Photo credit: Red Bull Content Pool
While Max Verstappen winning a Grand Prix is an occurrence that has reached routine level in 2023—with the United States Grand Prix marking his 15th in 18 races this season—his victory in Austin was a bit more hard-fought than he’s had throughout this season. For starters, he started down in sixth after his final lap in Q3 was deleted for a track limits violation, only the fifth time this season he’s started outside the front row.
In many races he’s very quickly carved through the field to make it to the front, but after the race Verstappen explained that he was fighting his car much more than usual on Sunday.
“I was struggling a lot with the brakes compared to yesterday. So I couldn’t really be that nice on them and the tyres on the braking and just being very inconsistent. And that basically carried on for the rest of the race, where compared to yesterday, that was just quite a big factor because I never really had a lot of confidence[…] to be consistent on the braking.”
Starting on medium tyres, Verstappen worked up to third on his first stint, and came in at lap 17 but stayed on medium tyres. With then-leader Lando Norris switching to the hard tyre, it wouldn’t be until lap 28, after a couple laps of battle, that he would get around Lando Norris to take the lead. “I think as a team, we did the right strategy. We pitted at the right time. And basically because of that, I could work my way forward.”
He switched to hard tyres on lap 36, but their effectiveness was limited and he wasn’t able to build the dominating gap that has typically come with a Verstappen lead.
“With a few laps to go, there were some back markers and my tyres were not feeling that great. The hard tyre was not very good today. But I think the gap was just big enough and not too many laps left.”
The Dutchman was booed on the podium by Sergio Perez fans in the grandstands after the race. Was he affected by that? Absolutely not.
“No. in the end, I’m the one taking the trophy home. so it’s fine with me!”
In response to the suggestion that it’ll be even more hostile next weekend if he wins again in Mexico, Verstappen stated: “Then I’ll still go home with the trophy, so it’s all good.”
