Max Verstappen F1 partly admits mistake: “Hole in floor RB20 could come through that post”

Max Verstappen admits that he only noticed a while after the race that the floor was seriously damaged due to his mistake, which turned out to be not much more than P2 during the F1 Grand Prix of Miami. Yet Verstappen is also critical of the RB20 itself.

Verstappen, like every race in 2024, started from pole position on Sunday in Miami and was able to maintain this position at the start. However, the Dutchman did not drive away from the McLaren and Ferrari cars after that, as the gap did not appear to be more than three seconds. Verstappen then drove into a post, much to the frustration of himself and Red Bull Racing team boss Christian Horner. The VSC did not provide an advantage for the six drivers at the front, but the safety car afterwards did. Lando Norris in particular benefited, while Verstappen had come in just before the safety car. The Dutchman dropped to P2, while Norris was first. Verstappen then crossed the line in second place with damage to his floor, but an attack on Norris was no longer possible. Despite pole position for both the sprint race and the Grand Prix, a victory during the sprint race and P2 during the race on Sunday, the weekend in Miami left a sour taste for Verstappen.

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Verstappen about damage to the floor of RB20 Red Bull

During the press conference of the top three after the race, Verstappen initially said that he had no damage to his floor. Verstappen was therefore surprised when he heard that Horner had discovered damage to the floor with Red Bull. “It didn’t feel any different, so I don’t know. Maybe it was already damaged. I don’t know. I mean, I hit that post and then my pace was the same, so I didn’t really know if there was any damage.” However, after the press conference, Verstappen had a different story. Opposite, among other things Motorsport.com Verstappen says a little later that the damage to the floor proved fatal for him in the fight with Norris for victory, a fight that was therefore never really a fight. “When we got the car back to the pit box [na de race], we found out that the floor was damaged. There was a hole in the floor and that could have been from hitting that post.”

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Verstappen never felt comfortable in Miami

The fact that there was damage to the floor did not really help with the overall picture of the RB20 outlined by Verstappen during the press conference. The Dutchman was already critical around the sessions related to the sprint race. According to the Dutchman, the car was a bit better for qualifying and the race, but the three-time world champion still did not feel comfortable in the car. “I didn’t feel very comfortable with the set-up all weekend. On medium tires it went well, but on the hard tire it was a disaster. We had little grip and no good balance in slow corners. I couldn’t really get on the confidence in the rear and in fast corners I had a lot of understeer. With those two problems you can’t really find a good balance, because you actually want to achieve two different things. I had to make do with the grip I had and that wasn’t much.”

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