Max Verstappen opened Thursday’s press conference at the Circuit of the Americas with a disclosure he had kept inside the paddock until now.
“I can tell you from the checks I’ve had on my spine, the bottom end doesn’t look that great,” he said on the Thursday media day in Austin.
He put the damage down to the vertical loads a modern Formula 1 car drives through a driver’s back, and pointed to one specific moment on the Texas circuit a year ago.
“You pull around 5-6G in a corner. But I had some impacts, like vertical loads, which were over 9G on my spine, which I can tell you is really not fun,” the Dutch racedriver said.
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“Especially the older you get, you think about that more and more. That’s not what you want.”
He pointed to the ground-effect regulations introduced in 2022, which forced ultra-low ride heights and heavy bottoming under braking. The rulebook has been overhauled for 2026, but Verstappen said the current cars still hit the surface hard enough to be a “very stressful moment” under braking.
‘Unacceptable’ bumps and a plaster on the problem
The sharpest language came for the state of the track itself. Austin’s surface, laid on Texas high-plasticity clay that shrinks and swells with the weather, has long been one of the most criticized on the calendar.
Sections between Turns 9 and 11 were resurfaced ahead of this weekend, with further repair work between Turns 12 and 19, following an entire track resurfacing in 2024. Verstappen was unimpressed.
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“The bumps that we have are unacceptable,” he told reporters. “These bumps are not natural and they are out of control.”
“Over time, they’ve been grinding a little bit here and there, but you’re putting a plaster on the big problem.”
Earlier in the week he had joked he would “probably need to order a new spine” after the race and “become like Robocop”. By Thursday the humor was gone.
Norris and Russell back the complaint
Lando Norris, who sat alongside Verstappen in the press conference, said the surface was severe enough that he medicates before getting in the car.
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George Russell widened the complaint beyond Austin, arguing F1’s surface problem is becoming systemic.
“F1 tracks probably need to be repaved every couple of years just to make it a bit more consistent, because we’re going to tracks now where tarmac’s coming up, it’s falling apart, it’s causing more issues than not,” Russell told reporters.
He added that current F1 tires offer less cushioning against bumps than previous generations.
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The 2026 United States Grand Prix runs through this weekend at the Circuit of the Americas, with the race on Sunday, 25 October.
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