The elephant in the room as Max Verstappen digested his sprint race victory in Austin was that it represented a net gain of just eight points in his favour with six grands prix to go in the 2025 Formula 1 season. That was enough to excite the commentariat but not Verstappen himself.
"The overall pace throughout the race, I expected it to be a little bit better," he said. "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."
