Max Verstappen complained about handling his Formula One car. So, Charles Leclerc expects to put him “under pressure” during the Miami Grand Prix.
Leclerc will once more start on the grid’s front row, next to the Red Bull driver.
In the shorter sprint race, on Saturday morning, the Monegasque came in over three seconds behind Verstappen.
With Verstappen reportedly “unhappy” with how his RB20 was handled in Miami, Leclerc is aiming for the current world champion.
“He has excellent strength. Our proximity this morning was close. He expressed dissatisfaction with the car this morning; we’ll see how he feels tomorrow.
“We hope he will remain dissatisfied, and we will continue to apply pressure to him.” This morning, they took some steps ahead of us. I believe we can possibly remain with him if we receive the DRS after the first lap.
If Leclerc is to have any hope of attacking Verstappen for the win, he feels he must stay inside DRS range of him.
“Yeah, this and keeping the DRS if we don’t get past by turn one,” Leclerc answered.
“DRS is extraordinarily potent at this track; if we lose it after the first lap, it becomes exceedingly difficult to regain it; therefore, we must retain it.”
“But first and foremost, there will be the start; we had a good one this morning, and tomorrow, I will try to have an even better one.”
Leclerc returned to his best in Miami, having battled for qualifying form in 2024.
After missing most of FP1 after a clumsy spin, he qualified second in each session.
Leclerc was happy with his recovery even if the Miami track conditions challenged the drivers.
“I am glad. He clarified that the weekend has yet to start the best way, as I mentioned, particularly with a mistake this little. There were significant repercussions on that first free practice, and one lap wasn’t the best. After that, we had a pleasant weekend. Excellent. Today went well.
“Second this morning and second this afternoon.” It was tough, not just for us but for everyone. That second section was challenging to understand, and it took a lot of work to guess what kind of grip we would get in Turn 11. Putting the lap together was very hard because of it.
