Max Verstappen and Red Bull are in retreat as the Formula 1 season resumes in Texas. (More Sports News)
The series returns from aꦏ month-long autumn break at the United States Grand Prix with the Dutch driver still leading the championship, but his car has gone backward in terms of performance and re🙈sults while McLaren's Lando Norris pulls ever closer in the title chase.
The last time on the track, Verstappen finished second in Singapore, only to watch Norris drive off in the distance and win by a whopping 21 seconds. It was the kind of gap Verstappen 🧸crushed the field with all last season.
“After Singapore I just wanted toꦐ keep going. We were in a good rhythm. I think we still are in a good rhythm and have been for quite a while," Nor🍰ris said.
Verstappen still has a 52-point lead as he chases his fourth consecutive championship with six races left. That race gap to Norris in Singapore was worrisome, and raised more pressure on Red Bull to reverse its slide, or at least finꦺd something that can keep Norris at bay.
The race weekend at the Circuit of the Americas has a lot of points on offer that Norris can 🌳snatch if Red Bull continues to struggle. Saturday fe▨atures the first sprint race since Austria in June.
Verstappen has won all three previous sprint races this season and﷽ has won the main race in Austin thꦏe last three years. But he hasn't won this season since the Spanish Grand Prix on June 23 and has earned just three podium finishes in that span. Verstappen at times has described his once dominant car as “undrivable” and a “monster.”
McLaren 🅘has already overtaken Red Bull to seize the lead in the team constructors' championship, and another𝓡 win on a track where Verstappen has been dominant would be a dagger.
Red Bull is bringing a package of upgrades it hopes will get its o🐭nce dominant car back to the front.
Verstappen stopped short of calling it a make-or-break race weekend ꦫin the title chase, but teammate Sergio Perez called it “crucial” for Red Bull.
Theඣ first results were positive for Red Bull: Verstappen qualified for pole positi♏on for the Saturday sprint race, putting 0.250 seconds between himself and Norris in fourth.
“I'm happy with today. The whole day the car was working quite well. Happy to be first, it's been a while,” Verstappen said. “We'll do the best we can tomorrow in the sprint, but we knowꩵ the most points are available on Sunday. That's where w🎶e really want to do well.”
Norrꩵis sound🐠ed confident this week that McLaren will keep the pressure on Red Bull.
“I know people ask every weekend if this is a weekend that's going to change something. It can go my way. It can go Max's way,” ꧋Norris said. “But I'm happy with what we're doing as a team and how we're working together. It'✅s not easy. I need more than just me first and Max second.”
Mercedes driver ⛄George Russell predicted Norris to win the title based on current form, despite the points gap.
“I think Lando c♌an absolutely win t🔯his championship and I would probably say he's (the) favorite to do so with their form right now comparing with Red Bull," Russell said.
McLaren chief executive Zak Brown tapp🔯🌼ed the brakes on that just a bit.
“A lot of racing left to go,” Brown said. "We're going to need Lando to win a lot of races and Max to have an unusually baไd day.”
Red Bull inspectionRed Bull allowed race stewards to inspect Verstappen's cockpit in front of television cameras to give them a look at a device it i𒉰s beli♛eved could be used to adjust the height of the car.
Rival teams have worried it coul💝d be used to change car height between qualifying and a race, which is strictly prohibited.
Red Bull has insisted the device is inaccessible once the car is assembled, and that the team never cheated. Still, the FIA said it will tighten parc ferme requirements, and applied a seal to t꧃he device in the Red Bull cars that will show if there is any tampering.
Small talk Verstappen said he will continue to give s♉hort answers in official race news conferences after he was 𒁃punished by the sport's governing body FIA for swearing in Singapore.
“I prefer of course to talk less, so it's fine anyway f💙or me." Verstappen told reporters gathered Thursday on the porch of the Red Bull team hospitality tent♉.
Russell, who♊ is a director of the Grand Prix Drivers' Association, said the dri💯vers will likely issue a statement on the matter next week ahead of the Mexico City Grand Prix.
“We don't want to be taking away the heat of the moment emotions that drivers show during a rac🅷e," Russell said.
“For the drivers, it is very challenging when you have a microphone, you're talking with your team, you're in the middle of battle,” Russell said. “But if it's an environment like this ma🐼ybe we have a duty to be conscious of our words.”
Smooth surfaceMercedes' Lewis Hamilton and Ferrari's Charles Leclerc were disqualified from their second and sixth place finishes in Austin last year when their cars failed post-race inspecti🍒ons for worn down skid blocks.
Mercedes blamed the problem in part on the bumps aroun𝐆d COTA, which other drivers, notably Ver🍷stappen, had complained as not worthy of an F1 venue.
The track has since then been compꦗletely resurfaced. And it has already seen💮 some racing. The Lone Star Le Mans World Endurance Championship race last month broke in the new surface.
