Verstappen calls Red Bull 'just a little average' after podium frustration in Austin

Max Verstappen finished third at the United States Grand Prix at the Circuit of the Americas on Sunday, yet the four-time world champion left Austin frustrated, describing Red Bull’s performance as “just a little average” after a race blighted by poor tyre choices, power unit inconsistency, and radio problems.

The result ended a two-race winning streak for Verstappen, who had taken back-to-back victories in Singapore and Malaysia. He crossed the line 17.5 seconds behind Mercedes rookie Kimi Antonelli, who converted pole position into a dominant win using a one-stop hard-tyre strategy — a call Red Bull and Ferrari both failed to mirror, opting instead for a two-stop.

“In hindsight, of course, it’s very easy to say, but for whatever reason, the softer compounds today were not really working that well,” Verstappen said in the post-race press conference. “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.”

He suggested Red Bull had been too loyal to the approach that had served them in recent rounds. “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.”

When asked why the RB22’s pace had dropped relative to recent weekends, Verstappen pointed to a lack of any defining characteristic at a circuit that rewards extremes. “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. 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.”

Verstappen acknowledged that a different strategy could have salvaged second place, but said ongoing power unit issues compounded the team’s difficulties. “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.”

The Dutchman said the team now faces a significant analytical workload heading into the next round. “That’s a few things to analyse: why these tyres didn’t work as we expected, or why the other tyres performed better than expected. Something to learn from.”