HELMUT MARKO SIDES WITH MAX VERSTAPPEN OVER CHRISTIAN HORNER ON MIAMI PACE THEORY

Max Verstappen and Christian Horner offered opposing views on the performance impact from his Miami Grand Prix bollard incident, with Red Bull senior advisor Helmut Marko backing Verstappen’s version.

While keeping McLaren’s Oscar Piastri at bay in the opening stages of the Miami GP, race leader Verstappen was struggling to execute his trademark disappearance into the distance, said struggles featuring a rare error as he went off at the Turn 14/15 chicane, sending the bollard rolling onto the track and potentially damaging the floor of his RB20.

Helmut Marko says for ‘fact’ Red Bull were slower than McLaren

Red Bull team principal Horner claimed that Verstappen had “actually done quite a lot of damage to the underside of the car” in that moment, which explained the pace advantage which ultimate race winner Lando Norris enjoyed over Verstappen in the final stint as he strode clear to claim his first F1 victory.

Verstappen did not agree, revealing his RB20 “didn’t feel different” after that encounter with the bollard and that his “pace was the same” pre and post-bollard hit.

Marko is backing Verstappen’s version, as he said it is “fact” that Red Bull were slower than McLaren on Grand Prix Sunday in Miami.

“Max believes that it wasn’t that serious,” Marko told oe24 in response to Horner’s theory. “The fact is that we were slower than McLaren.”

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Norris had harried Verstappen’s Red Bull team-mate Sergio Perez during the opening stint, Norris going longer than those ahead and reaping the rewards when the Safety Car was deployed to cover a crash involving Kevin Magnussen and Logan Sargeant.

Marko therefore is clear that this Safety Car intervention gave Norris a huge helping hand, since – as evidenced in Norris’ struggles to clear Perez – making the overtakes and then reeling Verstappen in would not have been easy without it.

“That’s right,” said Marko when it was put to him that Norris benefitted from the Safety Car.

“Norris would have found it difficult to close the gap behind Max, and overtaking in Miami is also very difficult.”

Miami represented a second defeat of F1 2024 for Verstappen, the driver who has dominated this ground effect era. However, he certainly took it well, applauding and giving Norris the thumbs up as he passed him on the cool-down lap, adding post race that he was “very happy to be beaten by Lando today”.

Such a response did not surprise Marko, as Verstappen and Norris have a “very friendly relationship”, though he does fear Norris becoming an “even more dangerous” threat on the track from now on, with his long wait for a first F1 victory finally over.

“Max has a very friendly relationship with Norris,” said Marko. “He often takes him with him on the aeroplane, and they always arrange to meet up for sim racing. Max seems to have something to learn from Norris when it comes to partying.

“But now it is to be feared that Lando will become even more dangerous for him on the track. Because the pressure is now off.”

All eyes are now on the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix at Imola, to see whether Norris and McLaren can sustain their challenge to Red Bull.

2024-05-10T14:24:12Z dg43tfdfdgfd