Red Bull Boss reveals how Verstappen escaped Miami disqualification drama

The Milton Keynes-based team experienced contrasting fortunes after qualifying for the Florida race. While Verstappen impressed with a front-row start following a strong session, Hadjar’s weekend unravelled when he was forced to start from the pit lane after a post-qualifying disqualification.

Asked whether the two cars had been set up differently ahead of qualifying, Mekies clarified that both drivers ran identical specifications, with the issue on Hadjar’s car coming down to a costly human error. “They were on the exact same spec. We made a mistake on Isack’s car. It’s very simple: the car was found to be two millimetres too wide. We should have spotted it earlier in our routine checks. We did not, and it’s painful, but it’s easy to fix,” Mekies told GPblog.

Hadjar’s floor was found to be illegal as it protruded two millimetres beyond the dimensions defined in the F1 2026 technical regulations. Verstappen passed the post-qualifying scrutineering and subsequently kept his front-row start.

The race itself in Miami unfolded in a manner that left little to be desired for the Red Bull outfit, with Hadjar suffering a crash on the sixth lap and Verstappen spinning on the opening lap, which saw him slide down the running order.

Earlier, Mekies expressed his delight with the results of the updates the Red Bull outfit introduced at the Miami Grand Prix. The 49-year-old detailed how the upgrades are a definitive step forward for the Milton Keynes-based team.

The French motorsport chief acknowledged that rivals will continue to push ahead, but stressed that the weekend still reflected meaningful progress for Red Bull’s development path.

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