On Sunday, Max Verstappen won his third race of the F1 2022 championship in Miami. The reigning world champ started third on the grid after a tough couple of sessions on Friday, where issues with the RB-18 cost the Dutchman a lot of practice time before the inaugural race. However, the 24-year-old was clearly on song and managed to lead the race for the most part after crossing Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz, who started first and second on the grid. Eventually, Verstappen managed to win his second GP in a row and cut reduced Leclerc’s lead in the drivers’ standings from 27 to 19 points.
Verstappen has won three out of five races this season. He is the favorite to defend his F1 championship title this year after winning Emilia Romagna and Miami Gp consecutively. Red Bull has managed to outpace Ferrari quite comfortably during the last two races. Moreover, the Dutchman has won every race that he has finished in the season so far. However, while Red Bull completely has the fastest car across the circuit so far, Verstappen is concerned about the RB-18’s reliability issues, which has been a major issue for the racing team. Both Verstappen and Perez had to retire early during the first race in Bahrain due to a fuel system issue. The reigning world champ was also forced to retire in Australia, where his car faced reliability issues.
Max’s RB-18 was seen struggling ahead during the initial practice sessions last Friday. Firstly, the engineering team changed the gear box, which led to the Dutchman missing most parts of FP1. Meanwhile, Max Verstappen’s practice was once again disrupted during FP2 when his car had a hydraulic leak. Hence, the Red Bull driver’s concerns are right, and Red Bull needs to work on their car and make it more reliable.
Verstappen States Red Bull Still needs To Sort Out Few Issues With RB-18
After winning the race on Sunday, Max said Red Bull still has a few issues they need to solve. The Dutchman revealed that Red Bull is quick. But there are some concerns about the car’s reliability. Further, Verstappen talked about his terrible Friday and pointed out that it was not a perfect weekend due to the disruptions.
Max Verstappen explained that his teammate Checo also faced some engine issues during the race. The Dutchman admitted that the RB-18 has a lot of potential. But the team needs to make the car more reliable and get on top of the issues.
Talking to Sky Sports F1, Verstappen revealed that the 2022 season should be even better for him. The Red Bull driver said that the team needs to make sure these issues don’t come up again and work hard to sort them. After Sunday qualifying, Verstappen told that Red Bull cannot afford any more unreliability issues if they have to beat Leclerc and Ferrari in the championship race. The 24-year-old thinks that the team needs to pull off a really positive weekend with no problems.
Further, Max Verstappen described the weekend in Imola as “a bit of a hit and miss too much”. The defending champion acknowledged that Red bull needs to make sure that the RB18 is more reliable and on top of things. Although Max was happy that the car was quick. The Dutch racer added, “If you would ne slow and reliaable, that’s probably also not a good thing.”
Christian Horner Talks About Issue With Perez’s Car In Miami
Max Verstappen had a tough start to the weekend on Friday. However, he managed to do better on Sunday. Moreover, there were no reliability issues with his car on Sunday. Sadly, his teammate Perez faced engine gremlins throughout the race, resulting in the loss of power. The issue might have cost Checo a chance of winning, leaving him stuck in the fourth position despite getting new medium tyres during the safety car period.
Red Bull boss Christian Horner admitted that reliability is an issue with the RB18. The team principal informed that Checo’s engine had a sensor issue, and the team did well to move them around. However, the Mexican driver lost 30 horsepower due to the issue. Horner also told that Perez was losing half a second per lap. Moreover, the team principal was happy about Red Bull’s progress. He revealed that the racing team would bring in some upgrades later this summer. The developments will help the RB-18 become more reliable. Christian added, “We need to drop some weight but generally, I think we were on a good tragectory.”
Formula One will move to Barcelona’s Circuit de Catalunya for Spanish Grand Prix from May 20-22.