Max Verstappen has joked that the bumpy Circuit of the Americas may force him to “order a new spine” after this weekend’s United States Grand Prix.

Verstappen heads to Austin in a rich vein of form, having secured five successive top-three results, including back-to-back wins at the Bahrain and Singapore Grands Prix.

Max Verstappen raises concerns over Circuit of the Americas bumps

Verstappen, though, has tempered expectations for this weekend’s Grand Prix in Texas.

The 5.5km Circuit of the Americas is a notoriously bumpy track, which makes it difficult for drivers to keep their cars stable, especially through high-speed corners.

For 2026, the race organisers have focused on improving certain sections of the track, with the stretch from Turn 9 to Turn 11 having been resurfaced. The bumps on the approaches to Turns 12 and 19 have also been smoothed out.

However, having watched the World Endurance Championship race at COTA, Verstappen still has a few concerns about the track surface.

Asked if Red Bull’s RB22 is now a car that can fight for the win at every track, the four-time world champion replied: “I mean, it’s very difficult to say and 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. I’ll probably need to order a new spine, I think, after the weekend. Yeah, I’ll become like Robocop. Yeah, crazy.

“That’s again a new challenge for everyone, to deal with those bumps.”

Verstappen’s run of podium results has elevated him to fourth in the Drivers’ Championship, where he is now just eight points behind Lewis Hamilton and a spot on the championship podium. He trails second-placed George Russell by 17 points.

Winning the title, though, may be too big a leap as he is 119 points behind Kimi Antonelli with only 150 points still in play.

Verstappen concedes that his Grand Prix weekends are more about having fun than fighting for a fifth world title.

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“I mean, I think the car definitely felt a lot nicer from Baku onwards,” he said. “It’s just been a lot more balanced.

“And then naturally, of course, when you can compete a bit further up front without having too many issues with the car compared to the beginning of the year, where it was actually sometimes a bit scary to drive, yeah, that makes it a lot nicer.

“And yeah, the way that we turned that around and actually the big progress that we have made this year, yeah, that makes it of course a lot nicer. And when you can add a few wins as well, it’s just nice.

“And we’re not in a championship fight, and that’s why I think till the end, yeah, we just try to have a good time and try to add more podiums and hopefully a few wins.”

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