Max Verstappen said that the reliability struggles of his Red Bull team were hurting their hopes of defending his World Championship.
He blamed his lack of knowledge of the car on the track caused by a messy Friday on which he managed very few laps for his loss of pole position at the Florida city's inaugural race.
The mistake gave title rival Charles Leclerc the opportunity to jump ahead of Verstappen, but also let in his teammate Carlos Sainz to seal a front row for Sunday's race.
The world champion now has two red cars to beat on Sunday, not just one, which has been the case so far this year.
Verstappen said that it is very important to do laps and understand the car on a street circuit.
It is easy to get in a rhythm on a normal track, but on a street circuit it is more difficult and we failed on that side.
Verstappen said the weekend was incredibly messy and that it was difficult for them.
Verstappen and Red Bull had a difficult day on Friday. The overheating problems in the first practice session limited his running and caused enough damage to require a change of the gearbox.
Verstappen was late for the second session and his car was not working on his first lap. A fire in a rear brake was caused by a leak in the car's systems. That was the end of his day.
On Saturday morning, Verstappen hit the ground running. The effects lasted into the qualification.
He said that you start today still learning the track, trying to find a set-up because yesterday you had no idea what worked.
We can catch up a lot of it, but we can't afford to fight against a strong team. If we had a cleaner Friday, we could have done a better job.
It was fine until a point where I had to really go to the limit and try to find more time.
He was the fastest on the first runs in final qualification. He knew that Leclerc and Sainz would improve. He took things too far and lost his car at Turn Five.
He said it was a weird moment to lose the car, but blamed it on not knowing the limits.
The start of the season in which Verstappen failed to finish in two of the first four races cost him 36 points to Leclerc.
He was forced to retire from the second race in Australia due to two different fuel system problems.
The error Leclerc made while trying to chase down Perez allowed Verstappen to claw back seven more points than he already would have had Leclerc finished third.
Verstappen still trails his rival by 27 points heading into the race, a margin he knows will not be easy to overtake, and is clearly uncomfortable as to whether his team is fully on top of the operation of its car at this stage of the season.
The Miami race has been a huge hit. Liberty Media took over the sport and wanted a grand prix here. Plans for a street circuit downtown that would have taken in one of the bridges over Biscayne Bay towards Miami Beach had to be dropped in the face of local opposition.
It is an impressive facility, considering the alternative is a track built on land. The city has taken to racing. When tickets went on sale, they sold out quickly. Many of the fans who made it in are celebrities.
On Sunday many more will be promised, including basketball legends Michael Jordan and LeBron James, as well as Hollywood stars, including The Rock and Renee Zellweger.
The place is buzzing and the drivers all like the circuit, with the exception of the slow-speed section towards the end of the second sector.
At the beginning of the weekend, they were worried that the part would ruin the flow of the track. Over the weekend, there was a bigger issue with safety.
There was no impact-absorbing barrier there, so Sainz did a lot of damage to his car, despite the low speeds involved.
Sainz was clear that a barrier was needed but his pleas were ignored.
Shortly after the start of final practice on Saturday, Alpine's Esteban Ocon had an almost identical accident, and again recorded a heavy impact. It broke his car, and that made him miss out on qualification. The drivers were not impressed.
Sainz said that he told the FIA yesterday that his crash at second gear shouldn't feel hard. I told them to put Techpro there because it was a very hard concrete wall and I was in pain.
Esteban crashed and I am pretty sure he felt it too and it is one of those things I will never understand.
Ocon said that it was 51G for what should have been a small impact.
I hurt my knees. That is the biggest thing. I wasn't expecting it to be that bad. It would have been fine if Techpro had been there.
Carlos said the impact was too big, and it felt huge today. It is probably the biggest challenge of my career to date. Yesterday Carlos and I got hurt. The FIA needs to push harder for our safety.
When a professional driver of the caliber of Carlos, driving for Ferrari, says something like this, I think the minimum is that it should be taken into consideration and do the best possible change.
The corner was not considered a priority for a barrier before the weekend because it was not a safety concern.
The irony is that the FIA has been making a big deal about safety recently in another area, also to controversial effect.
Lewis Hamilton was forced to take out his earrings before being able to drive because of Wittich's rules forbidding drivers to wear jewellery in the car.
This came after a meeting between Mercedes F1 boss Toto Wolff and the president of the Federation Internationale de l'Aéroports, Mohammed Ben Sulayem, on Friday morning, after Hamilton said in the official news conference that the stance being taken was unnecessary.
The seven-time champion said that he would sign a waiver to take the responsibility away from them.
A number of fellow drivers supported Hamilton.
Pierre Gasly said that he would be uncomfortable not taking some of the religious items he wears into the car with him.
In protest against a ruling that drivers cannot wear their own underwear because it is not fireproof, Sebastian Vettel wore his boxer shorts over his race suit.
If he had a serious crash, Kevin Magnussen would not want to not wear his wedding ring.
Wedding rings are exempt from the ruling because they are not explicitly mentioned in the rules. Fernando Alonso wears a bracelet made of material that's similar to his own. The nose ring is not something that he can take out.
He said on Saturday that he has no intention of removing the exemption for Monaco.
He said he would get an exemption for the rest of them. The wedding rings are allowed.
They said safety is everything when they told Hamilton about the jewellery. What has happened over the last 16 years? I have had jewellery on for 16 years and safety was not an issue back then.
He drew a direct line between the differing stance of the FIA on the two issues.
They do their best when we come to these new tracks. You can not predict where Techpro will be needed. I think we can learn from this experience how to improve. That is a part of the lessons we learn.
The jewellery and underwear row may be a bit of a storm in a teacup for some. Some will support the stance of the drivers.
The bigger picture is that the teams and drivers are happy with the FIA. The lack of it.
Wolff wondered if Wittich really needed to pick that fight. The push is coming from someone.
The noses of other people are being put out of joint by the FIA. Plans to double the number of events next year were refused to by Ben Sulayem.
He wanted more time to study the impact of the plan on the race weekend resources.
The teams are saying that the reason is money, because Ben Sulayem asked for more to be paid to the FIA in return for his agreement. Despite the fact that the teams pay entry fees based on the number of points they earn, and the number of points for sprints has been increased this year, they would get more money for more sprint races anyway.
This has angered the teams and bosses of commercial rights holder F1, and INRDeals INRDeals INRDeals INRDeals INRDeals INRDeals INRDeals INRDeals INRDeals INRDeals INRDeals INRDeals INRDeals INRDeals INRDeals INRDeals INRDeals INRDeals INRDeals INRDeals INRDeals INRDeals INRDeals INRDeals INRDeals INRDeals INRDeals INRDeals INRDeals INRDeals INRDeals INRDeals INRDeals INRDeals INRDeals INRDeals INRDeals INRDeals INRDeals INRDeals INRDeals INRDeals INRDeals INRDeals
According to Insiders, senior F1 figures are questioning whether they need the FIA involved in the sport, and are looking at ways in which they could be removed from being so.
The majority of the income comes from F1, but it spends a relatively small amount on the highest level of the sport. The FIA needs F1 more than F1 needs it. At least some senior figures are saying that.
The blue-riband category could end up with the FIA being removed from an effective role and being a ceremonial function.
It would be a big deal if that is the case. It might not get that far. The issue is not going away any time soon, according to a number of sources.
All Rights Reserved © 2024
