It’s A Party In The USA!
This week, Formula One returns to Austin for the first time since 2019 for the 50th United States Grand Prix. Verstappen goes into the weekend as the championship leader, but we can be sure that Hamilton will be fighting to reclaim that position as quickly as possible. Hamilton has a strong track record at the Circuit of The Americas, having won 5 of the 8 Grand Prix held there. He won in 2012 (with McLaren), 2014, 2015, 2016 and 2017. Vettel (2013, with Red Bull), Raikkonen (2018, with Ferrari) and Bottas (2019, with Mercedes) won the other three. COTA is also where Hamilton secured his 6th World Driver’s Championship title in 2019. Even though Hamilton performs very well in the US, Verstappen is confident that he can secure his first United States Grand Prix win. He has come fourth, third, and second at COTA in the past, but we all know that Max won’t settle for anything but the highest possible result and will push his car to the limits this weekend.
Red Bull and AlphaTauri have also decided to continue with their homages to Honda this week following their one-off white livery in Turkey. This weekend look out for the Acura branding on the rear wings of the Honda powered cars, and on the helmets and suits of their drivers. Acura is Honda’s North American high-performance, luxury car brand. The brand has not been a part of Formula One for more than a decade.
In the battle for third in the constructors championship, McLaren have a 7.5 point lead over Ferrari coming into this weekend. Ferrari’s performance in Turkey, with both drivers finishing in the points, compared to McLaren’s one, certainly allowed them to catch up and possibly take that third position this weekend. Heading into this race, Sainz only has half a point lead over his teammate, Leclerc. We expect a tight battle between these two this weekend as both drivers would like to be ahead of their teammate. We also hope to see the return of Mr Saturday this week. After failing to make it through to Q3 last week, George Russell will be looking to return to his spectacular qualifying form and potentially score some points in his Williams. Though his record at COTA in F1 is not suggesting this would be the case, Russell’s performance this season has been above what anyone expected and he definitely has the tools and determination to perform well this weekend.
Haas will be looking for their drivers to qualify well this weekend to put themselves in the best position to finally score their first points of the season. They are the only team yet to score points this year. They’ll be looking for that to change this weekend in their home country.
Last Time at the United States Grand Prix…
The last time we were in Austin, for the 2019 United States Grand Prix, Bottas started on pole position with Vettel for company on the first row in his Ferrari. The race was completely dry, as it is expected to be this weekend as well (perhaps to everybody’s relief by this point of the season). While Vettel started in second, Verstappen had a fantastic start and got in front of him before the first turn. Vettel had dropped down to fifth before they had even completed the first half of lap one with Hamilton and Leclerc also overtaking him. By Lap 8, Vettel was out of the race with a broken suspension after going wide at a bumpy Turn 9.
Whilst most drivers seemed to have opted for a two stop strategy, Hamilton’s team had gone with only one and somewhat compromised his race as his tyres weren’t in the condition to allow him to defend from his teammate, Bottas, and his rival, Verstappen. Hamilton regained his lead on Lap 36 following Bottas and Verstappen’s pit stops. Hamilton had pitted on Lap 24 for the hard compound tyres and made them last until the end of the race. Bottas retook his lead on Lap 52 out of 56 and would remain in that position eventually taking his 4th win of the season. Bottas’ result would be outshone though due to his teammate, Hamilton, finishing in second and winning his 6th championship. Verstappen came home in third place, finishing only 0.854 seconds behind Hamilton.
Leclerc finished in fourth, crossing the line 52.239 seconds after the race winner. Albon, after surviving early contact with Sainz, managed to complete a three-stop race and claim fifth place. Ricciardo finished in 6th in his Renault, holding off both McLarens. In the other Renault, Nico Hulkenberg finished 3 positions behind his teammate. Daniil Kvyat crossed the line in P10, in his Toro Rosso, but soon received a 5 second penalty after a late collision with Sergio Perez. Kvyat dropped to 12th, moving Perez’s pink Racing Point into the final points position.
Gasly, Magnussen, Kubica and Vettel all DNF’d. George Russell was lapped twice while Grosjean, Giovinazzi, Stroll, Kvyat, Raikkonen, Perez, Hulkenberg and Sainz were all lapped once.
Leclerc had an extra point added onto his 13 for getting the fastest lap of the race. This lap would also become the fastest lap ever completed on this circuit during an F1 race.
The Finer Details...
The Circuit of The Americas is a 5.513km track, located in Austin, Texas. The United States Grand Prix was first held at COTA in 2012, won by Sir Lewis Hamilton in his McLaren-Mercedes car. The United States Grand Prix was not held in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Hermann Tilke was the architect in charge of designing this circuit. You may recognise this name from our last edition of Everything You Need To Know, as he is also responsible for the design of Intercity Istanbul Park, where the last race was held nearly two weeks ago.
With the track being just over 5.5km in length, the drivers will have to complete 56 anti-clockwise laps on Sunday, for a total race distance of 308.405km. The track has 20 corners, 10 to the left and 10 to the right. It has two DRS zones, the first being on the 1.016km straight between corner 11 and 12, the other being along the start/finish straight.
Turns 2, 3 and 4 have been compared to Maggots and Becketts at Silverstone and the Esses at Suzuka, in the sense that the drivers should be precise in the throttle to carry speed the whole way through rather than braking before accelerating.
The venue was awarded a 10 year contract in 2012, this contract is up at the end of this year. At this stage the Circuit of the Americas has been listed to host the United States Grand Prix in 2022, but no news of a contract renewal has been announced. With the new Miami Grand Prix being hosted for the first time in May next year (subject to FIA circuit homologation/approval), the people in charge of COTA will be looking to impress the F1 bosses to secure a new contract to continue holding races in Austin.
QUICK FACTS
Charles Leclerc holds the lap record at the Circuit of The Americas, with a time of 1:36.169, set in 2019.
The United States Grand Prix has taken place 49 times in 10 different locations.
Lewis Hamilton holds the record for most driver wins at the United States Grand Prix with a total of 6, while Ferrari hold the record for most constructors wins with a total of 10 (half of which were won by Michael Schumacher).
The Circuit of The Americas has the ability to seat 120,000 fans in its grandstands, and can accommodate many more within the park.
When To Watch:
Formula 1:
(FRIDAY) FP1 kicks off at 11:30 - 12:30 local time (17:30 - 18:30 BST).
(FRIDAY) FP2 continues the weekend at 15:00 - 16:00 local time (21:00 - 22:00 BST).
(SATURDAY) FP3 starts at 13:00 - 14:00 local time (19:00 - 20:00 BST).
(SATURDAY) Qualifying gets the green light at 16:00 - 17:00 local time (22:00 - 23:00 BST).
(SUNDAY) It’s lights out for the first time since 2019 at 14:00 local time (20:00 BST).
W Series:
(FRIDAY) The sole practice session starts at 10:20 - 10:50 local time (16:20 - 16:50 BST).
(SATURDAY) Qualifying begins at 11:10 - 11:40 local time (17:10 - 17:40 BST).
(SATURDAY) The first race of two this weekend commences at 17:25 local time (23:25 BST).
(SUNDAY) The W Series concludes its second season with Race 2. Will Jamie Chadwick or Alice Powell claim the title? 11:05 local time (17:05 BST).
(All times collected and calculated from the official Formula 1 website)
(Information for this post uses previous race data collected from the internet and official sources. No copyright intended)
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