different for the main race. And that’s how he won the race. 

While Sergio Perez started on medium tires, the Dutchman chose an alternative strategy and went on Hard tires – and it made the whole difference in the race. Perez had to pit first to switch to hards before Verstappen made his lone stop on lap 45 of 57 to put on mediums. Verstappen was just 1.5 seconds behind Perez when he emerged on significantly fresher and softer tires, and it wasn’t a contest. Although Perez attempted to put up a defense, Verstappen emerged victorious. 

Speaking about Verstappen’s masterful decision as quoted by Speedcafe, Red Bull team principal Christian Horner said: “If he’d run the other strategy, the performance would have been very similar. He was obviously frustrated with himself after quali, that he made a mistake and obviously didn’t get the chance to rectify that. He was confident coming into the race, and just wanted to do something slightly different.”

He further added that during the strategy discussion “All the numbers are run overnight and we weighed up the pros and cons, his engineering team. And Max was keen to give that a run. I was happy to sign it off and say ‘If that’s what you want to do, then okay.”

Read More: Max Verstappen Reveals the Only Condition in Which He’ll Win More Titles With Red Bull

Max Verstappen finished the race with a 5s gap to his teammate-rival Sergio Perez. 

‘I always feel unbeatable’: Max Verstappen after winning Miami Grand Prix

Verstappen hunted down his teammate Sergio Perez and passed the Mexican with nine laps to go to take his third win of the season in Miami. Even on his worn tires, Verstappen’s pace was so electrifying that he became ‘unreachable’ to his teammate in the same machinery. After the race, when asked if he feels unbeatable, the Dutchman told Sky Sports: “I always feel unbeatable”.

Then he added: “But sometimes other people also have a really good day and they can be close to you, or match you and be ahead. But I think what is important is to try to be close to 100 percent or perfect every single time. Yesterday wasn’t perfect, so overall this weekend wasn’t perfect. It’s a long season and I always try to be as close as possible to perfect.”

If Perez converted his pole into a win, he would be leading the F1 drivers’ championship for the first time in his career by now. 

Watch this story: “Will Daniel Ricciardo Get Swapped in for Sergio Perez at Red Bull?”

Verstappen is leading the championship standings with 119 points, while Perez had to settle for second place with 105 points.