F1 US Grand Prix: What We Learned From Drivers' Complaints About Their Cars

Along with the bumpy surface of the Circuit of The Americas, drivers also had something to complain about their respective cars. Red Bull's Max Verstappen and Isack Hadjar were the most vocal of the bunch, but some of their fellow drivers didn't seem that happy, too.

Here's what we learned:

Max Verstappen, winner of the last two races in Malaysia and Singapore, didn't get off to a great start and lost ground to Kimi Antonelli. Ferrari's Charles Leclerc overtook him late in the race, and he was on the verge of potentially losing third place when a late Virtual Safety Car saved his position.

After the race, Verstappen complained about engine consistency, as well as the soft tyres' lack of performance when compared to the harder compounds.

Verstappen: "The biggest question mark is why the tyres didn’t really work, while the harder compounds actually did really well, so that’s something to analyse. We struggled with engine consistency throughout the race, which we’ll need to work on."

Like his teammate, Isack Hadjar didn't get off to a good start and lost a couple of positions right from the get-go. After mechanical failures ruined his weekend in Singapore, the young Red Bull driver settled for a P6 finish in Austin. 

Hadjar was understandably fuming after the race, even demanding a redesign of the car's clutch system.

Hadjar: "The clutch, it needs a redesign because at the moment it's too fragile. It's not coping well with temperatures. Yeah, it's a real struggle."

Interestingly, George Russell struggled for pace in a weekend where his teammate, Kimi Antonelli, qualified for pole and won the race by more than 13 seconds. At the start of Sunday's race, Russell received a five-second penalty for going outside the track and gaining a lasting advantage. 

Concerningly, though, the Mercedes driver couldn't make an overtake when he needed to. He dropped to an eighth-place finish in Austin.

Russell: "The time penalty from the opening lap cost me a couple of places but overall, the pace just wasn't good enough today for me to be fighting at the front. The lack of performance is something me and the team will look at and work on over the next couple of days."

Both McLaren drivers struggled for pace in qualifying, settling for P7 and P8, with Piastri starting ahead of his teammate Lando Norris. But Norris was the one who made strides in the race, while Piastri languished and stayed in his position. 

Piastri felt that their one-stop strategy was smart, but the car just didn't have the pace to make up places. Norris mirrored this sentiment as well.

Piastri: "The strategy was strong; we had a solid start and pit stop, we just didn’t have the pace to be able to make up any places. When you find the window on these cars, there is some pace, but finding that window is very tricky."

Ocon started the race in 15th and finished in 14th. His teammate, Oliver Bearman, seemed to have the better pace but an early collision with Alpine's Pierre Gasly forced him to retire his car.

Ocon, who will be leaving Haas after this season, had a good start to the race but encountered issues that dropped him down a couple of places.

Ocon: "The problems that we faced throughout the weekend came back, as I still had front-locking, and I still had quite a lot of understeer at high speed. These inconsistencies are something that we really need to work on and understand, and we need to make sure we get rid of them in Mexico."

Late in the race, Valtteri Bottas had to stop his Cadillac due to a suspected power unit issue. The Finn has now DNF'd in three of the last four races, as he and teammate Sergio Perez are still looking for their first championship point of the season.

Bottas: "The issue was really sudden and happened during braking into Turn 1. It started to sound bad, and then I had the engine cutting in and out when trying to get on power."