Here's the thing about the Circuit of the Americas: it has earned a fierce reputation as one of the absolute bumpiest tracks on the entire calendar. As RaceFans reports, despite multiple efforts by race promoters to ease those imperfections and the fact that Formula 1's latest generation of cars are supposedly kinder than the brutal ground-effect machines of last year, the circuit remains a physical trap. Max Verstappen has looked at the evidence and is bracing himself for a punishing physical ordeal this weekend.
After taking in footage of the World Endurance Championship round held at the venue last month, Verstappen made his concerns crystal clear. "From what I saw in WEC, the track is incredibly bumpy," he said. Then came the kicker, delivered with classic bluntness: "Oh my God, yeah, I'll probably need to order a new spine, I think, after the weekend. I'll become like RoboCop. That's a new challenge for everyone, to deal with those bumps."
The last few weekends have been great. But I just take it race by race and once we are in Austin, then we'll see how it will go there. It's again a very different track.
Red Bull arrives in Austin as the firm favourites to win, having strung together a heavily dominant run across the three previous rounds. Over that recent stretch, Verstappen has hauled in two grand prix wins, a sprint race victory, and a runner-up finish in another grand prix. But the driver himself refuses to take anything for granted, pointing out that shifting circuit layouts make future competitiveness entirely unpredictable.
"I don't want to say now that I will be in the fight in Austin," Verstappen said. "The last few weekends have been great. But I just take it race by race and once we are in Austin, then we'll see how it will go there. It's again a very different track."
Beyond Austin, the calendar immediately throws another massive variable into the mix with the high-altitude trip to Mexico. That thin air brings entirely unique headaches for cooling and power units alike. "From there we have to go to Mexico [which is] high altitude, everything will run super-hot," Verstappen added. "We need to see how the engine is going to perform in that altitude, how the car is behaving, because it's very different. So there are so many different things that you can get right or wrong in those races, but we'll see."
