F1Weekly Podcast # 1117

Max Verstappen dominates the United States Grand Prix closing in on the drivers championship. Has Piastri lost his machismo? Norris looking more like a number one... This week's Nasir Hameed corner we celebrate successful women in Motorsports with Lynn Saint James and Tatiana Calderon!

 

AUSTIN, TEXAS - OCTOBER 19: Race winner Max Verstappen of the Netherlands and Oracle Red Bull Racing and Chris Gent, Chief Mechanic at Oracle Red Bull Racing celebrate on the podium with Champagne during the F1 Grand Prix of United States at Circuit of The Americas on October 19, 2025 in Austin, Texas. (Photo by Jared C. Tilton/Getty Images)

Max:

 

“It was a perfect weekend and I think the start was key today. The pace wasn’t magic but we got a good start on the first stint and Charles got in the middle of myself and Lando which helped a lot and as soon as Lando was in clean air he was very fast. We just did the best we could and tried to manage our tyres in the best way possible even though they were overheating a bit. This performance was exactly what we need until the end of the season to fight for the title.

The Team has done a great job, I’m having fun and it’s exciting for everyone. The performance of the car has been better and we need to keep the momentum going. We really maximised everything with the points and we need to continue having these perfect weekends until the end of the season. I am very happy to win again.”

Laurent:

“This has definitely been our strongest weekend in a long while. On a burning hot track, where we have found it tricky here in the past, Max kept extending the gap to his opponents in every session. If you see how tight it was on Friday, even though he was on pole for the Sprint, and then today, it was a substantial improvement. Once again, I want to thank everyone at the track and those back at base, who have been taking risks in terms of pushing everything to the limit, it’s uncomfortable, but the work they are doing is unbelievable and it’s paying off. They have unlocked so much from the car.

AUSTIN, TEXAS - OCTOBER 18: Pole position qualifier Max Verstappen of the Netherlands and Oracle Red Bull Racing Second placed qualifier Lando Norris of Great Britain and McLaren and Third placed qualifier Charles Leclerc of Monaco and Scuderia Ferrari look on during Qualifying ahead of the F1 Grand Prix of United States at Circuit of The Americas on October 18, 2025 in Austin, Texas. (Photo by Rudy Carezzevoli/Getty Images)

We never took anything for granted, ultimately finding more and more performance as the weekend progressed. Max is driving at an incredible level and keeps raising the bar. We are going to continue with our approach for the upcoming races, starting by seeing how we can put the best possible car on track in Mexico. Yuki also enjoyed a strong weekend, especially today when he made up six places in the race, bringing home some useful points to add to those he scored in the Sprint yesterday. Finally, thank you and congratulations to our partners Mobil and Mobil 1 as we celebrate our 75th win together. It's been a strong and successful partnership and we look forward to celebrating many more together.”

Fernando:

"We started tenth and finished there, so we come away with one point in the end. We didn't really have the pace to fight for anything more than P10 and it seems we had a bit more performance in Qualifying than in the race.

It wasn’t the most exciting day for me, and we were open to various strategies, but it was a standard one-stop race. We’ll go again in Mexico and see if we can fight for points there."

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Carlos: 

It’s a shame to end the race that way as the car had great pace today. I had done a similar move on Bearman some laps before, so I tried that inside line with Antonelli into turn 15. He opened the line and then closed the door more abruptly than what I was expecting, I tried to react by slamming on the brakes to avoid contact but it was too late and we touched. I was behind so I accept my part of fault and ultimately it’s a shame as it cost the race for both of us. We were quick, so it hurts not to convert it into more points today but we’ll bounce back for Mexico next week.

James Vowles, Team Principal: Part of the reason why I'm in motorsport is you can have some fantastic days with the highest highs, and then just 24 hours later, you can walk away with nothing, as we are today. And that's the reflection of Austin. What’s positive to me is we have really strong car pace, and that's one item that we'll carry through for the remainder of the season. But it just highlights that we have to qualify both cars in position towards the point-scoring end of the grid, and we need to ensure we're fighting through the field without contact or incident. I'm sorry for both Carlos and Kimi, both had good race pace today and I'm confident would have scored points, but it is just a part of racing that, as you're trying to overtake through different sections, contact may happen. The stewards have decided to hand Carlos a 5 place grid penalty, there was a sensible conversation however the guidelines are fairly clear on fault allocation. We will come back fighting in Mexico.