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Hill expects difficulties for Verstappen in the US: "Need to stop the rot"
Damon Hill says this race weekend at the United States Grand Prix will be key for Red Bull and Max Verstappen if they want to win their respective titles, with the 2024 Formula 1 season being one of ups and downs for the Dutchman and his Austrian team. The Dutchman has not won since the Spanish Grand Prix in 2024, and Red Bull now sit 41 points behind McLaren in the constructors' championship after declining massively this season.
The 2024 season started extremely well for Verstappen and Red Bull by taking four wins in five races, making it look like it was to be another dominant season as it was in 2023. However, that all changed after Norris' fantastic win at the Miami Grand Prix, and since then, Verstappen and Red Bull only have three wins to their name, with the most recent victory coming at the Spanish Grand Prix.
Verstappen now just leads by 52 points in the drivers' championship with six races remaining, including three sprint races, and after Norris and McLaren dominated proceedings last time out at the Singapore Grand Prix, there is a worry that the deficit will be cut once more, with Red Bull seemingly having no answer to McLaren's pace and consistent throughout 2024.
Red Bull need to "turn things around" for Verstappen
Previewing this race weekend at the Circuit of The Americas, 1996 world champion Hill knows that it will be huge for Red Bull and Verstappen if they have managed to turn around a spiralling RB20: "It's going to be very interesting to see whether or not Red Bull have stopped the rot, and whether they can manage to turn things around a little bit for Max, because they have to.
"McLaren have found something," continued the former F1 driver. "Despite the attempts to clip their wings a little bit with changes to the regulations and all this rear wing, this sort of mini DRS thing that they came up, I think the teams are looking very closely and thinking, 'What are they doing that's made them so successful?' It was 20 seconds that Lando won by in Singapore, which is a pretty convincing victory."
However, something that might play to the advantage of Verstappen and the Austrian team is returning to a circuit that suits the RB20 far better. It is known that street circuits are not Red Bull's favourite on the calendar, so a return to a proper circuit might improve their pace and performance, which Hill believes.
"It's a different track, much more load going through the cars in Austin. There will be different kinds of pressures on the tyres and how the car behaves around there," concluded the Brit.
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15 October 2024
