COTA will test whether Red Bull’s RB22 gains survive the bumps

Updates in Miami, Austria and Baku have made Red Bull’s RB22 more competitive, and Max Verstappen has been able to extract more from it. The improvements have been followed by wins at Sepang and Singapore; the Singapore victory was Verstappen’s first at Marina Bay. Ahead of the United States Grand Prix, the bumpy Circuit of the Americas will test whether those gains carry over to a different circuit.

Technical director Pierre Waché says Red Bull has improved the car in slow corners, but he is not sure all its problems have been solved. The team previously found that gains in fast corners often came at the expense of slow-corner performance, and vice versa. Waché says the RB22 is now more coherent overall: the change is not just more speed in slow corners, but also how much of the car’s performance the driver can use.

COTA’s first sector is a direct test of that balance. The steep climb to Turn 1 leads into fast esses, where the RB22 previously struggled with stability on turn-in and understeer mid-corner. That kept Verstappen from carrying the speed he wanted. A competitive showing there would suggest Red Bull has reduced that weakness.

The surface is another question. After Singapore, Verstappen said that what he had seen at the World Endurance Championship made COTA look extremely bumpy; he joked that he might need a new back after the weekend. Bumps can cost time if the suspension or aerodynamic balance is not working properly, while kerbs can affect stability on turn-in. Red Bull has made progress over kerbs, but they had been a weak point.

Sector two’s long straight will test the car’s efficiency and power-unit performance. Red Bull must balance downforce for the corners against drag. The final sector combines slow corners and traction with the long, flowing turns 16 to 18, checking whether the RB22 can hold its balance under sustained cornering load.

Updates to the floor, diffuser and sidepods are intended to improve airflow and downforce. Grip alone will not settle the question: the car must also remain predictable as loads change and the tyres move away from their optimum.

The significance of COTA is the range it demands. Red Bull had struggled to improve one type of corner without paying for it in another; Austin combines those corner types with kerbs and a rough surface. If the RB22 remains competitive across that mix, it would suggest the gains extend beyond the specific circuits where the car has recently won.