Only Verstappen receives updates in Miami: Is this an advantage for Red Bull Racing?

Last year, only Lando Norris had the privilege of driving an updated McLaren in Miami. The Brit won his first Grand Prix that weekend. Oscar Piastri had to wait until the next race to equip his car with the latest updates. This year, Red Bull is doing essentially the same thing. Only Max Verstappen has an updated car this weekend.

In contrast, McLaren has decided this year not to favour any driver since the two are very close in the championship. Does this provide an advantage for Red Bull?

"I don't know," began Paul Monaghan, chief engineer at Red Bull, talking to GPBlog and others. "We do what we do, and we can do that at the moment."

While the updates will likely help Verstappen, it doesn't necessarily help the entire team. "It doesn't necessarily help the constructors' championship. Which you could argue, at this point we can bring it to Max so we can, so we shall."

Monaghan didn't want to say much about how McLaren chooses to operate this season.

The updates that the Austrian team has included are focused on both performance and downforce generation. The team chose to take this package into a sprint weekend as it has assessed the updates as low risk.

"In our judgment of flow stability, if you read the thing I put out, it says the flow stability is unchanged." assured Monaghan. "We’re not fearing it to be aerodynamically unstable or anything of that nature. It can go on, and it'll give us a few kilos of load, and we shall enjoy the benefits."