The four-time champion is now mathematically out of the drivers’ title race after Kimi Antonelli’s dominant win in Austin, and he used his post-race duties to put daylight between himself and the Red Bull strategists who got him home only third.
Antonelli led from pole to flag at the Circuit of the Americas on Sunday, extending his drivers’ lead to 123 points over George Russell with five rounds still to run. Verstappen sits fourth on 236 points, 129 behind Antonelli and therefore out of reach.
‘That wasn’t agreed upon beforehand’
Verstappen told Dutch broadcaster Viaplay that Red Bull’s tyre sequence had not been discussed with him before the race, according to GPBlog’s report of the interview.
“The tyre choice, and the way we did it, soft, soft and then medium, hadn’t been agreed upon beforehand. We need to talk about that. I have no idea why that happened,” Verstappen said to Viaplay.
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His complaint was tactical as much as it was personal. Running softs twice around a medium stint, he argued, broadcast to every rival on the pit wall that Red Bull were committed to a two-stop, closing off the undercut threat he could otherwise have carried into the final stint.
Engine problems lap after lap
The second strand of Verstappen’s post-race read-out was the Red Bull power unit, which he said had misbehaved all weekend.
“Lap after lap, corner after corner, I’m having different kinds of problems with my engine braking or shifts as well,” he said, in quotes carried by Grandepremio.
Even without the strategy row, Verstappen conceded the race winner had been in a different class.
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“Even if we would have done the tyres in the right order or chosen the right compounds, I don’t think we had the pace of Kimi. But maybe we could have been second,” he told Viaplay.
Charles Leclerc took that second place for Ferrari, 13.078 seconds behind Antonelli, with Verstappen a further four seconds back at the flag.
Antonelli can clinch in Mexico
The Mexico City Grand Prix at the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez is next on the calendar on Sunday, 1 November, and the title can be clinched there: Antonelli needs to finish ninth or higher to seal the drivers’ championship as the youngest world champion in Formula 1 history.
Sources: – [F1 US GP 2026 results, planetf1.com](https://www.planetf1.com/news/f1-results-united-states-grand-prix-2026-race) – [Race notes, grandprix.com](https://www.grandprix.com/races/united-states-gp-2026-race-notes.html) – [2026 F1 standings after US GP, RacingNews365](https://racingnews365.com/2026-f1-championship-standings-after-united-states-grand-prix) – [Verstappen wants explanation, GPblog](https://www.gpblog.com/en/news/verstappen-wants-an-explanation-from-red-bull-that-wasnt-what-we-agreed) – [Verstappen on Austin mistakes, Grande Prêmio](https://grandepremio.com/en/f1/verstappen-exposes-red-bulls-austin-mistakes-and-admits-antonelli-was-out-of-reach/)
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