We're getting there we're not the same yet Red Bull still chasing F1 rivals

“We are getting there, we are not the same yet.”

Max Verstappen’s response to McLaren team boss Andrea Stella’s remark that there are “four teams in such a tight competition”, after a promising Miami Grand Prix for Red Bull, with Mercedes victorious and Ferrari also in the hunt.

It was a nightmare weekend for Isack Hadjar, who was not in Verstappen's pace, before being excluded from qualifying for illegal car floorboards and crashing out of the grand prix on lap five.

The Dutchman however made it through qualifying and finished fifth in the sprint before qualifying on the front row for the main race where he finished fifth again after spinning on the first lap.

“There is a clear step forward,” rejoiced team principal Laurent Mekies. We were 1.2 seconds off pole in Japan, 1.0 second off pole in China. Everybody has updated the car, the competition was not going to wait for us with their updates. But we certainly knew that on top of the development race we had to sort out some of our issues. And in it, we knew there was time.

“So to see us this weekend qualifying six tenths off pole on Friday and less than two tenths off pole on Saturday is a big indication of the magnitude of progress. We don’t know what the right number is. But it’s something far better than anything we’ve been able to show this year compared to where we were.”

“The pace of the race was strong, which was a good sign from quali. Not strong enough for P1 and P2 but maybe able to put us in a fight between P3, P4 and P5. So again, some things we hadn’t shown so far in the season. “And it’s a credit to everyone back in Milton Keynes for such an important step forward.”

Mekies analysis is spot on. Miami was the first time a Red Bull was closer to pole than Isack Hadjar’s 0.785s deficit in Melbourne and this was the second time the team was ‘best of the rest’ behind Mercedes.

Part of Hadjar’s good showing in Albert Park was finding a decent set-up, while the car was out of its ideal operating window in China and Japan where it was outqualified by the other three top teams as well as Alpine’s Pierre Gasly.

A new upgrade package in Miami helped Red Bull give the team what it expected, technical director Pierre Wache told Motorsport, with an updated floor, engine cover, sidepod inlet and front and rear wings among other parts.

Verstappen's deficit of 44 seconds at the chequered flag was far from representative of his race pace, as he spun on lap one to end the lap in ninth and was 16th after his single pitstop during the early safety car period. This left him with a mammoth 51-lap stint on hards, but he made a whopping 10 overtakes in that time.

But there is no overconfidence at Red Bull, which has further upgrades in the pipeline including weight-reducing items which may be rolled out around the time of the Austrian Grand Prix in late June.

“Don’t get me wrong, we haven’t solved everything we wanted to,” Mekies said. So us against us, we want to pull more out of our package. And then we know that the development race is going to be on and the competition is going to bring stuff in the next race.”