Max Verstappen has quipped that he will become like "RoboCop" and have to order a "new spine" when faced with the bumpy track at the upcoming United States GP.
Austin is the next race on the F1 calendar after a recent successful triple-header for the Dutchman, where he won two grands prix, a sprint, and came within 0.196s of winning the other race as the Red Bull RB22 machine enjoys a resurgence in form.
Red Bull is hoping to overhaul McLaren in the fight for third in the constructors', with six races remaining, starting in the United States, a race Verstappen has won four times in the five events since 2021.
However, when asked if he could continue his strong momentum over the coming races starting at Austin, Verstappen offered caution, and a nod to the 1987 film starring Peter Weller, over the bumpy nature of the Texas circuit.
Asked if he could be in contention for victory at the remaining races, speaking to the media, including RacingNews365, the four-time F1 champion said: "It's very difficult to say, and I don't want to say now that I will be in the fight in Austin.
"The last few weekends have been great, but I just take it race by race, and once we are in Austin, then we'll see how it will go there. It is a very different track. From what I saw in WEC, it is incredibly bumpy.
"Oh my God! Yeah, I’ll probably need to order a new spine, I think, after the weekend. I'll become like RoboCop.
"That's again a new challenge for everyone, to deal with those bumps. And then we just go from there."
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Verstappen - Many things to get right or wrong
Looking beyond Austin, Verstappen added: "We have to go to Mexico, again, high altitude, everything will run super hot.
"We need to see how the engine is going to perform at that altitude, how the car is behaving, because it's very different.
"So there are so many different things that you can get right or wrong in those races, but we'll see."
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