Verstappen calls Red Bull radio dropouts “a disaster”

Max Verstappen condemned Red Bull’s radio dropouts after the United States Grand Prix, calling the problems “a disaster”. He finished the race in third place while trying to alert Red Bull’s pit wall to engine-braking difficulties. When his engineer suggested a change of mode, Verstappen said he could not hear him properly.

After the race in Austin, he pushed back against the idea that this was only the second occurrence: “It’s not the second time. It’s already, I don’t know how many times this year. Maybe we should just start communicating in sign language. It’s probably cheaper as well. It’s a disaster. Yeah, it’s a disaster. It’s really frustrating, to be honest.” He had also described the problem as recurring from the start: “Just the same always at the start, the problem we have.”

The communication problems were not limited to Verstappen. His team-mate Isack Hadjar said he could not hear his engineers properly and left the pits with the wrong engine setting, potentially because of the radio issue. He finished sixth after dropping from third on the opening lap. “I have poor radio coverage. I can’t hear what’s happening in the pits. I leave the pits with the wrong map,” he told Sky Sports F1.

Red Bull team principal Laurent Mekies acknowledged the impact on the team, saying the issue was “making everyone’s lives very difficult”. “We are all frustrated to struggle for the second race in a row with the radio issues,” he said, adding that the team wanted to fix them quickly because the equipment should not take up so much of its energy.

Mekies also discussed race starts, a separate issue from the radio dropouts. He believes Red Bull is making progress, but said the team is still not the benchmark in that area. In his view, start performance involves almost every department of the company, with problems including the engine, gearbox and clutch. He said significant design and hardware changes would be needed to reach that benchmark, probably only next year. He remains confident, however, that the team can reduce the gap by the end of the year.

Motorsport.com reports that he admitted he had been fortunate to finish on the podium.