Red Bull hide secret Max Verstappen update from prying eyes in Austin

Red Bull arrived at Circuit of the Americas for this weekend's United States Grand Prix without any major upgrades, continuing straight from back-to-back wins in Malaysia and Singapore with only marginal set-up tweaks on the car.

That made a small detail spotted in the Milton Keynes-based squad's pit lane during the standard Friday build-up all the more notable.

Mechanics were seen working on the front end of the car ahead of first practice, and were quick to screen off the installation of new Brembo brake discs, blocking photographers from getting a clear shot.

Further checks revealed the discs carry a new surface pattern, one that is no longer uniformly solid.

The change is expected to affect two things. The initial bite under braking is understood to remain similar to the previous specification, but the pattern has been tailored specifically to suit Max Verstappen's aggressive braking style, aiming for greater consistency through the full braking phase and across a race distance.

In practice, that should give the four-time F1 champion a wider operating window to extract maximum performance compared with a disc running a standard surface.

The development points to something bigger than a trackside tweak. It suggests Red Bull is already trialling solutions with half an eye on the 2027 regulations, while also underlining how closely the Austrian marque is now working with Brembo to fine-tune both the RB23 and the braking characteristics of the current RB22 around Verstappen's specific preferences.

It all feeds into a growing sense in the paddock that the RB22, once a difficult, unpredictable car in the first half of the campaign, has quietly turned into the benchmark that the rest of the grid is chasing.