So, like, Max Verstappen got off easy for the Miami Grand Prix sprint race, you guys. The stewards were all up in arms about his outlap during SQ2, thinking he was driving too slow. But hey, turns out it was just a programming error on his dashboard showing the wrong time. Oops!
The FIA rules say you can’t drive unnecessarily slow or in a dangerous way, but the stewards decided Max wasn’t really causing any harm. He was just following what his dashboard was telling him, even if it was totally wrong. So, instead of punishing Max, they gave Red Bull a little slap on the wrist. Like, “Hey, make sure your info is correct next time, okay?”
In their official statement, the stewards explained that Max was like 6 seconds above the required time between Safety Car Lines 1 and 2 for one lap in SQ2. But he was chill the rest of the time, driving at a steady pace. The team blamed the whole mess on a glitch in the car’s programming, which made the dashboard show the wrong time. They figured it out after the first cool-down lap and told Max to speed up. And he did, so no harm, no foul.
The stewards were like, “Yeah, Max technically broke the rules, but he wasn’t trying to be slow on purpose. So, no penalty for him. But Red Bull, you better watch out next time.” They even said that in a different situation, they could’ve been way harsher. Yikes!
Oh, and just FYI, this whole thing is totally different from when Max had that little tiff with Lance Stroll in SQ1. Stroll had to swerve around Max on the main straight, calling it “dangerous” and blaming it for missing out on SQ2 by a hair. Drama, drama, drama!
So, there you have it, folks. Max Verstappen dodged a bullet thanks to a wonky dashboard, and Red Bull got a gentle scolding. Racing is wild, man.
