Palmer: Ferrari drivers must act harder

Jolyon Palmer, former Formula 1 driver and now an expert on the championship’s official website, believes the Ferrari drivers in Miami could have been tougher against Max Verstappen.

Jolyon Palmer: “Of course the Red Bull team and Max Verstappen were in a great mood after the Miami Grand Prix, because they won the race again. However, there are still doubts: will the RB18 be reliable enough all season?

On Friday Max again had technical problems and Sergio Perez also had engine problems in the race. But there is no doubt that the team is very happy now, especially after such a confident victory from Verstappen.

After all, he worked very little in training, starting behind Ferrari, but managed to stay ahead of both Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc during the race. After that, no one could catch up to him, except he had to work hard after the restart when Charles overtook him, but overall he was faster than his rivals and gradually extended the lead.

But I think Ferrari can hit back in Barcelona – in the confrontation between the two teams I like that the battle is on an equal footing. Plus, it’s a bit odd to say that the Scuderia has to do something now – in Miami, it was their cars that started from the front row.

But I still think Ferrari could have done more to try and win this race. The F1-75 was not much faster than the Red Bull car, so maybe Charles and Carlos could have been less conservative – in my opinion they were too nice to Max.

I think Sainz acted too cautiously at the start of the Grand Prix and as a result missed Max, who broke through the outer radius of the 1st corner. Although I can understand him, because Carlos can’t have an accident anymore. Then Charles lost the lead – it seemed to me that he wasn’t really trying to complicate the task for Max.

Last year we saw Lewis Hamilton and Verstappen constantly trying to push each other off the track, using the whole arsenal of tricks as they battled for the lead. The battle between Charles and Max this year is also interesting in its own way, but Leclerc is somehow not very active in defending. I think he can go harder.

He may not have been able to do much given Red Bull’s speed advantage, but it is not easy to overtake at the Miami circuit. You can recall Fernando Alonso’s concern that he was stuck behind AlphaTauri Pierre Gasly and Lewis Hamilton only managed to get a few cars ahead of the race, after which he was behind Valtteri Bottas for a long time.

But even with Red Bull’s advantage in speed, Leclair should have defended more actively. If you don’t try to keep the lead, don’t block the internal trajectory during the fight against Verstappen, you don’t stand a chance.

I agree, we saw an interesting and correct fight on the track in our own way, but I was surprised how respectful the riders treated each other, as the championship title is at stake.

There is growing confidence that these two riders will lead the battle for championship victory. However, if Carlos Sainz has a chance of winning the Spanish Grand Prix, I can almost guarantee Ferrari will not use team tactics: I can hardly imagine being asked in Barcelona to let his partner continue.

But Carlos is in a difficult situation now, if you remember he was points ahead of Charles last year. I don’t think Ferrari will use team tactics now, although it is clear who the team is betting on.

However, a few bad races are enough and the situation could change… Carlos just needs Barcelona to repeat what we saw at this track in 2016, when two title contenders knocked each other off the track and paved the way for another driver to win.

While I’m not a fan of team tactics at all, Ferrari can’t help but use them, but this will happen when the first half of the season is over.