Red Bull design chief Adrian Newey is refusing to get carried away after the back-to-back victories achieved by Max Verstappen in Imola and Miami. Verstappen made it two out of two by overhauling Ferrari pair Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz on race day at the all-new Miami International Autodrome. It means Verstappen's points deficit to Leclerc has been cut from 46 to 19 in two races, while Red Bull are now just six behind Ferrari.
Newey not feeling relaxed despite Red Bull momentum
However, reflecting on the race weekend, Newey insisted that Red Bull cannot get complacement, pointing to the ebb and flow seen during the 2021 season. "It's so close, you really can't say that," Newey said on the F1 Nation podcast, when asked if "things are looking pretty good" for Red Bull. "We've only got to look back at last season, [and] the few races where we had some pretty good, dominant wins - Austria, Mexico - and then the next race it swings around. "You really can't be relaxed at this point, that's for sure."
A unique challenge posed by the new Miami circuit
Newey described Miami as a "difficult" venue to get to grips with, mainly due to the "completely different" track surface. "They've used granite as the substrate, and the way the tyres behave on that has been a bit different to what we've experienced at the first four [races]," he said. "There was a bit of learning to do and, to be perfectly honest - because of all the red flags we'd had in the practice sessions - nobody really got proper, good long runs in. "[We didn't know] exactly how the tyres were going to behave in the race, how far we would get with the Mediums. "Once we did stop with the Mediums, if we were forced to stop early, would we get one stop on the Hards from the end? It's so difficult."
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