Red Bull Racing showed positive signs at the Miami Formula 1 GP, even without reaching the podium. The team highlighted an important performance improvement after updates to the car.
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The result has not yet translated into a top 3, but the reduction in the gap to competitors indicates concrete progress. The performance reinforces that development is starting to take effect after a very complicated start to the season.
Max Verstappen had a busy weekend, with a mistake on the first lap, but managed to recover and fight for the podium during much of the race. However, the more pronounced tire degradation compared to Oscar Piastri and George Russell, due to an early switch by the Dutchman to hard compounds, caused the four-time world champion to lose performance in the final laps.
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The team principal, Laurent Mekies, highlighted that the updates introduced in Miami, including a new version of the wing with a different concept, were fundamental for this evolution: “There is a clear step forward. We left Japan 1.2 seconds off pole, China by one second, and we knew that, besides development, we needed to solve our problems,” he said.
He also pointed out the direct improvement in the qualifying session as an indication of this progress: “Seeing that this weekend we were six tenths off pole on Friday (in the Sprint qualifying) and less than two tenths on Saturday, is a great indication of the size of the progress. We don’t know which number is the most representative, but compared to where we were, it’s much better than we have shown so far,” he added.
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