F1 champion Max Verstappen rues costly Red Bull decision after Miami Grand Prix

Max Verstappen

Max Verstappen rues costly Red Bull decision after Miami Grand Prix

Max Verstappen finished fifth in Miami

Originally written by Sam Cook. This version is a translation.

Tuesday 5 May 2026 23:00

Following the Miami Grand Prix, four-time F1 world champion Max Verstappen rued what he believed to be a mistake in the Red Bull strategy.

Verstappen entered the Miami GP down in ninth in the drivers' championship, but produced his best grand prix result of the season to restore hope in the Red Bull team.

The Dutchman qualified up in second for the main race and, despite a plethora of mistakes, managed to finish in fifth after a late overtake on Ferrari's Charles Leclerc.

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But very early on, it looked like Verstappen might've had the lead of the race. He got a much better start than polesitter Kimi Antonelli and went into turn one leading the race, before locking up his tyres and going wide and then spinning at turn two, dropping him down to ninth.

With an early safety car being called to clear away his team-mate Isack Hadjar's car, Verstappen and Red Bull gambled with an early pit stop on lap seven, with Verstappen going onto the hard tyres.

Fifth was the best he could manage in the end, but following the race he hinted that it was not the best decision to have gambled with the safety car, and that they may have had more of a chance at the end if they had followed everybody else's strategy.

"We opted to go early onto the hard compound and I think now in hindsight after the race, it was probably a bit too long, that stint," Verstappen told media in Miami. "It was just too difficult to keep the tyres alive.

"I just think that on the hard compound we were not that competitive. On the medium I felt a bit better."

Red Bull back in the hunt for race wins?

Verstappen won eight grands prix in 2025, more than any other driver as he missed out on a fifth championship by just two points.

But he has not looked like getting anywhere close to winning a race so far this season. Yet there's every reason to suggest that, had he not have spun on lap one, he could have put up a fight against Kimi Antonelli and Lando Norris in Miami.

Red Bull brought seven upgrades to the Miami International Autodrome, including their so-called 'maxarena' rear wing, which is a similar design to Ferrari's macarena.

Red Bull boss Laurent Mekies told Sky Sports during the weekend that the changes had been made to give Verstappen more of a chance of pushing his RB22 to the limit, after he had been outqualified by Hadjar at two of the previous three grand prix weekends.

In Miami, the gap to his team-mate in performance was monumental, with Verstappen around a second quicker than Hadjar in both sprint qualifying and main race qualifying.

Whether or not Red Bull are fast enough to challenge for wins or not remains to be seen, but they certainly now have a car with which Verstappen can push with and produce results more in keeping with their form over the last few years.

F1 Red Bull Max Verstappen Miami Grand Prix