Kembali
Max Verstappen has opened up on some concerns he has about this weekend's US Grand Prix, and specifically the current state of the track.
The Dutchman comes into Austin off the back of consecutive victories in Sepang and Singapore, and after the latter race admitted that the different conditions facing himself and the rest of the grid at the Circuit of the Americas will make the race hard to predict.
Joking that he will have to 'order a new spine or become like Robocop' after the race due to the bumpy nature of the Texas circuit, Verstappen pointed out that the bumps will create a new challenge for teams and drivers to contend with – with Mexico City, a week later, presenting its own set of issues to overcome.
The four-time world champion is under no illusions that a fifth title is within reach this year, with Kimi Antonelli's lead so large that he could become the sport's youngest champion as early as Sunday, but Verstappen and Red Bull are threatening to lay down a serious marker in the final couple of months.
Asked in the post-race press conference in Singapore if he believes he has a car to challenge for victories at every remaining race this year, Verstappen said: "I mean, it's very difficult to say. I don't want to say now that I will be in the fight in Austin, but yeah, the last few weekends have been great.
"But I just take it race by race, and once we are in Austin, then we'll see how it will go there. But it's again a very different track. From what I saw in WEC, the track is incredibly bumpy. Oh my god, I probably need to order a new spine after the weekend or become like Robocop. Crazy.
"That's again a new challenge for everyone, you know, to deal with those bumps. And then we just go from there. We have to go to Mexico, again, high altitude, everything will run super hot.
"We need to see how the engine is going to perform at that altitude, how the car is behaving, because it's very different. So, you know, there are so many different things that you can get right or wrong in those races, but we'll see."