At the Miami race on Sunday, Verstappen couldn’t keep up with Norris after the safety car restart, giving Norris the chance to win his first race ever.
Verstappen said he couldn’t match Norris’s speed because of issues with balance and discomfort with the hard tires he had on after the restart. Later, it was discovered that his car’s floor was damaged, probably from hitting the kerbs and knocking over a bollard during lap 22.
Red Bull’s team principal, Christian Horner, explained that hitting the bollard damaged the underside of Verstappen’s car around the left rear floor. Verstappen, however, had a different opinion. He thought his problems were due to the car setup and tires, not damage.
He said, “I never really felt comfortable the whole weekend with it. I think on the medium, it was still OK-ish, but on the hard, it was quite a disaster.”
Verstappen also mentioned hitting the cone, saying, “I didn’t like it, so I decided to take it out and test the durability of the front wing as well. So that’s a crash test done.”
But when asked about Horner’s suggestion that his drop in pace was because of damage, Verstappen said he didn’t feel any difference in the car’s performance after hitting the cone.
Red Bull later clarified that Verstappen’s comments about the damage came before he saw the car. Horner explained that their race data showed Verstappen was slower through Turn 1, which explained Norris’s advantage.
Verstappen also mentioned the damage in a quote later in the evening, saying, “When we took the car back to the garage, we also found that the floor was damaged and had a hole in which could have been picked up from hitting the cone.”
