That said, things simply unraveled for Red Bull at the United States Grand Prix, leaving both Max Verstappen and Isack Hadjar to deal with a mountain of frustration. Following back-to-back victories in Malaysia and Singapore, the weekend started brightly enough when Verstappen qualified in second place at the Circuit of The Americas, with Hadjar locking in third to equal his best-ever qualifying result.
Unfortunately, the race itself proved to be an entirely different beast. Verstappen lined up his RB22 for an aggressive start to challenge polesitter Kimi Antonelli, but his launch completely backfired and dropped him right into the clutches of Ferrari, forcing him to fight past Charles Leclerc after losing position immediately.
From there, the race became an uphill battle of strategy and mechanical headaches. Verstappen made two pit stops and capitalized on Lando Norris struggling on ageing tyres to claw his way back to second place, though Leclerc ultimately pushed him down to third in the closing stages.
“We didn’t have the pace of Kimi,” Verstappen said. “At the same time I think the way we used our tyres, the order, was wrong – probably also the wrong compounds in hindsight, but that’s something to still understand because lately, the harder compounds have not been competitive and now suddenly they were.
Power unit consistency was a glaring weak point throughout the grand prix. Verstappen noted that it was impossible to rely on a consistent balance through a corner when the machine behaved differently on every single lap. Combined with a slow pit stop and a noticeable weakness in the high-speed corners of the layout, it all added up to a difficult afternoon.
Meanwhile, Hadjar endured an equally messy race after dropping to fifth on the opening lap due to his own launch troubles. He fought his way back into the top three by running an extended stint on soft tyres, but was eventually ordered to let his team mate pass once Verstappen switched to fresh rubber.
When Hadjar finally pitted, disaster struck in the pit lane as he got stuck on the incorrect engine mapping, triggering a throttle problem that ruined his momentum and ultimately dragged him down to a sixth-place finish.
“Everything went wrong,” Hadjar explained. “First of all, the race start – I did everything on my side. I had a clutch overdelivery so it was completely out of my control again. It’s really starting to p*** me off.
Despite the electronic gremlins and the dreadful starts, Hadjar found genuine encouragement in his race pace while on the soft compound. In a world where the team can fix their starts, he believes a brilliant race is well within reach.
