Max Verstappen hit back at some of his critics following the birth of his first child, Lily, by taking his Red Bull to pole position in an incredibly close qualifying session for the 2025 F1 Miami GP, beating Lando Norris and Kimi Antonelli to take his 43rd career pole.
The four-time world champion had endured a disappointing Sprint race earlier in the day, after being hit with a 10s time penalty for an unsafe release incident with Kimi Antonelli and finishing outside the points paying psoitions.
Verstappen managed to bounce back in grand prix qualifying, taking pole by just 65 thousandths of a second from Lando Norris’ McLaren, in an impressive effort in his final Q3 lap.
Becoming a dad “clearly” didn’t make me any slower – Verstappen
The Dutchman, who had a busy week at home after seeing his partner Kelly guve birth to their first child – Lily – missed his media day duties on Thursday to spend time with his family. After taking his third pole position of the year, he jokingly said his critics could already stop with the narrative he would become slower after becoming a father:
“Yeah, it’s been been good, to be able to spend a few days at home before before coming here.
“You know, when she’s just born, you want to make sure everything is OK. Clearly, it didn’t make me slower as well, being a dad,” he said. “So that’s a positive. We can throw that out of the window as well for people mentioning it.”
Oversteer in turn one the only issue on his final Q3 run
On a more serious note, the reigning world champion said his run wasn’t plain sailing, as he had a snap of oversteer in the middle of turn one, which looked to have all but ended his shot at a second consecutive pole position. He explained that losing the back-end of his RB21 in the first corner was the only mistake in what was otherwise a good lap, despite difficulties in getting the tyres to work:
“I think apart from entry turn one, yes, [I got the maximum out of it],” he said when asked of his car’s potential in qualifying. “But yeah, it’s just been really tricky to get the tyres in the right window over a whole lap. So I think in hindsight, of course, you never want to have a little overseer moment on entry, but over the whole lap, I did feel a bit more comfortable.
“Of course, very happy to be in pole. I think every qualifying – like Q1, Q2, Q3 – I just kept on chipping away at it.
“And yeah, I just kept on improving a little bit, [and] that’s exactly what you want.”
Low-speed cornering no longer Red Bull’s main weakness – for now
When asked to reflect on the impact of Red Bull’s upgraded floor for this race – only installed on his car this weekend – he said there are still “limitations” to it. Twice an F1 Miami GP winner, Verstappen pointed out that some of the chronic low-speed issues that had been hampering him recently seem to be cured, with the problem now becoming a lack of straight line speed compared to his nearest rivals:
“I mean, we are still struggling a little bit with our limitations in the car, but I do think that we’ve been quite decent over a lap,” he said. “If you look at the cornering [and speeds comparison], we’re a bit slow on the straights this weekend.
“I think especially [compared to] McLaren and Mercedes. They took a new engine, and of course, that always gives a little bit more power than a used engine. But yeah, it seems like it’s a little bit better.
“Coming into the weekend, I knew that this was not our strongest track with all the low-speed [corners].
“But actually, I think when you look at the data, it’s probably not even most of our problem around the lap. So I guess that is that’s already a positive.”
Uncertainty over the race weather could make for an unpredictable grand prix
Looking ahead to the race, Verstappen doesn’t have a clear picture of how things might pan out over a full race distance in the Miami GP, given the lack of long-run simulations with the disrupted nature of the F1 Sprint weekend.
However, he did point out that given the team’s recent struggles with tyre wear, colder conditions might provide a better platform for him to stay at the front on Sunday – especially given the rain that is forecasted to affect proceedings on Sunday in Miami:
“I don’t know, to be honest,” he said when asked of what to expect on race day. “No one has really done any proper long running because of also the sprint race being wet, mainly.
“So I’ll just try to do the best I can [with] what the car can do. And then we’ll see what that will bring us.”
Verstappen still sits third in the drivers’ championship, but lost significant ground to the McLaren drivers following his penalty in the Sprint race, as he’s now 19 points back from championship leader Oscar Piastri, and 10 behind runner-up Lando Norris.
