Max Verstappen lifts lid on key Red Bull change after ‘like old times’ declaration

Max Verstappen has highlighted improved stability as the biggest change to the Red Bull RB20 after the team returned to form at the United States Grand Prix.

Having produced the most dominant season in F1 history in 2023, winning all but one race as Verstappen eased to a third consecutive World Championship, Red Bull were hotly tipped to crush the opposition once again in F1 2024.

Max Verstappen and Red Bull back in business at United States Grand Prix

Additional reporting by Elizabeth Blackstock

Yet after starting the season with four wins from the first five races, Verstappen has failed to win any of the last eight grands prix – stretching back to the Spanish Grand Prix on June 23 – following an alarming mid-season slump.

After a three-week break following the previous race in Singapore, the RB20 has appeared more poised on track this weekend at Austin, Texas, where Verstappen converted sprint pole into victory on Saturday.

The Dutchman had been on course for his first grand prix pole position since the Austrian GP at the end of June on Saturday before George Russell’s crash in the closing moments of Q3, leaving Verstappen second to Lando Norris.

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Speaking to media including PlanetF1.com in the post-qualifying press conference at the Circuit of The Americas, Verstappen pinpointed the stability of the car as the biggest area of improvement since Singapore.

This, he explained, has allowed him to “attack” the corners with more confidence while also keeping the tyres in better shape.

He said: “First of all, Singapore has never been a good track for us.

“All the low speed and corners and the bumps, our car just doesn’t really work on that so it’s a very different track layout.

“Plus, I think we made the car more stable, so you can attack corners a bit better and that then also helps the tyres out a bit.

“So I think that has been the main improvement.”

Verstappen’s latest comments come after he declared that his dominant sprint victory felt “a bit like old times” with Red Bull “finally racing again” after their mid-season struggles.

He said: “It was not too bad! It feels a bit like old times.

“I’m very happy with today. I think, of course, if you look at the whole race, Ferrari was also very quick, but I think for us, finally, we’re racing again.

“Normally in the race, we’re always looking back behind us, but now we could just do our own race and we had good pace.”

Verstappen’s fourth sprint victory of F1 2024 means he enters the United States Grand Prix with a 54-point lead over Norris, with six races of the season remaining.

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