What the teams said – Race day in the United States

Mercedes

Antonelli put in a masterclass in Austin, getting off the line brilliantly from pole despite being on the medium tyres. He built an advantage over Verstappen, the team holding their nerve when their rivals on a two-stop strategy began to pit. Antonelli remained on a one-stop, got his hard tyres working well after his trip through the pits and wound up winning by a comfortable margin to extend his lead in the championship and make it incredibly likely he will seal the title in Mexico City.

Russell had a harder afternoon, after picking up a time penalty on the very first lap for leaving the track and gaining an advantage when fighting Piastri. That dropped him behind the Australian when both stopped, and Russell just did not have the pace to get past the Mclaren on a day where his speed was nowhere near that of his team mate.

Kimi Antonelli, 1st

"What an incredible feeling. After Friday, I don't think any of us expected to be standing here with the win, so to turn the weekend around like this is really special. The car felt great today, and I was able to control the race, but it definitely wasn't easy. There was pressure throughout and I knew I couldn't afford to make a mistake. I just tried to stay calm, focus on each lap and execute the race.

"A huge thank you to everyone here at the track and back at Brackley and Brixworth. We kept working after a difficult Friday and never gave up. To repay all that work with a victory feels amazing. I'm very proud of what we achieved today."

George Russell, 8th

"It was another difficult day for me today. I just didn't have the pace and I'm unsure why that is. My first stint wasn't great, and I was struggling initially on the Medium tyre but after the pitstop my pace felt stronger and I felt I could make some progress. However, once I caught up with the McLaren of Piastri, I just couldn't overtake and ended up stuck behind him for the remaining laps of the race.

"The time penalty from the opening lap cost me a couple of places but overall, the pace just wasn't good enough today for me to be fighting at the front. The lack of performance is something me and the team will look at and work on over the next couple of days. Hopefully we can make some improvements ahead of next weekend in Mexico and come back stronger for the rest of the season."

Toto Wolff, Head of Mercedes-Benz Motorsport

"That was an exceptional drive from Kimi. He and the team didn't put a foot wrong all afternoon, showing strong pace throughout along with making all the right decisions strategically. What makes today particularly satisfying is where we came from on Friday. We didn't look like we had a car capable of winning this race, but the team kept working, made good decisions and turned the weekend around. That is a credit to everyone here in Austin and back in Brackley and Brixworth.

"For George, it was a more difficult afternoon, and the result doesn't reflect the pace we know he has. He was hindered by a five-second time penalty that dropped him behind the McLarens and then he got stuck behind Piastri. We will look at this weekend overall, understand what we could have done differently and work together to make sure he can have a stronger weekend in Mexico."

Andrew Shovlin, Trackside Engineering Director

"Well done to Kimi and everyone in Brackley and Brixworth on the win. After Friday, a race victory simply didn't look achievable given our single-lap and long-run pace, so it's been a remarkable turnaround and a very satisfying result.

"For George, it was a frustrating afternoon. The penalty for going off track on the opening lap didn't help and, despite making a strong start to his second stint, he got stuck behind Piastri and couldn't find a way through.

"There were encouraging signs with the car pace, although since the update it does feel like the set-up window has become a little harder to hit. Operationally though, the team did a very good job. The strategy decisions weren't clear-cut, but we held our nerve, made the right call to stick with the one-stop, and the pit stops were solid.

"Most of all, Kimi should be incredibly pleased with his performances. It was a difficult Friday, but what he produced in qualifying, and the race today, was exceptional."

Ferrari

Ferrari started well with both cars on the soft tyres, Leclerc picking off Verstappen and Hamilton passing Hadjar. Leclerc lost out to the Dutchman soon after, but once they pitted for some mediums, the car came even more alive. That enabled Leclerc to close back up to the leaders, and a late second stop for the hard tyre saw the Monegasque driver become the fastest man on the track. He closed up and got past Verstappen for P2, but did not have time to chase back to Antonelli.

As for Hamilton, he also two-stopped and easily picked off Norris towards the end. He looked on for a fun fight with Verstappen for the final podium place, until a late VSC neutralised that battle and saw the seven-time World Champion come home just one second off the rostrum.

Charles Leclerc, 2nd

"It was a fun race and I really enjoyed it, particularly the start and the battle with Max (Verstappen) on lap 1, and later on with Lando (Norris) and Max again. Our pace was quite strong, and our strategy was good, but it was not enough for the win today.

"We brought good upgrades to the car and have been going in a direction that I quite like. It makes me feel confident with the car so I'm optimistic. It's all about optimising what we have for the upcoming races, with the target of converting our progress to a win."

Lewis Hamilton, 4th

"Today was a strong team effort, with a solid strategy and great execution. I want to thank everyone here and back at the factory for their continued hard work which is helping us get closer. The balance in the race still wasn’t quite where I wanted it, but the pace was there and we were closing in the final stint. Without the VSC late on, I believe we’d have had a real shot at a double podium. That’s racing though, and there’s plenty to take from this weekend. The focus now is on starting strongly in Mexico and putting ourselves in the fight from the very first session."

Fred Vasseur, Team Principal

"It was a solid day for us: the pace was good and we were aggressive with our strategy. If there was something missing, it was in the final laps of Q3 yesterday. But I prefer to look at the positives from this race, starting with the fact that the pace was there until the very last lap today. I also think that, without the VSC towards the end, we could have come away with a double podium. We need to keep working and improving, especially in qualifying, to deliver an even better performance in Mexico next week. I want to thank the whole team, both here and in Maranello, for the solid job they have done which ensured a good weekend in terms of pure performance."

Red Bull

Neither Red Bull got off the line well, both dropping positions through the first sequence of corners. Verstappen recovered back to P2, and went aggressive with an early stop for a second set of soft tyres. That guaranteed he was two-stopping, and when he came in again, he looked set to push for victory. But he could only make limited headway against Antonelli and instead found himself defending from Leclerc, who was on the same strategy. The Dutchman could not keep the Ferrari at bay, with car issues seemingly blighting his pace in the final stint.

He was moderately more happy than Hadjar though, who one-stopped after a solid effort to extend his opening stint on the softs. But the Frenchman’s pace faded and he wound up having a lonely end to the race between the two McLaren cars.

Max Verstappen, 3rd

"It wasn’t the strongest race for me, as there were a lot of things that didn’t work out and we seemed to experience different problems. The biggest question mark is why the tyres didn’t really work, while the harder compounds actually did really well, so that’s something to analyse. We struggled with engine consistency throughout the race, which we’ll need to work on, but it’s still a podium, so if you look at the beginning of the year and where we are now, we’ll take that. We’ve had quite a few podiums in a row, but at the same time, our target is always to be first, and we want to win more. It’s nice to see that we are now third in the Constructors’ Championship. The target for the rest of the year will be to keep that position. It’ll be tough, but we’ll keep working.” 

Isack Hadjar, 6th

"It’s been a frustrating end to the weekend. We didn’t have a great start and lost two positions to both of the Ferraris, but from then on we settled into a rhythm and found really strong pace in the first stint. I felt good on the Soft tyre and I was lapping similar to the leaders, so the performance was there. I’ve been working so hard on the race pace, so it was good to see it in action. As the race went on, the tyre degradation was more manageable, so we moved onto a one-stop strategy. Unfortunately, we suffered a system issue in the pit lane which really compromised us for the rest of the race. We did a good job to keep P6 and bring a few points to the Team from what was an up-and-down weekend.” 

Laurent Mekies, Team Principal

"It’s fair to say that, despite a 12th podium of the season with Max finishing third, we are leaving Austin not fully satisfied.
We lost a bit of our edge today, and I don't think we had enough pace to fight with Kimi, who had a very strong race, so well done to him.
Max’s car hit some debris around lap eight and picked up some damage. On top of that, we had a few issues that hurt the balance and, as a result, the pace dropped off, the degradation increased, and Max couldn't hang on to second place.
It was a similar story for Isack, whose race was compromised by the start and then by a couple of problems during the race. Once again, the starts weren’t perfect, but the Team is working to make sure we have the tools to fix that in the future. 

"A challenging Sunday, but we’ll take the podium knowing that we didn’t fully realize the potential of the car today, and we’ll take learnings from this weekend to come back stronger next week in Mexico.
Despite all that, we have now moved up to third in the Constructors’ Championship, and Max is now only six points behind second place in the Drivers’ Championship.” 

McLaren

The two McLaren drivers held station off the line, Piastri making contact with Russell but unable to get past the Mercedes man. Whether that left him with car damage or not, he started to lose some time and the team opted to swap their drivers early on. Norris vindicated that decision by pulling away from his team mate, with both stopping early for the hard tyre to leave both the one and two-stop strategies in play.

In the end, both hung it out on a one-stop, Norris gambling from P2 but losing out to Leclerc, Verstappen and Hamilton while Piastri was able to defend from Russell and keep the Mercedes man at bay despite having much older tyres than his rival.

Lando Norris, 5th

“I feel I drove a strong race today and gave myself the best possible shot at a top result. Our pace on the Hard tyres was particularly strong, but to stay in contention and capitalise on potential Safety Car periods, I had to push the car well beyond its comfort zone. Ultimately, paying the price for that in the second stint meant fifth place was the absolute maximum we could achieve, and I am satisfied that we maximised our package under the circumstances.

“The reality remains that we are still lacking the outright pace needed to challenge higher up the grid. It was clear this weekend. Qualifying performance and car predictability remain our main priorities to address, but the team continues to do a fantastic job, and I am confident that if we resolve these key areas, we will secure strong results across the remaining races.”

Oscar Piastri, 7th

"P7 today. A tricky day out there. We just didn’t have the pace in the car, and we continued to struggle, as we have all weekend. The Hard compound was good, so we were able to extend to a one-stop strategy, having initially planned for a two-stopper, which helped us manage the track position in the second stint and keep George behind, which was positive. The strategy was strong, we had a solid start and pit stop, we just didn’t have the pace to be able to make up any places. When you find the window on these cars, there is some pace but finding that window is very tricky.

“Looking ahead to Mexico, we will review what we can from here to take into the weekend, where the combination of low grip and high altitude may prove tricky for us. But we’ll do what we can and keep pushing to add more performance to the car, so that we can maximise the lap time and pace.”

Andrea Stella, Team Principal

“A decent Sunday following a disappointing Saturday: that sums up the weekend in Austin. Today’s race showed that the MCL40 is still capable of fighting for the podium, but it’s clear that our position on the starting grid made that goal virtually unattainable. There is a shared sense of frustration across the whole team at not having fully exploited our potential during Qualifying, but it is up to us to try and do better.

“The team and the drivers worked very well, both in terms of strategic decisions and driving on the track, and the upgrades we brought here made a positive contribution: Lando showed excellent pace and Oscar drove a strong race, holding off Russell’s Mercedes for around thirty laps without ever giving him a chance to overtake. I was also pleased to see how our drivers worked together on the track, keeping in mind what the priority is, namely McLaren Mastercard’s best interests.

“Clearly, a fifth and a seventh place are not results we can be satisfied with, but we must accept it and work to improve. We want to end the season on a high and aim not only to fight for the podium but also for victory, with the aim of finishing the Championship in at least third place.”

Racing Bulls

Lawson started ninth and finished ninth, the Kiwi racer comfortably faster than his midfield rivals. He was also helped by those behind squabbling for position, giving him a chance to build a gap. He pitted just the once for the hard tyre, making those last for 31 laps. Lindblad was always in for a harder afternoon thanks to his grid penalty, but he did make progress up the field. He wound up two-stopping, and had one tight moment with Colapinto, but brought his car home in one piece.

Liam Lawson, 9th

"It's been a really positive weekend. The team have done a brilliant job with the upgrades they've brought to the car, so it feels great to be coming away with points. We executed the race very well and I've personally felt good in the car all weekend as it's in a strong place at the moment. We're still quite far behind the front runners, but to be at the top of the midfield and looking ahead should be seen as a positive. I'm looking forward to continuing this momentum and racing at some of the unique tracks we've got coming up. Big thanks to the team for all the hard work."

Arvid Lindblad, 12th

"It was a decent race. Unfortunately, I didn’t get the start I was hoping for and wasn’t able to make as much progress as I’d have liked on Lap 1. I struggled a little on the Softs during the first stint, but things improved on the Mediums, and we had a stronger second stint. I lost some time battling with Franco, which meant I had to push hard to try to catch Pierre, but ultimately, I wasn’t able to close the gap. We committed to a two-stop strategy today, and there are definitely some positives to take away from the race, but we’ll review everything with the team to understand whether there was anything we could have done better. Overall, though, I felt really good in the car, and it was an enjoyable race working my way through the field. It was one of those races where I was pretty much flat out from start to finish. I’m looking forward to getting back out there and racing in Mexico next week."

Alan Permane, Team Principal

"It’s been a very strong weekend for us. To have both cars in Q3 once again and then comfortably outperform our Championship rivals is a fantastic result. It was a textbook race from Liam; he controlled the gap to Pierre throughout and was driving well within himself and the car. Arvid picked up some damage to the left-hand side of his car relatively early on, which certainly compromised his performance. He did well to recover from 14th on the grid to finish 12th. It’s another valuable learning experience for him, particularly as it was his first time racing in Austin. Mexico presents another new challenge, but our aim is to carry the pace he showed on Saturday into the next weekend and deliver a clean race."

Alpine

Gasly made contact with Bearman early on when his rival tried to dive down the inside, for which the Haas man picked up a penalty. Despite that, Gasly managed to climb back to P10 after dropping a place at the start and wound up finishing comfortably ahead of Hulkenberg to score a point for Alpine. Colapinto was not so lucky after starting towards the back thanks to that grid penalty. He wound up retiring the car with damage, his third DNF in the last four Grands Prix.

Pierre Gasly, 10th

“In the end, we started P10 and finished P10 and managed to score one point from today's race. Given the circumstances, I think that's good and that's all we could have achieved today. It was a pity about the incident with Ollie [Bearman] as it was quite a small contact but it brought quite significant damage to my car. Having seen my car after the race I was surprised to see the damage on the right-hand side floor with quite a lot of carbon fibre missing. Considering that, and our loss in performance, it was good to hang on to P10. We also had a slow pit-stop with a hardware issue, which the team is looking into to understand. I might have been able to compete with Liam [Lawson] and put some pressure on him for P9 but it was not the case today. All in all, I am pleased with a point and we go to Mexico City next ready to see what that weekend brings.”

Franco Colapinto, DNF

“It's not nice to be watching the end of the race from the sidelines again for a second race in a row, only this time due to picking up some damage. I was sandwiched between two cars going up the hill into Turn 1 and saw Pierre exiting the pits on my inside. Arvid [Lindblad] came around the outside and I was left with nowhere to go and unfortunately, we made contact. The whole floor and sidepod was broken which was enough not to continue to the end. We had opted to start on the Hards and try something different to the others, but it was always going to be tough to make much progress. The balance of the car felt good in clean air, but starting from the back we were impacted by running in traffic and dirty air. I'm now looking forward to going to Mexico City and hopefully turn our fortunes around.”

Flavio Briatore, Executive Advisor

“It wasn't really the weekend or the result we were hoping for. I think luck hasn't exactly been on our side recently. Both cars picked up damage during the race, with Franco's being significant enough to not finish the race. Given Pierre also lost downforce with floor damage following the incident with the Haas, he did well to score, get a point and only be one place behind the highest scoring Racing Bulls car. We head to Mexico City with the aim to improve our performance and score with both cars, which remains the objective at every race until the end of the season.”

Audi

Hulkenberg made a one-stop race work in Austin, starting on the softs and switching to the hards. But he did not have the pace to fight for the points, and was not helped by a poor start that saw him drop back through the field. Bortoleto was briefly investigated for leaving the track and gaining an advantage, but the stewards opted to take no further action. He pitted late on under the VSC for a fresh set of softs, and came home a couple of places behind his team mate.

Nico Hulkenberg, 11th

"Unfortunately, we lost some ground at the start when the car briefly went into anti-stall, which was a strange one because it happened a few metres after getting off the line rather than straight away. It felt and sounded a bit unusual, so we'll need to look into what happened and understand why. Obviously, losing those positions right at the start made the rest of the afternoon quite difficult.

"From there, I think we did what we could. Our pace was pretty similar to the cars around us, particularly the Racing Bulls, but once you're behind, it's difficult to recover. It's hard to say what might have been possible with a normal start, but the midfield remains incredibly close. We'll take what we can from this weekend and head to Mexico for another go."

Gabriel Bortoleto, 13th

“It was a good race overall; the car felt good and the pace was there. I overtook quite a few cars while keeping it clean, and I had a bit of fun being in the mix, trying my best and putting in some good laps. Obviously, it is always difficult to recover a lot of positions when starting from the back, but it’s good to leave Austin on a decent note. Hopefully, we can carry these positives into Mexico and have a better weekend next week.”

Allan McNish, Racing Director

“Both drivers delivered strong recovery drives today, although unfortunately we came away just outside the points. For Gabi, starting from the back row following the penalties for the changes we had to make, P13 was realistically the best result available. He drove a clean, very calculated race and made good progress through the field. Nico’s race was compromised at the start when the anti-stall kicked in, dropping him to P15. To recover to P11 and to close in on P10 was a superb effort. Ultimately, the result didn’t reflect the performance he delivered or what could have been possible with a clean start. We head to Mexico next week determined to turn that performance into points, and we’ll be back on the attack.”

Haas

Bearman had a difficult afternoon in Austin, with contact early on damaging his car. He picked up a 10-second penalty for causing a collision with Gasly, as he tried to send it up the inside of the Frenchman. After serving that penalty, he wound up retiring the car with the damage too great to continue. That left Ocon to fly the flag for the team at their home race, and despite being let past his ailing team mate before Bearman called it a day, the Frenchman was unable to fight forward towards the points.

Oliver Bearman, DNF

“After the VSC, I managed to get a good launch and good battery level, because I caught the two cars in front of me very quickly. It made Pierre go defensive into Turn 12, and at Turn 13, I sent one up the inside, and to be honest, he saw me as he left space but to me, it didn’t feel enough. He gave space, but only half a car's worth, and I was committed, so we made a bit of contact – I picked up a huge amount of damage on my car, and I probably damaged his car as well.

"It was a shame as I felt like I was massively penalised anyway, as the damage ruined my race, and on top of that I picked up the penalty. In my view, it was a racing incident. I sent a move and felt entitled to more space than I got, I didn’t lose control, and I had to climb up the kerb to try and avoid contact. I don’t regret going for the move because at this stage in the season, if we don’t do anything special and get a bit lucky and be aggressive and go for it, we’re just not going to score points as we’re not always fast enough to score them on merit.”

Esteban Ocon, 14th

“We had a mega start, we always do, we’re leading the stats on that. Since the beginning of the year, we’ve always gained two or three places at the start, and we did that once again in COTA. I’m proud that we’ve worked so well on that, and the pit stop went well as well, but on the second stint, we struggled to keep the other cars behind. The problems that we faced throughout the weekend came back, as I still had front-locking, and I still had quite a lot of understeer in high-speed. These inconsistencies are something that we really need to work on and understand, and we need to make sure we get rid of them in Mexico. The positive is that we did reduce it a little bit with setup, but that’s the maximum we can do with the current parts.”

Ayao Komatsu, Team Principal

“The race result was a shame, but I think there are lots of positives to take from this weekend. Both cars had great starts, and Ollie was fighting for P9 or P10, and without the damage he sustained, I think he had the speed to fight for that. We knew our race pace would be stronger than our quali pace. On Esteban’s side, he’s been fighting with front-locking issue, which got better, but towards the second half of the race, it came back and the pace wasn’t competitive. In terms of our operations, the fact that Ollie was happy from the get-go on lap 1, that’s exactly what we need. The fact that between Singapore and Austin, two very different circuits, we've unlocked performance – we’d like to build on that, and I hope we can fight hard in Mexico.”

Aston Martin

Aston Martin saw both cars make it to the flag, but it was not a stress-free afternoon for the team. Alonso picked up very visible floor damage after colliding with Albon, bringing out an early VSC as the marshals were forced to go and collect some of his car from the track. He pitted for a new front wing which cost him some time, but out on track the Spaniard was happy to get involved and fight with the cars around him. Stroll came home just ahead, after opting for a two-stop strategy from a pit lane start.

Fernando Alonso, 16th

“We were quite competitive today and were having a strong race, but the damage to our car compromised everything for us. It felt like we were chasing down a potential points-scoring position as we were running in P12 with a damaged car. The damage was sustained from contact on lap one when Alex [Albon] hit us going into Turn 11. We carried on, but eventually had to pit for a new front wing and that dropped us down the order. We have some positives to take from this weekend despite the result today.”

Lance Stroll, 15th

“We had to make some changes to the car after Qualifying because of damage, so we started from the pit lane. Our pace was a bit more competitive today and I was racing [Alex] Albon for a lot of the race. There was a bit of overtaking too which was nice. We saw a big loss of load in the final laps though, so we need to go away and understand that.”

Adrian Newey, Team Principal

“Not the easiest race in Austin with both cars picking up issues and limiting performance. In Fernando’s case a front wing change was needed on lap 42, which stopped our efforts to deliver a one-stop strategy and dropped him out of contention. It seems the damage was a legacy of the contact with the Williams of [Alex] Albon on lap one. Before the pit stop, Fernando's pace was on a par with the cars ahead of him but we couldn't match their straight line speed which meant there was no option to overtake.

“Lance – having started from the pit lane – progressed up to P15 at the flag despite losing downforce at the rear of the car after his second pit stop. We need to look at the data to understand exactly what happened.

"Despite these issues, we will focus on the positives - both drivers were in the fight with decent race pace and extracted the most they could from the car today.”

Williams

Both Williams drivers had action-packed afternoons in Texas, with Sainz squeezed towards the wall at the start by Lindblad, and emerging with what appeared to be some car damage. Albon also made contact off the line, his coming after he tangled with Alonso. The Spaniard came off worse, as those two then engaged in an entertaining multi-corner battle before trading places a few more times throughout the race for good measure.

Carlos Sainz, 18th

“We had another great start off the line but I got squeezed into the wall, had contact and picked up damage to my front wing. That compromised my first stint and I eventually had to pit for a new front wing, losing valuable time. From there it was a good recovery drive, with decent pace given the limitations of our car this week. Looking ahead to Mexico, it’s one track that we might be slightly stronger at, potentially with the ability to mix in with the midfield, but it’s going to take a lot to be back in the points.”

Alex Albon, 17th

“There were small positives to take from today. I got a good start and gained a few places on the first lap. Austin is a track where you can race and overtake, which I enjoyed, and there were a few battles with Fernando which we'll also review. We picked up some damage early on, and our long stint on the hards left us caught up in the blue flags. We're still lacking pace, and there's a lot of work to do. We'll need to find more for Mexico.”

James Vowles, Team Principal

“It's always disappointing to be unable to score points, but that's where the car pace was this weekend and both drivers got the most out of it that they could. Strong drive from Alex without any errors at all. With Carlos it was a good recovery and he executed his strategy nicely. It was good to see both of them racing cleanly towards the end – two incredible drivers, very respectful to one another. We move on to Mexico and beyond where we will try and eke out a few more milliseconds out of this car, but our main focus now is investing in 2027.”

Cadillac

Bottas did not see the flag in Austin, the Finn forced to park up late on with a power unit issue. That brought out a late Virtual Safety Car, which threatened to cause havoc with the pack before things settled down. As for Perez, he propped up the order on a day where Cadillac did not have the pace to compete. The tyre whisperer did manage to make his hard tyres last 32 laps though – although he did not take the honours, Piastri managing a 41-lap stint on the C2 rubber.

Sergio Perez, 19th

“Unfortunately, the weekend has been a bit challenging. Overall, I think there are positives we can take from it. We just need to keep working and learning from the experience. I think it’s really track-dependent, and during the race, I was surprised that we were a little closer than expected, so we just have to keep building on that.

“Now I’m really looking forward to Mexico. It’s always incredibly special to race in front of my home crowd, and this year will be even more meaningful as I celebrate my 300th Grand Prix. I’m excited to share that moment with the fans and hopefully give them something to cheer about. We’ll keep pushing and aim to have a stronger weekend.”

Valtteri Bottas, DNF

“The [suspected power unit] issue was really sudden and happened during braking into Turn 1. It started to sound bad and then I had the engine cutting in and out when trying to get on power. We don't know what the issue is yet. Up until then though, everything was going to plan. We decided to split the strategy across the cars - I started with the hard, Checo with the soft - and I think it was good to try. At certain times during the race it felt like we were actually a bit closer to the others on pace than what I thought we would be, so that was a positive we can take heading into the coming races.”

Marcin Budkowski, Team Principal

“Today presented a challenging race and we wanted to deliver a stronger result in front of our home fans. There were some encouraging signs in our race pace, with both drivers feeling closer to the competition than we had anticipated. We split the starting tyre strategies to give us options in the race and learn more about the compounds for the best possible team result.

”Unfortunately, Valtteri’s race ended with a suspected power unit issue, which we need to investigate fully. Checo brought the car home despite losing time in traffic. The team is operating much better at the track and I am happy with the progress, we just need a little bit more pace now to go fight with the teams ahead of us. With just a week until Mexico, our focus quickly shifts to preparing for another special weekend for the team, with Checo racing at home and celebrating his 300th Grand Prix.”

Pirelli

Dario Marrafuschi, Pirelli Motorsport Director

“The United States Grand Prix proved a particularly fascinating race from a strategic perspective, with all three compounds used by the teams over the course of the event. The solutions we brought to Austin performed in line with the expectations that emerged over the previous days, with the Hard showing slightly better performance than anticipated. The degradation levels observed during the opening stint confirmed the projections made after the free practice sessions, making the one-stop strategy the most effective option, as demonstrated in the race, albeit by a very narrow margin.

"The two-stop strategies adopted by some teams were influenced primarily by Verstappen’s early pit stop, as he chased championship leader Antonelli, triggering a chain reaction in race management across the field. Drivers who were able to take advantage of clear air confirmed the competitiveness of the one-stop approach, maintaining a consistent pace all the way to the chequered flag. Tyre wear was relatively high and broadly uniform across the teams, without translating into any significant increase in performance degradation. From the perspective of tyre appearance, the overall picture was also remarkably consistent, with some more noticeable differences observed mainly on the Medium. The Hard rewarded the teams that incorporated it into their strategies, delivering consistent performance and a level of competitiveness that, for example, enabled Leclerc to pass Verstappen.”