Missing out on a third consecutive victory after strong outings in Malaysia and Singapore, Max Verstappen was forced to settle for a third-place finish at the Formula 1 race at the Circuit of the Americas. The Red Bull star admitted his car lacked the necessary pace to fight for the win, which ultimately went to Kimi Antonelli as the young charger secured his ninth victory of the season and tightened his grip on the championship fight.
Throughout the grand prix in Austin, the Dutch driver was unable to mount a serious challenge for the lead, ultimately crossing the finish line 13 seconds adrift of the race winner. When questioned about the stark shift in competitiveness compared to the previous rounds, Verstappen offered a candid assessment of his machine's overall capabilities.
"Because 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," Verstappen explained to media outlets regarding the team's aerodynamic and mechanical limitations around the challenging circuit.
He further elaborated on how the lack of a standout characteristic left their package trailing behind the true front-runners. "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," he added. Despite missing out on the top step of the podium, the result still extended his remarkable streak of consecutive podium finishes to six races.
Beyond the underlying pace deficit, Verstappen pointed to sub-optimal tyre strategies and reliability concerns as factors that hindered a potentially better result. "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," he concluded, noting that the team still has numerous areas requiring urgent improvement.
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