If Max Verstappen wins the Miami Grand Prix, it will complete a grand turnaround that also acts as a warning for how much the Red Bull Formula 1 team must up its game.
Verstappen would have finished in the top three of the sprint in Miami, likely splitting the two McLarens, but for Red Bull inexplicably releasing him from his pit into the Mercedes of the incoming Kimi Antonelli.
The mix of the delay, front wing damage and then an inevitable 10-second penalty for an unsafe release meant Verstappen failed to score points for the first time in any race format this season, and lost more ground to championship leader Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris.
Verstappen rebounded in style to score a brilliant pole position, his third of the season, and with Piastri qualifying fourth there is an opportunity to make inroads into the 19-point deficit Verstappen has to the championship lead - even though McLaren holds a likely advantage for the race with its expected superior tyre management.
But for this to translate into a season-long championship bid, Verstappen needs more help. Asked by The Race how much he needs from his team, and whether it is just in car improvements but also execution after another operational error, Verstappen replied: “Yeah, all of it.
“We need to make less mistakes and we need to find more performance.
“I think it's quite straightforward. It's just not easy to extract or find. That's how it is.
“But we keep pushing, keep trying to bring bits to the car to make it faster.”
Saturday in Miami was a microcosm of Verstappen’s season: strong showings when the car is quickly interspersed with disappointments that are, ultimately, Red Bull’s responsibility.
⚠️ 10 second penalty for Verstappen https://t.co/fdatR9kcrE
— The Race (@wearetherace) May 3, 2025
That’s sometimes been the result of Red Bull’s car limitations being exposed and it is simply not that fast, or because of mistakes like the Miami sprint, or a bit of both as in Bahrain where an uncompetitive weekend was exacerbated by faulty pitstop equipment in the race.
The situation at Red Bull is nowhere near as severe as Verstappen completely outperforming a terrible car, as it is second-fastest on average this season with a narrow deficit to McLaren over one lap.
But while Verstappen is consistently at the front when the car allows it, and at least slightly overachieving at times as with his Suzuka pole and victory, it is clear that Red Bull is not meeting that standard as consistently.
Tidying up the work trackside is a must, not least because an area where Red Bull has typically been so very sharp now looks slightly blunted.
However, this must clearly be accompanied by car improvements - as while another Verstappen pole is yet more proof Red Bull’s RB21 can be a fast car, there are asterisks in the form of Yuki Tsunoda’s still-tricky adaptation and Verstappen’s own complaints even with a small floor upgrade on his car.
Set-up work gave Verstappen a better balance from the sprint to qualifying itself, giving him more of the sharper rotation he needs from the car. And while Verstappen felt the new floor was “not negative” he confessed to being unsure of its impact given Miami is not the best circuit to judge it on.
“What we are trying to achieve of course is a better balance in the car,” he said.
“Now this track is not always the easiest to say that you have improved or nailed something because it's just a really weird layout. So it takes a bit more time.
“From here we can work and try to improve it further because from my feeling, of course, we're not there yet.
“We need quite a bit more to be really in a fight.”
The grand prix itself will also show if all Verstappen and Red Bull have really done is take advantage of McLaren missing out another pole that should have gone to one of its drivers.
A hot, dry race should favour the McLarens and give them an opportunity that Suzuka, for example, didn’t afford - although Verstappen’s pace in hot temperatures in Jeddah shows that this is not guaranteed.
For now, though, Verstappen still concedes that “the colder it is, the better”. And as “we are still struggling a little bit with our limitations in the car” that comes out more over a full stint, which is also when the McLaren is more settled and impactful.
But it will be fascinating to see if Verstappen can complete the turnaround given this is not a circuit Red Bull was looking forward to.
“Coming into the weekend I knew that this was not our strongest track with all the low speed [corners],” he said.
More from Miami Saturday
Mark Hughes: McLaren needs to learn from ruthless Verstappen execution
'Just not the level of execution I needed' - Piastri on his poor qualifying
Verstappen's blunt dismissal of 'silly' fatherhood impact talk
Verstappen beats Norris to Miami pole
“But actually I think when you look at the data it's probably not even most of our problem around the lap.
“So I guess that is already a positive.”
