Formula 1 News: Miami GP Post-Qualifying Team Quotes
Quotes from the ten Formula 1 teams plus tire supplier Pirelli following qualifying for the 2024 Miami GP around the Miami International Autodrome
Max Verstappen has scored a perfect four out four first places in all four sessions held so far at the Miami Grand Prix. Having been quickest in yesterday’s free practice and Sprint Qualifying, the Dutchman won the lunchtime challenge, with victory in the Sprint Race and five hours later, he was top again, this time in qualifying, securing his first Miami Grand Prix pole at his third attempt. Verstappen’s best lap of 1m27.241 was set on his first Q3 run.
As was the case in the short race, Max will have Charles Leclerc for company on the front row, second quickest in 1m27.382. Curiously, it was the second sector that split the two of them as that was where Verstappen made up all of his 141 thousandths of a second advantage. In fact, the Ferrari driver was quickest in the first sector by 74 thousandths, exactly the same amount of time by which the Dutchman was quickest in the third one.
The second row features their respective team-mates, Carlos Sainz (3rd, 1m27.455) lining up behind Verstappen and Sergio Perez (4th, 1m27.460) behind Leclerc.
Oracle Red Bull Racing
Max Verstappen (1st, 1:27.241): “Despite this, ultimately the most important thing is that we put it on pole and that this is seven poles in a row, which is something to be proud of. The car felt better after the changes that we made, but we have found that there were quite a few combining factors that make it very tricky to drive around this track. It has been difficult over the weekend with the tires, as they have quite low grip, overheat quickly and we have also struggled with the balance of the car. It has just been quite unpredictable, and everyone has found that it has been difficult to put a lap in. Despite this, ultimately the most important thing is that we put it on pole and that this is seven poles in a row, which is something to be proud of. We have the changes in place to make it more of a straightforward race tomorrow and it was good to get the win in the Sprint race earlier today too. Once the tires stabilize in the race when they are hot, it will feel a bit more normal to drive. The strategy will be a bit simpler tomorrow, so hopefully that will bring my tire degradation down too. We will see what the race brings.”
Sergio Perez (4th, 1:27.460): “It will be a very demanding race and quite a challenge in the heat but the pace is there and anything can happen. It was a very tricky session, it was all too much with the grip, it was too hot and too on the limit. We didn’t maximize the potential, I think we could have had a shot at pole but I made a mistake on my final lap at turn eight, which probably lost me the front row. Unfortunately, I am on the wrong side of the tenth today, but we go again tomorrow. We will analyze our session because we were fast and we had more than we showed. Other than that, I think everyone had the same struggles today, some laps I was struggling to match myself from Q1. It will be a very demanding race and quite a challenge in the heat but the pace is there and anything can happen. Hopefully the changes we made to the car today from the Sprint will translate into race pace.”
Christian Horner, Sporting Director: “We’re always trying to extract the maximum out of our car, and everyone was struggling a bit out there today to find the right balance and set-up on the last run. Overall, a fantastic showing from the Team today with the Sprint race and qualifying here in Miami. We’re always trying to extract the maximum out of our car, and everyone was struggling a bit out there today to find the right balance and set-up on the last run. Max obviously found enough and was able to make it his seventh pole in a row, his sixth of the season, and it was another phenomenal performance from him. Checo put in a really, really strong performance and improved on his second run to put it on the second row, so we’re going into race day in a good position. The Sprint race today gives us a nice window into what the tires are going to do tomorrow, but we’ll see how it plays out with set-up and conditions on race day.”
Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS F1 Team
George Russell (7th, 1:28.067): “We were struggling throughout the whole of Qualifying to get the tires into the right place. They work within a very small window, and we saw with Lewis in Q2 that, if we were able to get them in a better place, we had good speed. This is the same story for everyone though. We have to be realistic and, unless we get the perfect lap, P7 and P8 is about where our car is at currently. We know we have work to do and hopefully tomorrow will be better. In the Sprint earlier in the day, I made a good start but got caught on the outside and lost a few positions. After that, I was stuck in a DRS train, so it was quite a processional race. Hopefully we will have a better Grand Prix on Sunday and move forwards.”
Lewis Hamilton (8th, 1:28.107): “Overall, it’s been a much more positive day than yesterday. That said, these tires are so sensitive and trying to get them to work consistently lap-to-lap is a challenge. The track temperature and grip was similar throughout Qualifying but we still struggled to deliver the maximum potential on each lap. We had that glimpse of what was possible at the end of Q2, but we couldn’t deliver it in Q3. It’s an area we are focused on improving. I gave it everything in the Sprint; it was a tough battle out there. Contact is never intentional at the first corner, and I went for a gap. It closed quickly though and several of us connected. After that, I was fighting hard to get past the Haas of Magnussen, and I enjoyed the racing. The penalty was unfortunate, and it was a shame that it cost us that final point.”
Toto Wolff, Team Principal: “We have seen once again how difficult it is to get the tires in the right window. We of course don’t blame the tires for that, and we need to look at ourselves and our car to understand how we can get the tires more consistently into the correct operating window. We were able to get it right at the end of Q2 and Lewis’ was P3, with just 0.15s off P1. Unfortunately, we couldn’t replicate that for Q3. In the Sprint, cars that were quick on the straight but not necessarily through the corners were able to hold position. We had more pace but couldn’t show it. We therefore made some changes after the Sprint that will hopefully help us in the race tomorrow. We are starting slightly further forward than we were this morning so let’s see what we can do.”
Andrew Shovlin: “The Sprint was disappointing, but we were realistic in our expectations given our grid positions. George lost out because of the first corner incident and couldn’t break through the DRS train. Lewis fared better off the line but then spent most of the race battling to get past the Haas of Magnussen. We knew we were on a high wing level and that would have been OK if we’d qualified further forward. Unfortunately, when you are racing in the middle of the pack, it isn’t ideal. Going into Qualifying, we modified the set-up slightly and changed our wing level. The car was improved but it was still difficult to land the tires in the right window. We don’t seem to be the only team struggling with that but when we got it right, the pace was strong. That said, we are well aware that we have a lot of work to do in order to improve the car. If we can do so, that should help us deliver that stronger pace more consistently.”
Scuderia Ferrari
Charles Leclerc (2nd, 1:27.382): “I was happy with the car, we didn’t change much since this morning, just did a bit of fine tuning, but overall we are in a good place. It was tricky to put together the lap and not many of us improved on that last timed lap in Q3, so P2 on the grid is not a bad result and we will push to fight for the win tomorrow. In the Sprint race I had quite a good start and then was on the inside for turn 1, but I didn’t want to take too many risks because of qualifying coming up later in the day. Both Max (Verstappen) and I braked late and eventually he kept his position but it was a good test and I’m looking forward to tomorrow.”
Carlos Sainz (3rd, 1:27.455): “Overall we cannot be too disappointed with the result today. This track is always very tricky, slippery in some sectors and with the tires on the verge of overheating. We are in a good position to fight with the Red Bulls and we’ll do everything we can to make the most of it in the race. Looking forward to tomorrow!”
Frédéric Vasseur, Team Principal: “Overall, it’s a good result, starting P2 and P3 with Red Bull P1 and P4. However, there’s a slight feeling of frustration as we had hoped to get a better result, but it was clear that everyone was finding it difficult to put a lap together in this session on the Softs. Everyone was right on the edge and if you pushed too hard it was easy to go over the limit. Today, as was already the case yesterday, our preparation for the flying laps went well. For tomorrow, let’s wait and see: it looks like our race pace is a bit slower than Max’s (Verstappen) so the most important thing will be to get a good first lap and make use of the DRS that is very strong at this track. After that, a lot will depend on tire degradation on which we have collected some data from today’s Sprint Race. We brought home 12 points so it was not that bad, but the real points will be given out tomorrow and we’ll try our best.”
McLaren Formula 1 Team
Lando Norris (5th, 1:27.594): “I think it’s been a reasonable Qualifying. I probably couldn’t have asked for a lot more. The team did a great job to get the car back together after the Sprint, first of all, so thank you to them after the unfortunate incident we were involved in this morning. Otherwise, P5 and P6 is good for us as a team. I think that’s where we deserve to be and that’s all we had in the car today, so we maximized it and we’ll try to get a good amount of points tomorrow.”
Oscar Piastri (6th, 1:27.675): “I’m pretty happy with that. It felt like it was a good Qualifying session, and the car was consistent the whole way through. I don’t think there was too much more in it to be able to push us any further forward, so I am pleased. The team have done a good job so let’s see what we can do tomorrow.”
Andrea Stella, Team Principal: “Qualifying was intense today. Like most sessions in Miami, it was made difficult by a very hot track temperature and tires behaving in a way that made it difficult to exploit the grip available. We tried a few different compounds but ultimately the result is largely according to competitive order. We had hoped for a little more, after a strong performance yesterday, but there is potential for a strong race from fifth and sixth on the grid. The pace Oscar displayed in the Sprint gives us encouragement for tomorrow. I want to take this opportunity to praise the incredible work in the garage to prepare Lando’s car after the damage it suffered at the start of the Sprint. There were moments where it looked like he wouldn’t be able to take part this afternoon, but the work done by the mechanics, with great support from the factory, was excellent and has put us in a strong position for tomorrow’s race.”
Aston Martin Aramco F1 Team
Lance Stroll (11th, 1:28.222): “It’s been a frustrating day on track. My Sprint event came to an end on the first lap after contact with other cars. It was an unfortunate incident, but there wasn’t a huge amount I could do. In Qualifying, the car just didn’t have the pace we needed. It was disappointing to miss out on Q3 by such small margins, but we were struggling to improve throughout Q2 and I didn’t have the confidence I needed in the car. We’ll try to find a little more pace for tomorrow’s race and hopefully we can fight for some points in Miami.”
Fernando Alonso (15th, 1:28.427): “It was a disappointing day for us. Firstly, there was the incident into Turn 1 at the start of the Sprint and then we had a difficult Qualifying session for tomorrow’s race. We struggled in Q1 and Q2 and finished in P15 in both sessions. I didn’t seem to have much pace and we were just outside of that group fighting for the top ten this time around. We made some set-up changes from the Sprint race to now and it seems these changes didn’t work. I think it will be a challenging race tomorrow, but we’ll analyze our performance tonight and try to recover some points.”
Mike Krack, Chief Operating Officer: “We missed the ultimate pace to compete today. The margins are small and Lance just missed out on making it into Q3 with Fernando a couple of tenths further back. We will review tonight and see where we can improve for tomorrow. The Sprint was disappointing with both drivers caught in the middle of a four-car sandwich going into Turn One. The damage to Lance’s floor and suspension forced his retirement, while Fernando resumed to give us some valuable learning on the tires. It will not be easy tomorrow because we saw how difficult it can be to progress here with DRS trains making overtaking very challenging, but we will fight hard to score some points.”
BWT Alpine F1 Team
Pierre Gasly (12th, 1:28.324): “There are plenty of positives and learnings to take as a team today. The upgrades we have on the car are clearly working in line with our expectations. In the Sprint, we finished in ninth place, which is the closest we have been to the points all season. Then, in Qualifying, we finished just one tenth from reaching Q3. We know where we are lacking and we have to try and improve these areas as the gaps in and around the top ten are so small. I had a very good feeling on my Q1 lap but then it felt different in Q2 so there are things to analyze and further understand. It does feel like progress and I’m aiming for the first points of the year in tomorrow’s race.”
Esteban Ocon (13th, 1:28.371): “I would say it has not been the smoothest of days for us today. We had a misunderstanding at the beginning of the Sprint in the Pit Lane – a big and costly mistake – and the team and I will work hard to improve this type of thing. After that, it was a busy race but well outside the mix of the points as a result of the penalty. In Qualifying, we knew it was going to be a difficult session and we were again able to progress through Q2 but fell short of making it to Q3. The field is very close so we have to keep working on the things that will make us benefit next time. The aim is to fight and push forwards in the race and we will do everything we can tomorrow, getting as much out of the car as possible and, hopefully inside the points.”
Bruno Famin, Team Principal: “It’s been a very busy day in Miami with the Sprint Race followed by Qualifying. Firstly, in the Sprint, it’s the closest we have been to points this season with Pierre in ninth place. As a team, we will investigate the Pit Lane incident from the Sprint to prevent this from occurring again, as the penalty compromised Esteban’s race. Qualifying was not straightforward with challenges on the behavior of the tires. Again, we take positives from the result and the fact the upgrades we have brought have worked as expected. We have put ourselves in a position to fight hard for points in tomorrow’s race.”
Williams Racing
Alexander Albon (14th, 1:28.413): “Today was more about tires than anything else. Even just now in my Qualifying laps, I’m having to do a lot of race management with the tires and it’s like the quicker you drive the slower you end. The hot track temperatures seem to hurt us a little more when running lower downforce for better straight-line speed, so by turn 11, the tires are gone. I locked up on the corner when the front tires went off, and then the rears will go off the next corner, so it’s just a bit tricky. Let’s see what we can do from P14 tomorrow.”
Logan Sargeant (17th, 1:28.487): “When I look at yesterday, I knew we had the pace to get through to Q2 and I wanted to deliver that today. We executed our run plan well but it’s not easy when it’s extremely tight with one tenth separating several cars. I’m honestly happy with the changes we made to the car between sessions and how I drove. We’ll try to have another good race tomorrow taking any opportunity that comes our way. We have the pace and straight-line speed to keep a lot of people behind, so we need to give ourselves track position to make the most of it.”
Sven Smeets, Sporting Director: “We’re much happier with how today went as we have made progress from yesterday. It’s a shame that Logan, in his home race, missed Q2 by just thirty milliseconds; it would have been a massive result for him, and it was incredibly close. With Alex, maybe Q3 was just a little bit too far away but we saw how close it was and it was important to manage the tires throughout the lap, so it was a Qualifying all about tires. Tomorrow there will be opportunities available to us. We saw in the Sprint Race Logan starting in 18th and finishing 10th in an incident full race. Tire management will be key to a good result. We’re looking forward to tomorrow.”
Visa Cash App RB Formula One
Yuki Tsunoda (10th, 1:28.192): “First of all, happy for the team, and congrats to them and Daniel for today’s Sprint race! For me, it’s very mixed feelings; I lost the battle against Lewis (Hamilton) in the end. If he didn’t get a penalty in the Sprint, I would be P9, and even though the final result was P8, he did a very good job of overtaking me. If I had defended better, I think I could’ve finished ahead of him at the checkered flag. It is frustrating as a driver to lose a battle, but I did enjoy it, and something I can learn from. As a driver, I’m not fully happy, but I’m happy to pay back to the team and score a point, especially after not being able to put it all together yesterday to extract the performance of the car. I’m happy I can start the race in the top 10, and a better position than in the Sprint. Qualifying wasn’t the best for me personally, but we still got to Q3. I never felt very proud of my lap, I didn’t make any big mistakes but I could’ve done better overall. It’s something else to learn for the future. The team did a fantastic job and I felt comfortable and confident in the car from FP1. Yesterday, I wasn’t able to extract the performance, but I’m happy because I feel I maximized the strong performance of the car more today. After today’s Sprint and our race performance, I’m looking forward to tomorrow!”
Daniel Ricciardo (18th, 1:28.617): “It was a very tough Sprint race, but I felt awesome, fighting towards the front just feels so much nicer. I saw a Ferrari in the mirror for almost the whole race and I thought, alright, challenge accepted, let’s do what we can! Every lap I was able to hold off Carlos (Sainz), so when I saw the end of the race coming near, I really thought that maybe we could maintain the position. It was a Sprint race in all forms of the word and was without any tire-saving. I’m proud of myself and the team, of all the people who stood behind me and believed in me. There’s happiness for sure, but also some powerful emotions, especially looking at the first few races of the season. Thanks to the people for having some patience and then being awarded with a result like this. We all deserve this result as we went through a bit of stuff to get here, so it’s even nicer. This is the sport, it’s highly unpredictable, and sometimes things can change so quickly, so at least we really enjoyed the morning with the team. Today’s afternoon was frustrating and obviously, I’m not happy with it as there’s a big contrast with what we achieved in the Sprint. I saw Lando’s lap in SQ3 yesterday, where he was struggling from the start of the lap, sliding everywhere with his rear with the softs, and honestly, I felt the same today. I started sliding out of Turn 1 and it just got worse and worse throughout the rest of the lap. There’s no real explanation right now. I feel that we have a good car, but I think that in the last run of Q1, the tires were simply operating on a different level of grip. The warm-up lap was fine and also the team was happy with where the tires were. We’ll definitely be looking at it tonight, to hopefully have an explanation. Tomorrow will be a long race, obviously starting last doesn’t help, but we’ll have a lot of laps trying to come through the field. I’ll put my head down for it!”
Guillaume Dezoteux, Head of Vehicle Performance: “A rollercoaster for us today and overall, a very positive result for the team as we score six points and increase the gap to our direct competitors in the Constructors Championship. The Sprint race this morning has been fantastic. Daniel had a good start and managed to gain a position down to Turn 1. He was then passed by Perez but managed to keep Sainz behind for the entire race. His defense has been extremely strong, keeping the fight clean and he secured a fourth position, which is an amazing result for us. Yuki also had a good Sprint despite starting further back in P15. We put him on the softs to learn about this tire compound and to attack at the start. He gained five positions in the opening lap due to incidents happening in front of him. On Lap 14, he managed to overtake both Hamilton and Magnussen for eight position, fighting for one point. Hamilton overtook him on the last lap, but we got the position back as Lewis was penalized for speeding in the pit lane during the Safety Car period at the start of the Sprint. The qualifying session this afternoon was difficult and it was a challenge to find the right balance for extracting all the performance from the cars and the tires. Daniel started well, but in his last lap, he had a poor exit out of the last corner and lost a lot of time. It means he got knocked out from Q1, which shows once more how tight the competition is. Yuki drove a strong qualifying session and reached Q3 again, and that is a great result. It still appeared difficult to put the perfect lap together, but our first analysis suggests it was tricky for everyone out there. Tonight, we will look at various scenarios for tomorrow’s race. For Yuki, we will probably favour a more conventional strategy focused on the best race time and fighting the cars around us, while for Daniel there is scope to take more risks and try to use the pace of the car to gain positions. Our car is improving and the drivers and the team are super motivated to bring home some more points tomorrow, so let’s bring it on!”
Stake F1 Team Kick Sauber
Valtteri Bottas (16th, 1:28.463): “Nothing much happened to us during the Sprint this morning; I got stuck in a train right after the start, and that didn’t leave too much room to make progress throughout the laps. We used the Sprint to maximize our learnings in terms of setup, to come prepared for qualifying and the race. The resulting setup change made a difference, and the car definitely felt much better this afternoon. We had a clean first run, but then unfortunately got unlucky once again with some traffic on the second run. Still, we made a decent improvement through the weekend so far and got really close to the Q2 threshold – only missing out on it by just one hundredth. All in all, we still have a lot to play for tomorrow; our pace was decent today, and I’m positive that with a strong start and a good strategy, we can put ourselves in the battle for points.”
Guanyu Zhou (20th, 1:28.824): “The sprint race was quite uneventful for me: starting P17 meant that I was stuck in a DRS train where it was quite difficult to overtake, but we managed to make the most of other people’s mistakes. However, we’ve seen a promising progress compared to where we started the weekend in terms of race pace. This afternoon, unfortunately, the qualifying session ended earlier than we hoped, leaving me at the back of the grid for tomorrow’s race. I wasn’t able to get my last lap in with lots of cars trying to protect their positions – and even had to go side-by-side with Oscar [Piastri] into turn one, which cost me valuable time. If we had managed to have a clean final lap, we might have been able to fight for Q2. While the pace for single laps wasn’t there, the team will continue working hard, and I am positive that our race pace will allow us to make up some positions during the race, where fans will hopefully see some exciting overtakes.”
Alessandro Alunni Bravi, Team Representative: “We used the sprint race positively today as we improved our car balance and made a good step forward compared to the start of the weekend. The team was able to address the lack of pace in low-speed corners we saw yesterday and – although it’s difficult to overtake in a sprint race as it’s common to be stuck in a DRS train – we have seen that our race pace allowed both drivers to fight with their direct competitors. Zhou was able to stay ahead of George Russell throughout the entire sprint race without suffering any particular threat from the Mercedes driver. The qualifying session proved to be more difficult for us today: while the car balance was good, both drivers experienced lots of traffic for their final lap in Sector 1, which prevented them from making it into Q2. Nevertheless, we remain positive about our car balance and tire behavior and start with the determination to fight for points. While this will be difficult, we’ve seen the progress made by the team as we recovered from a disappointing start to the weekend. The team will aim for another step forward and play all cards to be in the position to fight for points.”
MoneyGram Haas F1 Team
Nico Hulkenberg (9th, 1:28.146): “We had track position straight away, and that was really key for us today in the Sprint. I had the inside line into Turn 1 and managed to avoid problems. The group ahead of me was a bit faster, but towards the end once the race settled, we were pretty okay. In qualifying it was really tricky to string the perfect lap together, it’s a challenging track with the hot temperatures and the tire getting hotter over the lap. Overall, it’s been a very positive Saturday, getting two points today, and they come at a premium for us and it’s quite nice to have them already. Of course, we’re going to push for more points tomorrow – it’s going to be a tight fight with the RB’s and everyone else behind us for sure.”
Kevin Magnussen (19th, 1:28.619): “I sound like a broken record every time after qualifying talking about traffic. I think we have a decent car so should be able to do something tomorrow, but I’m tired of starting from a bad position because of traffic. For now, it’s time to stay focused and do the job.”
Ayao Komatsu, Team Principal: “I think the Sprint went really well because obviously only the top eight get points and we weren’t really expecting anything from here. Our pace was good and Nico coming home in P7 was fantastic, an amazing result for us. In qualifying, looking at what we’d already done this weekend, we knew the car was quick and both of our drivers were quick, so we were aiming for both in Q3. Unfortunately, Kevin on his final run in Q1 encountered traffic and didn’t make it further. Nico actually had a DRS issue in Q1 and nearly didn’t make it through, but the whole garage did an amazing job to fix it before Q2. To make it into Q3 and beat the RB – who’s been quicker all weekend – is very good. It’s been a very satisfying day.”
Pirelli
As expected, the Medium was the main tire of choice for teams and drivers with 18 drivers covering the 19 laps on the middle of three compounds brought to Miami by Pirelli. The only exceptions were Tsunoda and Sargeant who opted for the Soft. Despite the high temperatures, which again today exceeded the 55° C mark, the performance of the C4 was more than acceptable with the Racing Bulls and Williams cars making up several places, the Japanese driver even coming close to taking the eighth and final points place.
Qualifying confirmed some aspects of what had already emerged yesterday afternoon. Track conditions improved up to around halfway through the session, after which they pretty much stabilized, so that only a few of the drivers who had made it to the top ten were able to improve on their second runs. In fact, the performance difference over a flying lap between the C3 and C4, of the order of three to four tenths, was significantly less than the simulations going into this event and also when seen against the usual comparison between these two compounds. It explains why Norris, Hamilton and Russell reverted to the C3 to try and move up the order on the starting grid, a rather rare occurrence.
Verstappen was handed his Pirelli Pole Position Award by film and television producer Jerry Bruckheimer. Among his best known works are films co-produced with Don Simpson such as Flashdance, Top Gun and Bad Boys. Since the 2000s he has also put his name to the Pirates of the Carribean films, Pearl Harbor and, more recently, Top Gun: Maverick, along with the TV series, CSI, Cold Case and Without A Trace. Bruckheimer is one of the producers on the film about Formula 1, directed by Joseph Kosinski with Brad Pitt in the lead role. It is due for release in 2025.
MARIO ISOLA – PIRELLI DIRECTOR OF MOTORSPORT
“So far, this weekend has provided plenty of food for thought when it comes to tire behavior. Looking at the predictions and simulations going into this event, based on Pirelli data combined with that provided by the teams, we have now had indications that will lead us to delve deeper into the analysis of the data acquired so far. We need to understand why the difference in performance between the Medium and Soft was so small and why qualifying times were slower than last year by about four tenths and by an even more significant gap of almost a second compared to our simulation. We will above all look at how the Soft behaved on the track surface which, from data gathered on Wednesday and Thursday had significantly different levels of abrasiveness compared to 2023.
As for strategy, there is little doubt that a one-stop is clearly the quickest option. But it’s a different matter when it comes to the compounds and the order in which they will be used. While the drivers found the C4 harder to read over a flying lap, in today’s Sprint Race it demonstrated that it cannot be ruled out for tomorrow afternoon’s Grand Prix. The C2 will definitely be the outright favorite, but all combinations of it with the C3 and C4 are viable on paper.”
