Red Bull strategy under Verstappen scrutiny after United States GP frustration

From strategy to the power unit to pit-stops, Max Verstappen felt that too much went wrong for Red Bull at the United States Grand Prix.

Throw in the “disaster” radio communication issues for good measure, and Verstappen cut a frustrated figure after the race in Austin despite making the podium.

Max Verstappen lays out Red Bull US GP frustrations

Verstappen launched on soft tyres from the front row, versus polesitter and champion-in-waiting Kimi Antonelli on mediums. This battle transformed into a Verstappen two-stopper versus Antonelli’s one.

It was the Mercedes driver who raced on to a comfortable victory, while Verstappen lost out to Charles Leclerc’s Ferrari, also on the two stops.

Going soft-soft-medium, Verstappen felt that strategy proved suboptimal. He had also complained of an engine braking gremlin, further complicating his afternoon in Texas.

“Pretty frustrating to be honest. Just not a really good race for us,” he reflected in the post-race press conference.

“In hindsight, of course, very easy to say, but for whatever reason, the softer compounds today were not really working that well. I think also the way that we used our tyres in the order was wrong.

“Plus, I think it was at one point 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. Probably a bit 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.

“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 yeah, 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.”

After back-to-back wins at the Bahrain in Malaysia and Singapore GPs, Verstappen was asked why the RB22’s pace felt different here compared to recent races.

“I think we are balanced as a car. We are not the fastest in high speed. We are 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 the low speed.

“When you are not, like none of it, you’re just a little bit average. I think we were just a little bit average.

“Also in the race, 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 just consistency of your power unit, then that already costs free lap time, so it’s normal that you then can’t execute everything to the limit, or at least be at your best.

“So there are still a lot of things that we need to look at and do better.”

The Dutchman initially lost out to Leclerc off the line, and withstood heavy pressure from Lewis Hamilton in the sister Ferrari. He re-passed Leclerc by Turn 15.

“I didn’t lose a position, so it wasn’t that bad,” he said of his start. “It’s normal. My start was normal. Just consistently s**t.”

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He also had issues with the radio once again in-race, complicating communication with the pit wall.

That came after significant radio issues in Singapore last time out.

“It’s already I don’t know how many times this year,” said Verstappen, before quipping: “Maybe we just start communicating in sign language. It’s probably cheaper as well. It’s a disaster. It’s really frustrating to be honest.”

Considering all the hurdles which he had mentioned, Verstappen was asked whether his P3 felt like the maximum result available.

“No, today we didn’t maximise much,” he insisted. “The issues, of course, don’t help, but I think also the strategy that we did with the tyre choices that we made, yeah, they were just not good.

“So there’s a few things to analyse. Why these tyres didn’t work as we expected, or why the other tyres perform better than expected. Something to learn from.

“Then like I said before, the slow pit-stop doesn’t help as well. It’s just seconds that you throw away, right? And then when you’re fighting a close battle for second, yeah, that hurts your performance.

“Normally we are very good at these things, but today we weren’t.”

Verstappen is now mathematically out of the title equation following the United States GP.

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