AUSTIN – Max Verstappen was unimpressed with Red Bull’s showing in the Formula 1 United States Grand Prix, describing it as “average” with what is a still-evolving package.
The Dutchman finished third, having started second on the grid – a position earned after a qualifying in which he found a significant drop in performance when switching to new tyres.
At the start, Verstappen was powerless to challenge polesitter and race-winner Andrea Kimi Antonelli, and was forced to fend off the attack of both Ferraris behind him.
A two-stop strategy saw him re-emerge in second place, but late-race pace from Charles Leclerc saw him take second place, leaving Verstappen to settle for the final place on the podium.
Verstappen vented his frustrations over radio during the race, and repeated some of those frustrations afterwards to media, including Motorsport Week.
“[It was] Pretty frustrating, to be honest,” he said. “Yeah, just not a really good race for us. In hindsight, of course, it’s very easy to say, but for whatever reason, the softer compounds today were not really working that well.
“So, yeah, then also I think the way that we used our tyres in the order was wrong.
“Plus, I think at one point it was quite clear that the people on the harder compounds were finding a lot of grip, so I guess we also didn’t really react to that. Just probably sticking too much to our belief from the last two races, where the softer compounds were the fastest, and clearly here that didn’t work.
“But, yeah, also besides that, too many issues with the power unit, where it was just very inconsistent behaviour around the corners, every lap, every corner, different behaviour. So, you can’t build up a rhythm, you can’t build any kind of consistency in the car.
“I had a slow pit stop, so, yeah, too many things today that just didn’t go well.”
Max Verstappen: A lot Red Bull can ‘do better’
For many, Verstappen’s performance issues may have been a surprise, given he arrived in Texas off the back of back-to-back wins in Malaysia and Singapore.
But, as the four-time World Champion pointed out, the RB22’s finely-balanced package is what held it back, on what is a circuit of changing undulations and gradients.
“We are not the fastest in high speed, we’re not the fastest in low speed, and I think maybe here you either need to be very fast in high speed or you need to be the quickest in low speed,” he said.
“When you’re none of it, you’re just a little bit average, and I think we were just a little bit average in the race.
“Of course, if we chose different tyres, probably we could have maybe been second, but that’s always easy to say afterwards. Plus, when you have too many issues with the consistency of your power unit, then that already costs you free lap time.
“So it’s normal that you can’t execute everything to the limit or at least be at your best. There are still a lot of things that we need to look at and do better.”
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