Max Verstappen realised his chance of winning the Miami Grand Prix was slipping away in an unheard radio exchange during the Safety Car period.
While the timing of the Safety Car played into the hands of eventual winner Lando Norris, Verstappen’s disadvantage was amplified as the Safety Car joined the track in front of him instead of the race leading McLaren. Having been 11 seconds up the road when the Safety Car was deployed, Norris had an advantage of more than 30 seconds when he arrived at the pit lane entrance on lap 29, and was easily able to complete his pit stop before Verstappen arrived and take victory.
However Verstappen was already experiencing one of his more difficult grands prix of 2024. He struggled to get on top of his car’s balance during the first stint and pulled out a lead of less than four seconds over Norris’ team mate Oscar Piastri during the first 22 laps.
As more of Verstappen’s radio messages show, he and race engineer Gianpiero Lambiase were kept busy trying to improve the handling of his RB20:
| Lap: 1/57 VER: 1’34.338 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Verstappen | Certainly a lot more understeer. Can I have more open diff high-speed? | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Lap: 4/57 VER: 1’33.504 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Lambiase | How’s the high speed balance, Max? | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Verstappen | Just on the limit of understeer. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Lap: 5/57 VER: 1’32.834 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Lambiase | We have another step available if you need it. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Verstappen | Yeah. Let’s leave it for now, see later. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Lap: 7/57 VER: 1’32.895 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Lambiase | Deficits, Max, all areas of management between four and seven. You’re strong in the low-speed, 11 to 16 and 17. Front flap update please Max for the next stint? | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Verstappen | Yeah, difficult to say with that compound but I think we can take one or two clicks more, like two maybe. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Lap: 8/57 VER: 1’32.838 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Lambiase | Just approaching temperature stabilisation so keep on it. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Verstappen | It’s quite tricky also with the rear in seven-eight, quite inconsistent. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Lap: 10/57 VER: 1’33.267 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Verstappen | Yeah, struggling a lot out of one and seven-eight. Car’s very inconsistent. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Lambiase | Okay just watch your brake application Max in turn one, 11 and 17. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Lap: 12/57 VER: 1’33.097 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Lambiase | ‘Max do you actually have some margin to push your B-bias forward? Either peak or low-speed? | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Verstappen | No, I don’t really. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Lap: 13/57 VER: 1’33.129 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Lambiase | Gap still 2.8. Main deficit still high-speed and still three-tenths in a straight line. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Lap: 14/57 VER: 1’32.918 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Lambiase | Okay Max so if you start to reduce the level of management a little bit from here. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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