Verstappen Shares First Thoughts Ahead Of United States Grand Prix Weekend

Wednesday, 16 October 2024 at 12:04

Red Bull Racing driver Max Verstappen previewed the Grand Prix in Austin and revealed a special helmet design for the weekend.

The 2024 United States Grand Prix takes place after a three-week break (following the Singapore Grand Prix) and is the first race weekend of the American triple header (followed by the Mexico City and Sao Paulo Grand Prix).

While F1 teams' engineers and mechanics worked hard on developing new upgrades for the cars, drivers had time to rest away from their cars (besides some simulator work).

For example, triple World Champion Max Verstappen had some time to play games (which he live streams on Twitch) and attend Antonio Felix da Costa's (his friend and Formula E driver) wedding.

Sharing his first thoughts ahead of the weekend in Austin, the Dutchman said through his own website, Verstappen.com:

"We have had a few weeks away from racing, giving us time to refocus and to work hard on our performance ahead of the United States Grand Prix."

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"We have made some changes to the car to hopefully better suit this circuit, so will see if this makes us more competitive when we head out on track."

Red Bull Racing plans to introduce a crucial upgrade during this race weekend, and the team's motorsport advisor Helmut Marko suggested he expects Verstappen to even increase his Championship lead (from the current 52 points to Lando Norris) afterward.

This week will include one of the six sprint races in the 2024 season, and the Dutchman expects it to be super hectic. The 27-year-old also revealed he plans to bring back the special helmet designed for the three Grand Prix races in the United States that we've already seen in Miami.

"This week will be another hectic sprint race weekend, with a lot planned over the weekend. Austin is a really cool city and the atmosphere at the track is like no other."

"I will be back in my US helmet for this race, which is a tribute to the passionate fans here and features the skyline of all three US cities that we are racing in."