In the Miami stage, Max Verstappen won his seventh pole position in a row and the 38th of his career. At the press conference, the Red Bull Racing driver summarized the results of the session and commented on the chances of winning Sunday’s race.
Question: Max, the gap between you and Charles Leclerc is again minimal. How satisfied are you with the last qualifying session?
Max Verstappen: In my opinion, on this circuit it is extremely difficult to put together a lap so that everything works as it should. For some reasons it was quite difficult to get the tires working for the entire lap. Sometimes I had some problems here and there that made the car behave unstable.
Let’s just say that it was very difficult to complete a perfect lap, because with each one you had to guess how the car would behave. As you can imagine, flying in such conditions is not very pleasant. But I think we handled the situation and did everything we could. The car definitely behaved better than on Friday.
Question: Was the circuit more unpredictable than last year? Arctic time is slower than in 2023.
Max Verstappen: No, I think it’s quite warm here and the track is very slippery. Apparently the tires just don’t work as they should. And when you put these factors together, it gets quite complicated.
Question: Were you more satisfied with the car’s performance during qualifying than during sprint qualifying?
Max Verstappen: Yes. Let’s just say the car felt calmer and more predictable. I hope this will help me in tomorrow’s race.
Q: Let’s talk about the race. Both Ferrari drivers start directly behind you. Will this make the race difficult?
Max Verstappen: Honestly, the only thing we have control over is our own work, so the team will focus on their tasks. As long as I’m happy with the balance in the race, I’ll be fine.
Yes, we need the car to look a little better than in the sprint, but I am confident that if we get it in the right range we will be very fast.
Q: Let’s return to the topic of unpredictable machine behavior. What do you think is the reason for this?
Max Verstappen: I think it’s a combination of all the factors: the characteristics of the track, the tires, the car, the weather. The grip level is very low and for some reason the tires overheat quickly. Pirelli is taking a somewhat conservative approach and I would like to see more races with two or three pit stops. Races with one pit stop are not very difficult for teams and drivers.
When there are races like in China, you can stop twice. The more flexibility in choosing the timing of a pit stop, the more interesting it is. It may be worth taking softer tires with you, but we’ll have to talk to Pirelli about that. I don’t know if they want to do that.
In Miami there was a combination of many factors that made this track very difficult to drive. The cornering speed is also very low, and if the tires go slightly out of their operating range and the car skids, this immediately results in a huge loss of speed in slow corners.
It would be much better if the track had more fast corners.
Question: Do you feel that the popularity of Formula 1 has increased in the US?
Max Verstappen: Certainly. Compared to 2015 it has grown significantly and now we are recognized much more often. Of course I want to remain anonymous, but that’s fine.
The fans create a great atmosphere and the cities are much more lively. A good example is Austin. Compared to 2015, there are many more fans in the city, racers are recognized in hotels – all this is good for the sport.
Source: F1 News

I am Christopher Clyde, an experienced journalist and content writer with a passion for sports. I have been writing about Formula 1 news for the past five years and am currently employed as an author at athletistic.com, one of the top sports websites in the US.