Formula 1 arrives in Austin, Texas this week boasting a tense battle for the title with just six races remaining.
Red Bull trail in the constructors’ standings while Max Verstappen’s lead in the driver’s championship after his runaway start to the season has been reduced to just 52 points by McLaren’s Lando Norris.
The excitement resumes this weekend at Circuit of the Americas. Have Red Bull regained performance over the break or have McLaren further capitalised on their development success?
This weekend’s weather will be hot, dry and settled with highs of 28 and 29 degrees celsius across the weekend and partial cloud coverage.
The U.S. Grand Prix saw a spike in ticket sales once Verstappen stopped winning, according to Austin circuit boss Bobby Epstein.
The heir to Hamilton’s throne: Andrea Kimi Antonelli is F1’s next big thing.
United States Grand Prix preview | Listen to the latest episode of ESPN’s F1 podcast Unlapped.
Circuit stats and history
America’s history with F1 dates back to the sport’s origin in 1950 when Indianapolis hosted the event between 1950-1960. In1959, Sebring hosted the first United States Grand Prix, and since then the race has been held at five other circuits.
Circuit of the Americas (COTA) took over as host in 2012 when the track was opened by Mario Andretti, following four years of F1 absence in the U.S..
During F1’s popularity in the eighties in the era of Ayrton Senna, Alain Prost and Niki Lauda, the U.S. hosted additional grands prix including Long Beach from 1976 until the early-eighties, as well as Dallas, Las Vegas and Detroit around the same period.
Now the U.S. has Miami, Austin and Las Vegas on the calendar.
COTA is a varied circuit with straights, esses through to sector two, and a series of hair-pins ins sector three. The high-speed corners takes some inspiration from Silverstone and Hockenheim.
Laps: 56 laps of 5.5km. Total distance 308.4km
Lap record: 1:36.169 Charles Leclerc (2019)
Most wins (COTA): Hamilton (2012, 2014-2017) has the most wins with five. Of the current grid, Verstappen (2021-2023) and Valtteri Bottas (2019) have both won here.
Most poles (COTA): Hamilton (2016-2018) with three. Of the current grid, Bottas (2019), Verstappen (2021), Carlos Sainz (2022), Charles Leclerc (2023) have all been on pole here.
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