Formula 1 News: 2025 USGP Sprint Race Press Conference

The top-3 finishers in the 2025 USGP Sprint Race met with the media after the race to answer questions at COTA. The race was won by Max Verstappen.

DRIVERS

1 – Max VERSTAPPEN (Red Bull Racing)
2 – George RUSSELL (Mercedes)
3 – Carlos SAINZ (Williams)

TRACK INTERVIEWS
(Conducted by Jenson Button)

Q: Max Verstappen, once again the winner of the Sprint race here in Austin. I mean, it couldn’t have gone any better, could it?
Max VERSTAPPEN: Yeah. I mean, the start was good. Then, of course, there was a Safety Car because of the Turn 1 incident. Then it took a few laps after the Safety Car to have decent pace, so we need to figure out what was going on there. But nevertheless, we won the Sprint, which is, of course, the most important. But, of course, already looking ahead to tomorrow. I do think we need to be a bit better in race trim to be able to fight the McLarens, because we haven’t seen anything of them.

Q: I heard you on the radio – I think you said the rear isn’t very good. I think those were the words you used?
VERSTAPPEN: Kind of, yes.

Q: Is there something that you can do? Do you understand what you can do to try and improve that for qualifying and the race?
VERSTAPPEN: Well, we’ll have a look. Of course, we have some ideas what we can do, and then hopefully, we’ll just stick a bit better tomorrow.

Q: George, P6 to P2 – not a bad result. And nice little lunge there down the inside of Max.
George RUSSELL: Yeah. I mean, I knew you don’t get many opportunities with Max. I saw half a chance and sent it. I was probably too far behind, but glad I gave it a go. P2 for sure was better than we could have expected. And, yeah, some decent points.

Q: I need to ask you about Turn 1. Obviously, there’s a lot of talk about the incident at Turn 1. What could you see from your view?
GR: I mean, I was on the outside, and I fully sent it. And then I realised everyone on the inside fully sent it as well. Carlos and I were like, I don’t think that’s going to end too nicely. I’ve not seen it – I only saw it from my perspective – but it looked like it was sort of three cars into one, which doesn’t often go.

Q: Carlos, you’re making a habit of this. Second podium in three races. I know it’s a Sprint, but still, amazing.
Carlos SAINZ: Oh. We didn’t put one of the best of starts, but then we took the outside line into Turn 1, which was definitely… Yeah, we definitely had a solid race. We had solid pace from there on. The Ferraris were quick behind, but I kept them under control and we brought home the P3, which tastes really good.

Q: Something seems to have clicked with you this year, the last few races in the car. What’s changed, and what’s given you this confidence to be fighting for podiums every weekend?
CS: Nothing. We’re just getting a little bit more lucky, and things stopped happening to us. But I’ve had this pace all year. It’s just for the first half of the year I wasn’t able to show it and to prove it. But now that things are running a lot smoother, I’m just doing everything that I was doing in the first half. It’s just things are clicking. And, yeah, just happy to show what we can do as a team, what I can do. The car was great yesterday in quali and today in the race. We lack a bit compared to these guys – obviously we cannot fight them – but we’re still in the mix. So it’s good to see.

PRESS CONFERENCE

Q: Max, just a summary of your race first of all, please.
VERSTAPPEN: It was OK. I mean, the start was good, but then I think the overall pace throughout the race, I expected it to be a little bit better. So that’s something we need to work on, especially if the McLarens are not out on lap one tomorrow. I do think that if they would have raced today, it would have been very tough to keep them behind. So that is something that, yeah, for tomorrow, we need to work on. But nevertheless, I take it. We’ll take the points. It’s positive. And now we just need to look ahead, you know, how we can improve a little bit the pace.

Q: George, same question to you. Just sum it all up, please.
GR: Yeah, obviously I just stayed out of trouble at Turn 1 and, yeah, fought hard in those first laps after the Safety Car to try and get past Max. Obviously I had half a chance. I knew that would probably be my last chance, so yeah, sent it. Obviously I just couldn’t quite make the corner. But, yeah, P2. I think similar to what Max said, it was decent, it was okay. But if the McLarens were there, I think they’d have probably been ahead of us.

Q: Carlos, same for you. Just a summary.
CS: Okay. Yep. Good race, honestly. Surprised that we could hold the Ferraris behind, especially because at some point, they were super quick, catching on me. But then once I got—I think Lewis was 1.2, 1.4 seconds—and he stopped making the progress, and I could keep them at a comfortable margin. We need to improve a bit the race pace, especially low speed feels like we have a bit of margin to improve, hopefully for tomorrow. But the car has been giving me confidence all weekend, and hopefully we can keep building on it because it’s been a very solid weekend, given the fact that we missed practice, and we still managed to put it P7 on the grid and podium today.

QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

Q: (Luke Smith – The Athletic) Max, with regards to the championship picture, obviously it’s the perfect start for you this weekend. When moments like this happen, do you start to believe a little bit more that this title could be coming back your way, or are you going to need a lot more of this to happen for it to be a serious thing, do you think?
VERSTAPPEN: No. It’s not about believing in it. I just take it race by race. I just try to do the best I can. Today, yeah, perfect for me to get those points, brings me a bit closer for sure, which I think is nice for everyone. Maybe not for them, but in general for everyone. But, yeah, I look into different things. I was not entirely happy with the pace in the race, and I know if we want to win tomorrow, we need to be better. And that’s what I’ll just focus on.

Q: (Ian Parkes – RacingNews365.com) Max, can you say what changes you will need to make to the car to make it stronger in the race for tomorrow?
VERSTAPPEN: Just a bit more grip, better feeling on the balance of the car. Over one lap it felt OK, but in the race I felt like we were probably degging a bit too much. Like I said, we didn’t have a proper reference against the McLarens, but for sure, they would have been faster than I was now in the Sprint. So, yeah, just thinking ahead.

Q: (Leonid Kliuev – Grande Premio Brazil) Question for Max. With your chances improving after this, do you think for the rest of the season Mercedes, and George in particular, can be a threat stopping you from achieving higher positions?
VERSTAPPEN: We’ll see, won’t we? I don’t know. We’ll see race by race what happens. I can’t look into the future, unfortunately. With some things that would be nice. Yeah, we’ll first see what we can do in qualifying.

Q: (Fred Ferret – l’Equipe) Question to Max. As neither of the McLarens ran during the Sprint, do you think that can help you tomorrow for the race since they don’t have any data?
VERSTAPPEN: I don’t know. From my side, I was just not entirely happy with the pace, so that’s what I need to work on. And then we’ll automatically see tomorrow, of course, if that’s going to be enough or not.

Q: (Stuart Codling – Autosport) George, could you just talk us a bit more through your thought process when you sent it? You said that was pretty much your only opportunity. Was it a tire thing? What made you think—paraphrasing Elvis here—but what was it, ‘now or never’?
GR: I knew Max—well, I saw Max was struggling a little bit, and I was just giving absolutely everything. And I knew that I would probably deg a little bit more, whereas when you’re in the lead, you’re probably trying to manage the tires a bit better. He had a bit of a snap out of the previous corner, so I just thought, you know what, this is my only chance. There was a nice headwind in that corner, so I thought I could make it stick. But I was too far back. I’m glad I tried it as opposed to just sitting there and still finishing in the same place.

Q: (Tim Hauraney – TSN) Question for Carlos. Congratulations on the podium. I know you’re just out of the car, but from your perspective, can you take us through Turn 1, lap one, and the incident that happened?
CS: Yeah. I had a pretty average, pretty poor start. I got distracted with one thing and I couldn’t get off the line well, which forced me to take the outside line into Turn 1. A bit like George, I braked really late on the outside because you have all the clean air and the headwind to brake as late as you want. But then I realized, looking left, that the guys on the inside had braked as late as the guys that were almost already outbraking ourselves on the outside. So, yeah, I kind of thought there was going to be contact there because people braked really late on the inside, and there were a lot of cars on the inside. I just took basically evasive action going all the way around the outside. I thought at some point I was going to go in the gravel with how much I had to avoid the accident. And then suddenly, I found myself in P3.

Q: (Ronald Vording – Motorsport.com) Question to Max. Even though you said you’re not happy with the race pace, is it still different from earlier this year? You said in Singapore sometimes you got a bit lost during the race weekend. Is the feeling different now that at least you’ve got more direction and confidence?
VERSTAPPEN: We’re not lost, but we just need to look into some details in the car to see if we can make it a bit better for the race especially.

Q: (Sahil Kapur – NBC) Question for Max. You’ve started P1 and P2 here. How did it feel off the line today? At what point did you realise you were going to keep the position into Turn 1, and any lessons for the Grand Prix tomorrow?
VERSTAPPEN: Yeah, the start was good. I looked in my mirror and I could see immediately that I didn’t really need to defend. So it was more about driving a bit in the middle because Turn 1 is very wide. I just tried to do my normal line, normal corner. Then, of course, I looked again in the mirror, and suddenly there were some cars turned around. It’s that type of corner in the start—you can gain a lot of positions if you do it well, but at the same time, it’s a risky corner to try and get positions.
But it seems like the tarmac is a bit more consistent left to right. Singapore was very tough if you started on the inside. I think with that tarmac that has been laid two years ago, that helps a bit to make it a bit more fair between left and right.