Formula One Vault

PRIXVIEW – United States Grand Prix

Round nineteen takes F1 back to the Americas and the Texan capital Austin for the United States Grand Prix. Since joining the calendar in 2012 the Circuit of the Americas has been credited with breaking the sport’s bad reparation following the scandal which led to the demise of the race following Indygate in 2005.

The 3.4-mile circuit was the countries first purpose-built circuit for both Formula One and Moto GP becoming home to the sports in 2013 and 2013 respectively. Despite it drawing on inspiration from Silverstone, Istanbul, Hockenheim, the old Red Bull Ring, and Interlagos the circuit doesn’t feel like a jumbled mix of corners rather its own unique challenge.

Austin was created from scratch from the hills and the sweeping corners, it’s one of a handful of circuits to run anti-clockwise. This place greater physical challenges on the drivers and partially their necks. It may seem like the circuit is knitting together, but the layout of COTA is one which drivers obviously enjoy as it has some of the best corners in the world from other circuits, creating opportunities for close racing and overtaking.

It is a circuit which requires speed and downforce, often it’s a race where there is a lot of overtaking making qualifying less important. But it’s still a race often won by cars with the best straight-line speed and overtaking, it regarded as the best circuit designed by Hermann Tikle.

America is the oldest Grand Prix outside of Europe, first held in 1906 it’s attached Fiat (Ferrari), Benz (Mercedes) and Renault (Alpine). It was held in Long Beach which would also host F1 between 1976 – 83, however, the race was plagued by crowd control problems, which led to spectator deaths and injuries, and the cancellation of the 1907 event.

The race came down to a three-way battle between the Benz of Victor Hémery and the Fiats of Louis Wagner and Felice Nazzaro. Wagner won the race by a close margin of 56 seconds.

Those early races were discontinued in 1916 due to WWI and the popularity of oval racing in America. The race was revived for the first time in 1959 as the second race in the States briefly becoming the first country to host two world championship rounds. For the first decade of the World Championship, the Indianapolis 500 counted towards the championship.

Grand Prix racing, under various titles, began as a round of the championship at Watkins Glenn which has hosted the most races titled the US Grand Prix. It was one of the of the most popular races of the season, perhaps the closet thing the country had to a European-style race until Austin established itself on the calendar. The two years before the Glenn hosted the US Grand Prix, it had held Watkins Glen Grand Prix for Formula Libre, much like Singapore, Australia which later became F1 races.

The first race saw McLaren founder Bruce McLaren driving a Cooper, taking victory when his team-mate, Jack Brabham, ran out of fuel. Brabham had to push his car over the line to finish fourth. With Ferrari’s Tony Brooks finishing third, Brabham and Cooper took the Drivers’ and Constructors’ championships, respectively. The early 1960s would see domination by the Brits, Innes Ireland take victory and the first for Team Lotus after finishing over four seconds ahead of Dan Gurney.

Followed by Jim Clark in 1962, then Graham Hill for the next three years. Hill’s 1964 win gave him the advantage going to the final race in Mexico City. Clark would take his only win of the 1966 season at The Glenn and again the following Mario Andretti would take his maiden pole in 1968.

This would be three years when several drivers would take their first, Jochen Rindt and Emerson Fittipaldi their first win in 1969 and 1970 respectively. Fittipaldi’s win would be on only his fourth start, after Stewart retired his new Tyrrell and Fittipaldi, driving a Lotus, held off a charge from Mexican Pedro Rodriguez in a BRM.

The 1970 race was key in making Jochen Rindt the only posthumous champion, he had been killed in FP2 at Monza, Jacky Ickx had to pit from the lead because of a broken fuel line. While he rejoined the race he finished fourth scoring three points and taking himself out of championship contention with two races to go.

1971 was the first running on the completed full circuit and it saw popular Frenchman François Cevert win his only Grand Prix for Tyrrell, and the biggest cash prize in Formula One- $267,000.

The 1974 race was the title decider between Emerson Fittipaldi and Clay Regazzoni, both tied on points, whoever finished higher would seal the title. Regazzoni had issues with his Ferrari and dropped out of the points, allowing Fittipaldi finished fifth which won him his second Drivers’ Championship.

1976 was a key race in deciding the championship between James Hunt and Nikki Lauda, the McLaren driver took the victory and closed the gap to two points going to Fuji. Lauda withdrew from that race in Japan allowing Hunt to take the championship. Hunt again took victory again the following season holding off Mario Andretti by two seconds.

During the 1980’s and 1990’s the race called the US Grand Prix dropped off the calendar but there were several races in America going by city or state names. Texas first held a race in Dallas in 1984 that race being won by Keke Rosberg, but the heat of the summer caused several problems for the drivers with  Nigel Mansell took pole position in the other Lotus-Renault and led the first half of the race, before suffering a gearbox failure at the very end and collapsing from exhaustion while trying to push his car over the finish line.

This is the reason why the race was revived in Texas in 2012 it was decided not to pair it with Montreal due to the summer heat. After Watkins Glen’s demise, other Formula One Grands Prix in the United States were briefly held on street circuits in Detroit and Dallas, and a car park in Las Vegas.

The brief revival of the US GP between 1989-91 was dominated by the rivaly between Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost, The 1989 race saw Prost win his only Grand Prix in the United States by taking advantage of Senna’s engine electronics problems. The 1990 race saw Jean Alesi harrying Senna for several laps; the Tyrrell driver went on to finish second behind Senna.

The circuit had to be changed for the 1991 race due to the construction of a new Phoenix Suns basketball arena, and the revised circuit was generally seen to be an improvement. Senna won the race from pole position.

After a forty year break the race returned to Indianapolis in 2000, the newly builr road course was situated in the oval, that weekend saw the largest attendance at an American race until 2021. Michael Schumacher’s win was his second of four straight to end the season as he overtook Mika Häkkinen for his third Championship.

The 2001 race was overshadowed by the 9/11attacks in New York and Washington, but the first major international sporting event saw Mika Häkkinen take his final win. Ferrari as they would do all season in 2002, would win the race with the team trying to engineer a dead heat with Schumacher taking victory.

2005 saw one of the e most controversial race weekends known as ‘IndyGate’ all the Michelin supplied teams were forced to withdraw after a series of tyre failures through the final corner because of tyre failures. Of the six starters, Schumacher was the eventual winner, with his teammate Rubens Barrichello finishing second.

Two more races at Indianapolis with Schumacher winning for the fifth time in 2006. Lewis Hamilton would win the final race at the Brickyard, and after a five year absence would take back to back wins with the first at the Circuit of the Americas in 2012.

Austin has become very much a model Grand Prix which has been copied by both Miami and Las Vegas, built around the race as well as music. That’s no surprise as the city has the motto “keep Austin weird” and is known as The Live Music Capital of the World, the city has a vibrant live music scene with more music venues per capita than any other U.S. city. One venue is the “Amphitheater’ located between Turn Seventeen and Eighteen.

Austin has been a circuit which draws from several European Formula One circuits, including a recreation of Silverstone’s Maggotts–Becketts–Chapel sequence, Hockenheim’s arena bends, and a replica of Istanbul’s Diabolica (Turn Eight). Other corners were loosely inspired by the Senna ‘S’ at Interlagos and the Österreichring’s (Red Bull Ring) Sebring-Auspuffkurve.

This circuit was designed to allow overtaking, despite the difficulties posed by the regulations in recent years Austin was an outlier in the fact cars could get closer and race hard and exciting across the field. Though the championship has been decided we should see plenty of drama, as drivers look to use the wide open corners to overtake.

Austin is one of the few circuits to run anti-clockwise, the circuit contains more left-hand turns than right-hand ones, placing greater physical demands on the drivers whose bodies, particularly their necks, are more adapted to the lateral g-forces of clockwise circuits.

Lewis Hamilton has the most wins in Austin, he won the inaugural race in 2012 as well as going on to win four more times. The Englishman is the most successful driver with him also winning at Indianapolis in 2007, and the hybrid era led to Mercedes dominating COTA in the mid 2010s.

Hamilton, his 2015 win saw him clinch his third championship after passing teammate Nico Rosberg in the closing stages. The race fill of incidents only saw twelve cars reach the finish line, with Max Verstappen repeating his best result of the season in fourth.

Kimi Raikkonen’s final win of his career came in 2018, the Finn made a one-stop race work setting a record for the number of races between wins having last won in Melbourne at the start of 2013, a hundred and thirteen races previous. It was also Ferrari’s first win at COTA and the first in the US since 2006.

2019 saw Valtteri Bottas took victory ahead of Hamilton, who wrapped his sixth title up here in 2019. Hamilton’s current title rival Max Verstappen had put pressure on him in the closing stages, but his charge was halted when Kevin Magnussen had a brake failure on the final lap.

Race & Circuit Guide

Fast facts

• No American has ever won the US GP since it has been a round of the World Championship. However, a total of six American drivers have won the United States Grand Prix, all except one when it was known as the American Grand Prize. Mario Andretti won the 1977 United States Grand Prix West
• In 2019, Lewis Hamilton became the first driver to clinch the Drivers’ Championship in the United States twice. He previously won the 2015 title at the Circuit of the Americas.
• Construction of the Circuit of The Americas cost approximately $400 million in private investment and created approximately 1,700 construction jobs. Sixteen Texas-based companies were contracted to work on the project with participation by minority- and women-owned businesses totalling an estimated $50 million.

Event timetable

How Red Bull wins the constructors

Red Bull can seal the constructors championship this weekend if they manage to outscore Ferrari by twenty six points, having a hundred and forty seven-point lead by the end of the weekend. To stop that happening Ferrari must outscore Red Bull by nineteen points. Red Bull can achieve that by both cars finishing in the top four.

What happened in 2021?

Max Verstappen beat his championship rival Lewis Hamilton to take pole position by two-tenths. There had been little between them throughout the weekend and both went too far on their final run both having times deleted for track limits. It was the first time in the hybrid era that Mercedes had been beaten to pole in Austin.

Verstappen went onto win a thrilling race where he had been matched by Hamilton. The key moment was when the Red Bull driver went on an aggressive tyre strategy which saw him withstand the pressure from Hamilton after re-passing him in the closing stages. He then after closing the eight-second gap passed Hamilton.

Sergio Perez finishing third, forty seconds behind Hamilton. Red Bull used the undercut to hold the lead at the second stop, Verstappen taking an aggressive strategy stopping earlier than Hamilton. The Englishman then re-joining behind Hamilton.

Charles Leclerc was fourth, the Monacan not having enough pace to run with the stop three and finishing twenty-four seconds ahead of Daniel Ricciardo. Ricciardo fought hard with Carlos Sainz for fifth, however, in the closing stages, he dropped behind Valtteri Bottas.

Race Result – 1) M. Verstappen, Red Bull – Honda, 01:34:36.552, 2) L. Hamilton, Mercedes, +00:01.333, 3) S. Perez,         Red Bull – Honda , +00:42.223

What to watch for?

This weekend is going to be about whether Red Bull can seal the constructors for that to happen they realistically need both Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez to finish one-two, though there are other ways of doing it. It is very hard I think to see the Verstappen dominance end, but you still have the question does he take it easier now the title wrapped up? I doubt it as we have seen him get stronger throughout the season.

Ferrari will be again their closet challengers this weekend, they have not had a win since Le Castellet in July and Red Bull has won the last seven races. The team needs to use these remaining races to get back to winning ways and operationally improve to be in a position next year to fight all season for the championship. But I feel they will want to fight for victories all season.

Mercedes I think potentially are in a much better place than they were at the start of the year, but they continue not to be able to hit the ground off poorly and not where they often finish FP3 off they could still find it difficult. Lewis Hamilton has a driving style which suits this circuit, but George Russell has been leading the team charge this season. I still find it difficult to see given the strength of Red Bull them winning this season.

Normally after the championship is seals all the drivers become unleashed and we get these bazare results. I wouldn’t dismiss if Red Bull run into difficulty in these remaining races, surprises but we know they are strong and have largely got it right this season. Alpine continue I think to be strong in their battle for fourth with McLaren, they have been in the points in three of the five races since the summer with both drivers.

Whereas McLaren has only had one points finish for each driver, I think McLaren is very much fighting only with Lando Norris consistently and they were another team whose problems like Mercedes stem from testing in February and March. Alpine I think have the edge over McLaren partly because Fernando Alonso and Esteban Ocon are delivering consistently as a team.

2019 vs 2021 Race Data

2021 Lap time comparison

Tyres