Max Verstappen says his RB22 is a work in progress following Miami Grand Prix

Red Bull Racing brought a heavily upgraded RB22 for Miami, and Verstappen immediately felt more comfortable in the car, with second on the starting grid as proof of the progress.

However, a sluggish start and a spin—with an impressive save—while fighting for position with Ferrari's Charles Leclerc meant Verstappen was playing catch-up all race long; following an early stop under the Safety Car meant he was on worn tyres towards the end and a sitting duck.

But with Leclerc spinning, the Dutchman managed an eventual fifth, which he kept despite a post-race five-second penalty for crossing the white line when exiting the pits.

"It was a very eventful race," Verstappen said after the race. "Unfortunately, on lap one I lost the rear and spun in the second corner, which was a shame. I recovered it well, but then we had to manage and minimize the time loss.

"After that we opted to do an early stop. It is easy to say after the race, but the Hard tyre wasn't really working for us as we didn't have particularly good grip and struggled a bit at the end.

"I tried my best to hang in there, but it wasn't meant to be. However, we for sure picked up a bit of performance, which is really promising. Overall, it was a positive weekend for us and good to be back in the mix.

"The car is a work in progress, and we keep on pushing and keep trying to improve, so we are heading in the right direction," the four-time Formula 1 Champion concluded.

Verstappen's teammate Isack Hadjar endured a miserable Miami Grand Prix after being disqualified from Qualifying and starting from the pitlane after taking additional power unit components.

From there and despite showing early progress, Hadjar's race lasted for a few laps before he crashed out. 

"It's a tough one to take," the Frenchman said. "We had a good start from the pitlane, and I felt awesome the first few laps. We had very good pace early on, and then the mistake came.

"I didn't see it coming, and everything went so fast; I was just too eager and ended up finding the limit of the track. I need to look back at what happened to understand where I went wrong.

"The Team made a big step forward, and the pace was much stronger today than we've had in the opening rounds, so I'm frustrated that I couldn't score what I felt were easy points.

"I'm already itching to get back into the car in Canada and maximize what we now have," Hadjar concluded.

Red Bull Racing team principal and CEO Laurent Mekies tried to take positives from his team's weekend in Miami, highlighting the progress with the RB22 over the April break.

Mekies said: "Our car is very different today to what it was five weeks ago in Japan when we were 1.2 seconds off pole. It's clear we still have a lot of work to do, but looking at our race pace today and our quali pace yesterday, I think we are on the right track.

"We brought upgrades, like almost everyone else, but on top of that, we have been able to resolve some of the issues we had up until now, and we found some lap time there too.

"I have no problem repeating myself when I say we have a fantastic team of people back in Milton Keynes and here at the racetrack, in my opinion, the best talent in the paddock, and they must take the credit for this uptick in performance. It's been a strong, united effort at 360 degrees, chassis side and PU side.

"We also take home some very important learnings from this weekend on what to improve next, and we are well aware that much more is needed in order to compete again for the top spot.

"Max reminded us of how incredible he is when he can push with the car, sticking the RB22 on the front row yesterday [Saturday] and fighting for each millimeter of track today, coming through the entire field and surviving a 50ish lap long stint on the hard.

"Isack did not have a clean weekend, and we did not help him with the back of the grid start due to our mistake yesterday. His initial pace in the race was strong, and I have every confidence we will regroup back in MK and come back stronger for a smoother weekend in Montreal," Mekies concluded.