Verstappen avoids penalty, Red Bull reprimanded
The Red Bull Racing team received an official reprimand from the race stewards during sprint qualifying for the Miami Grand Prix. Max Verstappen, who qualified 4th behind Kimi Antonelli's surprising pole position and the two McLarens, was investigated for driving too slowly during the SQ2 session.
During the Miami Grand Prix sprint qualifying, Max Verstappen narrowly avoided a penalty after breaching the maximum allowed time between the safety car lines. The race stewards concluded that the Red Bull driver was not responsible for the infraction, unlike his team, which received an official reprimand.
The FIA sporting regulations state that at no time may a car be driven « unnecessarily slowly, erratically, or in a manner that could be judged potentially dangerous to other drivers or any other person ». For this Miami Grand Prix, the race management imposed a maximum time of 1m45s based on the practice times.
A technical error saves Verstappen
The incident occurred in SQ2, when Verstappen exceeded the imposed delta time by 6 seconds. Telemetry data revealed that the Dutchman was driving at a constant speed, without hindering other drivers. Red Bull explained that the display of this time in the car was incorrect due to a programming issue, which misled Verstappen.
The team identified the problem at the end of the first cooling lap and immediately asked the Dutch driver to adjust his speed to be at least 6 seconds below the delta time displayed in the car, which he did in all subsequent laps.
The commissioners acknowledged that, although there was a violation of the regulations, Verstappen did not drive unnecessarily slowly based on the information available to him from the car. Furthermore, he did not impede any other car or create a dangerous situation. Therefore, they deemed that a penalty for the driver was not justified, but issued a reprimand to the team, responsible for ensuring that the correct timing information is displayed in the car.
Moreover, the commissioners specified in their decision that « under different circumstances, a more severe penalty could be applied for a similar infraction. »
It should be noted that another incident occurred earlier in Q1 when Lance Stroll found himself behind Max Verstappen on the ideal trajectory, on the main straight of the Miami circuit, just before the last corner. The Canadian had to alter his trajectory when braking to avoid the Red Bull. On the radio, he described the situation as dangerous, believing it cost him access to Q2 by a tenth of a second. However, this incident was not investigated by the stewards.
Verstappen realistic about the limitations of his Red Bull
After qualifying in 4th position for the sprint race, Verstappen was pragmatic about his performance: « I think what we did in Q3 was good, the tires held up pretty well. But unfortunately, since free practice 1, I’m struggling with a lot of understeer in the car and here, with all these low-speed corners, you lose quite a bit of lap time. I think you can see in the first sector that we are quite competitive, that’s where there are some high-speed corners. But as soon as we get to the slowest corners, we lack grip. »
The world champion added: « The 4th place is okay. Of course, it’s not where I want to be, but we also have to be realistic with the limitations we currently have, and I think it was still quite close. »
When asked about his ambitions for the race, Verstappen chose to remain reserved: “It’s always very difficult to say during a sprint weekend, because there really isn’t any data for long runs. But just based on my own feeling with the car’s balance, I think it will be tough with the heat. We know our limitations, we just have to try to make the most of it,” he responded.
