Palmer: Ferrari must end Verstappen’s winning streak

Former Formula 1 driver Jolyon Palmer spoke about his impressions of the Miami Grand Prix in the author’s column…

Max Verstappen won the race in Miami and although he is still 19 points behind Charles Leclerc, it looks like he is just starting to collect points.

Verstappen’s last two victories were hard-fought. In Imola and Miami he had to overtake Leclerc and he did so with great confidence. In Imola, the battle was in the sprint, where Red Bull showed for the first time this season that it works better with tires in the race. This has now been confirmed in Miami, especially on the Medium tires that Max and Charles started with.

Weekends in Imola and Miami were not easy for Verstappen. In Italy he was let down by a sprint start, in Miami, in a decisive attempt in qualifying, he missed pole position and made a mistake in corner 5 when track conditions quickly improved.

Ferrari is very concerned that Verstappen will easily overtake their drivers, even if he starts behind both cars. He doesn’t need team tactics or special strategy – in Miami he overtook Sainz in the first corner and immediately split the two Ferraris. This maneuver was necessary for victory. When the rivals occupy the entire front row at the start, it gives them a significant advantage in protecting their position during pit stops.

After dealing with Sainz, Max focused on Leclerc and overtook him within the radius of the first corner – Charles left him a place. After a dramatic title fight with Hamilton last season, Verstappen has to appreciate Charles’ tact on track, but Leclerc was too nice in Miami. He may have hoped to regain position with DRS on the next lap, but unlike in Bahrain or Jeddah where this tactic worked, the next DRS zone was seven corners away – and Max managed to get away.

Ferrari’s race strategy did not cause any problems for Red Bull either. Leclerc could have come to the pits early in a bid to overtake Verstappen for the lead, but Ferrari took a conservative approach by changing tires when Leclerc was 4.5 seconds behind Verstappen and unable to cut him.

Even more amazingly, they didn’t call any of the cars into the pits during the safety car. Yes, they ran out of new Medium or Soft sets, but new hard tires or even rolled soft tires could give them a chance to compete for the win.

But no, in the last part Verstappen and Leclerc had the same tires, Charles put pressure on Max, but he was unfazed, with a second consecutive victory.

Reliability issues remain for Red Bull, which had Verstappen on Friday and Perez on Sunday. If they reappear, Ferrari’s cautious approach will look more justified. In addition, there are many circuits on the calendar that are potentially more suitable for Red Bull, but Barcelona and Monaco are not among them.

Ferrari has been slow to update so far, but next weekend they will introduce several new products at once in Spain in an attempt to hit back. The Spanish weekend will be interesting and extremely important for both teams, but especially for Ferrari, which must break Verstappen’s winning streak and get to work itself.