Red Bull Motorsports
F1
F1 to 10: What really happened at the United States Grand Prix
Max Verstappen became one of just five drivers to amass a half-century of Formula One victories, Oracle Red Bull Racing’s world champion matching last season’s record tally of 15 wins.
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1. USA in exactly 74 words*
Max Verstappen won the United States Grand Prix for the third year in succession in Texas, Oracle Red Bull Racing’s three-time world champion coming from sixth on the grid to win his 15th Grand Prix of the season and 50th Formula One race of his career. The Dutchman won Saturday’s 19-lap Sprint, too, from pole. Team-mate Sergio Pérez moved forward from ninth on the grid to finish fourth, his best result for four races.
* 2023 is the 74th season of the F1 world championship
2. The US GP in six pics
It took time, but Verstappen finally put Norris in his mirrors
© Getty Images/Red Bull Content Pool
Brake issues made life tough, but didn't stop a third straight Texas win
© Getty Images/Red Bull Content Pool
Pérez finished fifth in both the Sprint and Grand Prix
© Getty Images/Red Bull Content Pool
Verstappen had the measure of old foe Hamilton in the sprint
© Getty Images/Red Bull Content Pool
3. Max matches his own marker
A 50th F1 win for Verstappen placed the Dutchman in elite company
© Getty Images/Red Bull Content Pool
Verstappen’s 15th victory of the season – matching his 2022 total for the most ever in a single F1 campaign – wasn’t a sure thing after the Dutchman qualified sixth on Friday afternoon, a final lap good enough for pole position annulled after he’d breached the limits of the track at the penultimate corner of the 20-turn Circuit of the Americas layout.
The early race was a slow burn, Verstappen biding his time before pitting for medium tyres on Lap 15 and emerging in third place. While he inherited the lead for good on Lap 39 of 56, he still had plenty of work to do.
Braking issues led to some robust radio exchanges with race engineer Gianpiero Lambiase, and when Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes) passed long-time race leader Lando Norris (McLaren) with seven laps left and had softer tyres at his disposal to the chequered flag, Verstappen had to hit his marks.
In the end, Verstappen had 2.2s in hand as the flag fell and four more Grands Prix remaining to set a new high-water mark for a single season.
Team-mate Pérez came to COTA off the back of a difficult run of races in Singapore, Japan and Qatar, where he’d scored just five world championship points.
Austin was a step in the right direction for the Mexican, who finished fifth from seventh on the grid in Saturday’s Sprint race and in the same position in Sunday’s Grand Prix proper.
That fifth became fourth when Hamilton, as well as Charles Leclerc (Ferrari), were excluded from the results three hours after the chequered flag fell for a post-race scrutineering breach. The three extra points for finishing fourth, and Hamilton’s loss of 18 points, means Pérez has a 39-point lead over Hamilton for second in the drivers’ standings with his home race coming up next weekend.
Verstappen and Pérez raced in a special one-off fan-designed and fan-chosen ‘Make Your Mark’ livery for the RB19 at COTA, with the striking US-themed artwork designed by Franco Cavallone unveiled when flown across the Austin skyline beneath a helicopter ahead of the race weekend.
4. Yuki’s late, late show
Tsunoda's late surge earned an extra point
© Getty Images/Red Bull Content Pool
Some of the loudest post-race cheers emanated from the Scuderia AlphaTauri garage when Yuki Tsunoda crossed the line in 10th place to match his season-best results in Australia, Azerbaijan and Belgium – and he grabbed an extra world championship point for setting the fastest lap of the race on the final tour.
The news got even better for Tsunoda with Hamilton and Leclerc’s disqualifications, as he gained two more positions and three more points with a season-best eighth-place result.
The Japanese driver continued his perfect point-scoring record in Austin, Sunday being the third time in as many years that he’s banked points at COTA. It came after a more tricky Saturday Sprint for Tsunoda, who could only advance as far as 14th from 19th on the grid.
Daniel Ricciardo was back in the saddle in Texas after missing five race weekends with a broken left hand. The Sprint format – where drivers have just one practice session before having to qualify for Sunday’s Grand Prix on Friday afternoon – wasn’t the ideal way to return, the Australian admitting to some rust as he qualified in 15th place.
After finishing 12th in the Sprint, Ricciardo ran as high as seventh in Sunday’s Grand Prix. A planned one-stop strategy on the hardest-compound Pirelli tyres didn’t pay off, Ricciardo having to pit again inside the final 10 laps and falling to 15th.
5. The number you need to know
5: Verstappen’s 50th Grand Prix win places him in elite company as one of the most successful quintet of drivers in F1 history; only Lewis Hamilton (103), Michael Schumacher (91), Sebastian Vettel (53) and Alain Prost (51) have won more.
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6. The word from the paddock
The whole race, I was struggling a lot with the brakes, so that definitely made my race a bit tougher out there. It was very close at the end. Fifty wins … that’s, of course, incredible, so we’ll keep on trying to push for more
7. The stats that matter
Drivers' championship top 5
Position
Driver
Team
Points
Gap
1
Max Verstappen
Oracle Red Bull Racing
466
-
2
Sergio Pérez
Oracle Red Bull Racing
240
-226
3
Lewis Hamilton
Mercedes
201
-265
4
Fernando Alonso
Aston Martin
183
-283
5
Carlos Sainz
Ferrari
171
-295
Constructors' championship top 5
Position
Team
Points
Gap
1
Oracle Red Bull Racing
706
-
2
Mercedes
344
-362
3
Ferrari
324
-382
4
McLaren
242
-464
5
Aston Martin
236
-470
8. Away from the track
Take a quarter-mile (400-metre) drag strip and line up an F1 car, a MotoGP bike, a rallycross car, a WRC car and an electric supervehicle (the Ford SuperVan 4.2) for a drag race. Who do you think wins?
Find out for yourself with the Ultimate Race, where F1 driver Liam Lawson, MotoGP legend Dani Pedrosa, WRX champ Timmy Hansen, WRC driver Adrien Fourmaux and Le Mans winner Romain Dumas go head-to-head. Watch below, and prepare to be surprised…
6 min
Ultimate Race
See five of the world's fastest machines go head to head in the Ultimate Race
9. Where to next, and what do I need to know?
Round 19 (Mexico), October 22-29
Circuit name/location: Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez, Mexico City
Length/laps: 4.304km, 71 laps
Grands Prix held/debut: 22, 1963
Most successful driver: Max Verstappen (four wins)
Most successful team: Red Bull Racing (four wins)
2022 podium: 1st: Max Verstappen (Red Bull Racing), 2nd: Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes), 3rd: Sergio Perez (Red Bull Racing)
10. Inside the wide world of Red Bull Motorsports
Red Bull Imagination 2023 roster
© Chris Tedesco / Red Bull Content Pool
Red Bull Imagination always pushes the FMX boundaries, but version 4.0 was something else. A massive 185-foot hit, a backflip over trees, a brand-new format, the first draft in history and an all-new course – 2023 had it all and then some.
Relive the best of the FMX action from Fort Scott in Kansas right here – it’s fair to say Tyler Bereman’s dreams of creating the biggest freeride competition back in 2020 have come a long, long way.
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