Red Bull star Max Verstappen teased Lewis Hamilton and Mercedes by claiming that they would have beaten him to win the US Grand Prix on Sunday if they had “a better strategy”. The Brit ran Verstappen close and if the race was a few laps longer then the Silver Arrows would have been celebrating, but the three-time champion crossed the chequered line first in Austin instead.
Despite storming from sixth to take victory, Verstappen endured a day more difficult than he may have expected after encountering problems braking. He repeatedly called out on the radio for members of the Red Bull garage to stop speaking during his attempts to slow down, especially when Hamilton was closing in during the final few laps.
The Brit was on a fresh set of tyres and had overtaken the two Ferraris and Lando Norris to close in on Verstappen, but left it just a few laps too late to mount an overtake that would have seen Hamilton win his first race of the season.
When asked how close Hamilton and Mercedes are coming to challenging him, Verstappen told Sky Sports F1: “For sure, they could have won today if they had a better strategy, I think after the first stop. Over the weekend they were very good, quick, for us and with the brake issues that was hampering my pace. But in general, I think they were very strong this weekend.”
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Mercedes had initially been contemplating a one-stop race with Hamilton, but then realised that a two-stopper would be optimal. If Hamilton had pitted earlier then he would have had an extra few laps to go toe-to-toe with Verstappen, who had been struggling to match them for pace.
Having complained repeatedly over his lack of brake power, Verstappen explained the issue post-race. “We changed the brakes after yesterday and it was not good,” he added. “I had no good feeling under braking and I couldn’t really get on top of it for the whole race, so this is something we need to understand.
“Of course, around here when you are not very confident under braking, you just don’t have the nice feeling under braking when you come off it. It can cost you quite a bit of lap time and it was a bit more difficult than I expected it to be. I normally never really struggle with braking so far in my F1 career, but it was definitely a bit of a problem.”
Hamilton himself was perplexed by the Mercedes strategy, while his team-mate George Russell had a disappointing weekend in Texas. “My guess is as good as yours,” the Brit replied when asked if pitting earlier would have given him a better chance of winning.
“I think we probably should have stopped before Lando because I was within undercut position. I don’t know why we didn’t. Then after that I came out another eight seconds behind and I had to catch up. It was really difficult to catch up and then I came out again another eight or 10 seconds behind [after the second stop]. That deficit was so hard to catch up each time. So we’ve got some work to do.”
