Verstappen Close, but Red Bull Still Has a “Key” Problem at COTA, Says Waché

Red Bull technical director Pierre Waché says slow corners are costing his team the most at the Circuit of the Americas. He made the call Friday, October 23, after Max Verstappen placed second in first practice and third in second practice for the United States Grand Prix.

Verstappen ended the day 0.189 seconds behind Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc, a small gap that straight-line speed can’t close on its own.

The Race asked whether one area stood out for improvement overnight, and Waché didn’t hedge. “Low speed is the key for us,” he said. “It’s clearly the low speed performance that we are focused on at the moment,” he added, according to Motorsport.com.

That’s a blunt message for a team that arrived in Texas fresh off back-to-back wins with Verstappen. Red Bull isn’t miles off the pace, but the car isn’t comfortable either, and this track punishes any weakness in any kind of corner.

Where is Red Bull Losing Time

Straight-line speed isn’t the issue. The Race found Verstappen gained about six tenths of a second on Leclerc on the straights once speeds settled. Ferrari answered in the slow corners.

Turn 1 shows the problem. Verstappen braked earliest of the top three, managed some wheelspin on the way out and reached full throttle last, which swung him from just over a tenth ahead of Leclerc to 0.25 seconds behind. At Turn 12, he lost roughly 0.2 seconds more after the car didn’t respond when he first turned in and ran a little deep.

Verstappen complained about the bumpy surface on Thursday, and Waché said Friday proved the point. The bumps meant that “to rebalance the car was more difficult than we expected,” he told Crash.net.

Hadjar’s Struggles Add to the Overnight Workload

Teammate Isack Hadjar had a far rougher Friday. He finished ninth in second practice, 0.931 seconds behind Verstappen, after Red Bull changed his car between sessions. “It was just undriveable, and I was losing the front end massively,” Hadjar told Formula1.com.

His front tires overheated through the fast corners in Sector 1, which left him short of grip for the rest of the lap. Waché said Red Bull must undo that setup direction overnight, and he insisted Hadjar’s car isn’t far from Verstappen’s.

Race pace matters as much as one lap in Austin, and Pirelli expects a one-stop strategy. Verstappen’s 11-lap run on soft tires averaged 1:41.481, second only to Lando Norris’s 1:41.289 on the hard compound. That gives Red Bull something to build on.

Red Bull has a driver within two tenths of the pace and a car that flies down the straights. What it needs is a car that turns in sharply and pulls cleanly out of slow corners on a rough surface. Saturday will show whether one night of work is enough.

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