Max Verstappen: Red Bull driver says team radio dropouts are 'a disaster' after becoming frustrated during United States GP
Max Verstappen was unhappy with his Red Bull on his way to third in Austin; Verstappen was expected to challenge for victory but did not have the pace to match race-winner Kimi Antonelli; watch every session of the Mexico City GP from this Friday, live on Sky Sports F1
Monday 26 October 2026 12:47, UK
Max Verstappen says technical issues with Red Bull's team radio are "a disaster" after he struggled to communicate with his engineer for a second successive race.
On his way to finishing third in Sunday's United States Grand Prix, Verstappen was trying to let the Red Bull pit wall know he was suffering from engine braking issues.
When his engineer attempted to offer him advice by suggesting a change of mode, Verstappen said that he couldn't hear him properly.
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The issue appeared to be similar to the one Verstappen suffered two weeks earlier when he and the pit wall were forced to improvise their communication methods during his win in Singapore.
Speaking after Sunday's race in Austin, Verstappen said: "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."
'The same always at the start'
Verstappen and his team-mate Isack Hadjar were both also frustrated with another race where they both made poor starts.
The Dutchman was overtaken by Ferrari's Charles Leclerc on the opening lap after being left vulnerable from a poor start, while Hadjar was cleared by both Leclerc and his team-mate Lewis Hamilton.
Verstappen told Sky Sports F1: "Just the same always at the start, the problem we have."
Hadjar went into more detail, telling Sky Sports F1: "My race start was… I do everything perfect in terms of procedure and I have clutch over delivery. These things are out of my control.
"I have poor radio coverage, can't hear what's happening, can't hear what's happening in the pits. I leave the pits with the wrong map, then I lose a second every lap on that hard tyre.
"It needs a redesign. That's it. The clutch. It's too fragile. It's not coping well with temperatures. It's a real struggle."
Mekies: It's making everyone's lives difficult
Red Bull team principal Laurent Mekies said the radio issue was "making everyone's lives very difficult" within the Milton Keynes squad.
"We are all frustrated to struggle for the second race in a row with the radio issues," Mekies said. "It's making everyone's lives very difficult.
"So, it is true that it's something that we would like to fix quite quickly, because it's an item that should be working without using too much of our energy."
Mekies also admitted that while he feels Red Bull's starts are improving, they can't become "the benchmark" before the end of this season due to the presence of issues that will only be possible to fix during the winter.
"The start is a slightly more complex issue to solve, meaning that the start performance is going across pretty much all the departments of the company, probably except aerodynamics," Mekies said.
"It's engine, it's gearbox, it's clutch, it's many things. We have certainly seen from the beginning of the season that we are not the benchmark in terms of launch performance.
"As much as we have reduced the gap to competition, and you may remember how bad our starts were at the beginning of the year, we are still not the benchmark.
"The fact that the car in the meantime improved a lot and is fighting closer to the front makes that deficit even more painful now, because competition around us is very strong.
"On one side, I'm confident that we will continue to reduce the gap to the competition from now to the end of the year, because every race we learn, every race we come up with small ways to close the gap.
"On the other side, I equally know that we will not be the benchmark before the end of the season, that it will require significant design and hardware changes, and that this is something that we will see only next year."
Formula 1 next heads south for the second leg of The Americas triple header with the Mexico City Grand Prix this weekend, live on Sky Sports F1. Stream Sky Sports with NOW - no contract, cancel anytime
