Red Bull pledge strategy review after Verstappen frustration in Austin

Pulse Sports Team 10:37 - 27 October 2026

Red Bull will conduct a thorough review into the unexpectedly high tyre degradation suffered by Max Verstappen during the United States Grand Prix, after the Dutchman openly questioned the team's strategy in Austin.

The four-time Formula 1 world champion crossed the line in third place at the Circuit of the Americas, finishing 17.485 seconds adrift of race winner Andrea Kimi Antonelli. Red Bull ran Verstappen on a two-stop strategy using soft, soft, and medium tyres. Meanwhile, the Mercedes driver's one-stop plan switching from mediums to hards proved to be the winning move.

Speaking after the race, Verstappen noted that the tactical plan executed on track differed from what had been agreed pre-race. Red Bull team principal Laurent Mekies, however, clarified that he had not yet heard Max's specific grievances.

Mekies told the media: "I can't comment on his exact words because I haven't heard them. I suspect what might have surprised him was our decision to fit soft tyres for the second stint – a move that was originally our preferred plan."

"Unfortunately, as became clear, we suffered from excessive degradation during that second stint. That is certainly one of the things we will review together – why we experienced such severe tyre wear during that phase of the race."

Red Bull split strategies between Verstappen and team-mate Isack Hadjar, who finished sixth. However, Mekies insisted that tyre choice and strategy were not the deciding factors against Antonelli.

"I think Kimi was simply faster than us out there," Mekies said. "There is no point looking for excuses in tyres or strategy. Kimi had the better pace – credit to him for an excellent drive."

"The reality is that the one-stop and two-stop options were extremely close in terms of total race time, which is why we split the strategies across both cars. Normally, we have an edge over the competition on the softer compounds, but this time we couldn't make it work. Max struggled significantly with high degradation across both sets of softs, which undoubtedly compromised our final result."