Although Max Verstappen once again secured a podium finish, something that seemed to be the maximum achievable for much of this Formula 1 season, there was certainly little satisfaction in the Red Bull hospitality on Sunday evening. Several team members acknowledged in the paddock that Kimi Antonelli's race pace was impossible to match, although both Red Bull drivers were frustrated that the team had failed to extract the full potential from its package in Austin.
This was partly due to problems specific to this race, such as strategic decisions Verstappen was unhappy with – particularly the insistence on sticking with the softer compounds while the harder ones seemed to work better – and inconsistent behaviour from the power unit. But the difficult Sunday afternoon at the Circuit of the Americas was also caused by two problems that have repeatedly cropped up this year: poor starts and technical issues with the team radio.
All of this led to frustration for Isack Hadjar, who summed it up as follows in the media pen:“At the moment, it's the little things we can’t do.
"I have poor radio, I don't even know what's happening. And whenever I drop the clutch, it's going into a nightmare. If we fix these two issues, we might already be on the podium. It seems like we can do the hardest things, but we can’t do the silly things.”
By 'the hardest things', he was naturally referring to the fact that Red Bull has managed to overturn its enormous gap to the front of the field. In Australia, China and Japan, the average deficit in race pace was 1.2 seconds per lap, and making up that kind of ground over the course of a season is certainly no small feat.
At the same time, tackling the start problem and getting the radio issues under control has proved more complicated than expected. When Autosport put those observations to Laurent Mekies, referring to Hadjar's comments, the team principal clarified that the two aspects needed to be treated separately. Yes, the radio problem is unacceptable for a top team and must be resolved before the end of this year, but the start issue is more complex and will remain an obstacle until 2027.
“I guess there are two different ways to answer your question," said Mekies. “I think there is some truth in what Isack is saying, meaning that we are all frustrated to struggle with radio issues for the second race in a row. It's making everyone's lives very difficult, so it is true that it's something that we would like to fix quite quickly, because it's an item that should be working without using too much of our energy.
Laurent Mekies, Red Bull Racing
Photo by: Angela Weiss / AFP via Getty Images
“So he's right on that one. The start is a slightly more complex issue to solve.”
As for the radio problems, both drivers were affected in Austin, which was the first time this year for Hadjar. Verstappen has been troubled by them more frequently. In Singapore, his race engineer Gianpiero Lambiase could not hear him, forcing ‘GP’ to resort to coded communication. In Austin, Verstappen could not hear stand-in race engineer Tom Hart – who, according to Mekies, did a great job – which once again made communication difficult.
Red Bull acknowledges that it does not yet fully understand these radio problems, although Mekies believes they should not be overly complex to resolve.
“If we were understanding it, we would have solved it," said the Frenchman. "We don't fully understand why we are being hit by these issues. I have to admit that the competition is doing a better job than us because we can hear everyone's radio and we have been struggling more than what we would have liked to.”
Starts can improve, but hardware changes needed for a proper solution
The start problem is considerably more complex. After the race in Austin, Hadjar said that Red Bull needs to redesign the clutch, arguing that he follows all the procedures correctly but that the clutch is still too sensitive.
Mekies clarified, however, that it is not as simple as that and that the start problem is actually linked to a wide range of different factors.
“The start is a slightly more complex issue to solve, meaning that the start performance is going across pretty much all departments of the company, probably except the aerodynamic department," he said.
Race start
Photo by: Simon Galloway / LAT Images via Getty Images
“It's engine, it's gearbox, it's clutch, it's many things. And we certainly have seen from the beginning of the season that we are not the benchmark in terms of launch performance.”
A proper solution will therefore require several hardware changes for the 2027 F1 season, involving the interaction between the clutch, gearbox, power unit and turbo.
That said, Red Bull acknowledges that it should be possible to perform somewhat better with its current software and hardware than it is doing at present, and it is also looking at sister team Racing Bulls in that regard. On average, Racing Bulls has made better starts, although Verstappen has said that everything is identical and that the difference can only be made with the procedures.
Mekies acknowledged that there should still be more performance to unlock in that area, although he stressed that Red Bull has already made significant progress compared with Melbourne.
“As much as we have reduced the gap, because you may remember how bad our starts were at the beginning of the year, we are still not the benchmark,” Mekies said.
“And yes, the fact that the car improved a lot in the meantime improved and is fighting closer to the front, makes that deficit even more painful now, because the competition around us is very strong.
“So to your point, on one side I'm confident that we will continue to reduce the gap to the competition from now to the end of the year, because every race we learn. Every race we come up with small ways to close the gap.”
But a genuine, long-term solution will have to wait until next year.
“On the other side, I equally know that we will not be the benchmark before the end of the season," he concluded. "That will require some significant design and hardware changes, and this is something that we will only see next year.”
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