Verstappen frustrated by P3 as Red Bull ‘didn’t really react’ to strategy

Max Verstappen says multiple issues added up to a frustrating run to third place at the U.S. Grand Prix, including a lack of reaction from Red Bull to race strategy.

Fresh from back-to-back victories in Malaysia and Singapore, Verstappen started on the front row alongside Kimi Antonelli looking to make it a hat-trick. The Dutchman was on the soft tire for the first stint and took on another set of softs at his first stop, committing to a two-stop that ended with a run on mediums and avoiding the hard tire that Charles Leclerc used to climb into second place.

“Pretty frustrating, to be honest,” Verstappen said. “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. Then also, I think the way that we used our tires 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 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 too many things today that just didn't go well.”

Having been so competitive in the past three races, Verstappen says a lack of a clear strength for Red Bull meant it couldn’t repeat its success in Austin.

“I think we are balanced as a car. 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.

“Of course, if we chose different tires, 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.”