Team notes: Ferrari unlucky with safety car, but Leclerc salvages podium position

Ferrari looked strong all through the Miami F1 weekend, but a few hiccups meant that the Italian squad was unable to fully exploit the potential of their SF-24.

Having almost swept into the lead in the sprint race, Leclerc had a bad getaway in the main race, with his teammate Carlos Sainz scooting past. The Ferrari pair was then almost taken out into Turn 1 by overambitious Sergio Perez, who outbraked himself and almost crashed into his team-mate.

The Monégasque then had a long battle with McLaren's Oscar Piastri before performing an early tyre service. With the safety car making an appearance shortly afterwards, he was left on very old hards to finish the race. However, he kept his composure to grab another podium finish in Miami.

Commenting on his day in Miami, Leclerc said: "A tough race today. The first lap was a close call and thankfully we got away without any damage there. We held second place, focusing on tyre management.

“We stopped rather early, which unfortunately cost us after a Virtual Safety Car and Safety Car were deployed, giving others the opportunity to pit. We struggled on older tyres, and had to fight to keep the pace. We have our upgrades coming shortly, so hopefully we can join the fight for victories soon. Congratulations to Lando (Norris) for his first victory, I hope he enjoys it fully."

Carlos Sainz displayed encouraging speed across the entire race, but he never really had the chance to show his real speed as he was stuck in traffic for almost the entirety of the race. The Spaniard had a great getaway, but he had to take evasive action at the start to avoid a contact with an overambitious Sergio Perez. He was later involved in a small clash with McLaren's Oscar Piastri which saw him receive a five-second penalty. As a result, the Madrid-born driver finished fourth, but the penalty dropped him back to P5.

Speaking of his race in Florida, Sainz commented: "Congratulations to Lando, I'm truly happy for him! He deserved a win for a long time and today was his day. Looking at my race I would say the opposite, it wasn’t my day. The start was very good but I went from P2 at turn 1 to P4 after having to avoid Perez.

“From there I was in a DRS train for some laps and decided to open the gap, take care of the tyres and extend my first stint to try something different. Unfortunately, the Safety Car came out the lap after I pitted and we lost a chance to lead the race. It is what it is. However, I'm quite happy with my race because the pace was very strong and at the end of the day we scored good points for the team. On to the next one."

“From our side we had a strong race and we were able to stay with Max (Verstappen) all race long. We were a bit unlucky with the Safety Car with Carlos but it is what it is and we have to stick with the positives, especially the fact that the pace was there all weekend. Charles had a pretty straightforward race.

“However, for Carlos the start was not ideal because of Perez’s mistake at turn 1. Today track position was very important, as it was very difficult to overtake and he lost two places through the first two corners. However he had very good pace and was able to come back at the end. The next Grand Prix is in Imola, which has been the scene of some really exciting racing in recent years. Before then everyone in Maranello will be working hard to ensure we get a better result than we did today."