Max Verstappen secured his tenth podium finish of the 2026 Formula 1 season in Austin, marking his sixth in succession since his crash at Zandvoort. Yet, as Autosport reports, this impressive statistic did little to satisfy him at the Circuit of the Americas. While the pace appeared sufficient to fight for pole position on Saturday—judged by a strong Q2 lap before grip inexplicably vanished in Q3—too many small things went wrong during the race itself.
Red Bull's struggles in Texas stemmed from a mix of race-specific decisions and chronic weaknesses. Tyre strategy proved to be a major stumbling block. As Verstappen admitted, softer compounds simply failed to work, and the team erred in its stint ordering by clinging to the belief that softer rubber was fastest, failing to react as rivals on harder compounds found massive grip. Team principal Laurent Mekies later acknowledged that the RB22's usual strength in managing softer tyres inverted entirely in Austin.
It's not the second time. It's already, I don't know how many times this year. Maybe we should just start communicating in sign language! It's probably cheaper as well,
Beyond strategy, power unit inconsistencies plagued the cockpit. Verstappen complained over the radio about unpredictable engine behavior around corners that destroyed his rhythm, compounded by a slow pit stop. But beneath those specific race hurdles lay two glaring, recurring problems that have haunted Red Bull all year: radio communication and poor starts. When asked about his launch off the line, Verstappen did not mince words. "I didn't lose a position, so it wasn't that bad. It's normal. My start was normal, just consistently sh**," he said.
Radio failures proved equally maddening. Following communication breakdowns in Singapore where Gianpiero Lambiase could not hear him, Red Bull had promised a strong solution. Yet in Austin, those fixes were nowhere to be found. Over the bumpy Texas tarmac, both Verstappen and Isack Hadjar suffered team radio breakdowns. Verstappen could not hear Tom Hart, who was standing in as his race engineer to build a future working relationship.
"It's not the second time. It's already, I don't know how many times this year. Maybe we should just start communicating in sign language! It's probably cheaper as well," Verstappen joked, before adding that the situation is a disaster. Between the radio failures, sluggish starts, tyre miscalculations, and engine inconsistencies, Red Bull could not extract the RB22's full potential, leaving victory out of reach even as Kimi Antonelli held the upper hand in outright pace.
