Formula 1 is back after a one-month hiatus and is heading to the Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas for the United States Grand Prix.
Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri established themselves during the Singapore Grand Prix, with a win and a third place, respectively.
McLaren have proved they are stronger than ever, and it will take a very strong Red Bull to take them down.
Max Verstappen took home second place at the Yas Marina Circuit, but second is not going to keep Norris and McLaren away from the Driver and Constructor Championships.
The gap between Norris and Verstappen is now 52 points. With the sprint race coming up this weekend, the Dutchman will have to deliver his very best if he wants to win his fourth Championship.
The Track
The Circuit of the Americas is located southeast of Texas’ capital, Austin.
The track held its first F1 Grand Prix in 2012, it was the first time F1 raced in the United States since Indianapolis in 2007.
Last year, the winner was Verstappen, followed by Norris and Carlos Sainz.
The circuit is made up of 20 corners, and two DRS zones; the race is made up of 56 laps, and the average speed is 128 mph (206 kmh).
The fastest lap record is held by Charles Leclerc, who achieved it in 2019 with a time of 1:36:169.
What to watch out for
RB announced that Liam Lawson would be replacing Daniel Ricciardo for the rest of the season, starting from this weekend.
Various media outlets had been speculating for months that the swap was coming, but still, it came as a shock to the racing community.
Ricciardo has not announced if he is planning on returning to another category or retiring altogether.
Christian Horner, Red Bull team manager, has confirmed that Lawson will be taking a penalty as RB will be planning to do changes on the New Zealanders’ engine.
There will be a couple of special liveries this weekend.
Alpine displayed their Indiana Jones’ inspired car in partnership with Xbox and their new video game inspired by the American movie.
McLaren will be bringing back the fan-favorite chrome livery for a second time in partnership with Google.
The Papaya team last used this design for the British Grand Prix last year.
For their home race, Haas unveiled an American-themed livery for the weekend.
Remember this will be a sprint weekend, meaning there is only one practice, qualifying for the sprint, the sprint race, normal qualifying, and the race.
More points than usual are at stake than at a usual race weekend.
McLaren will be looking forward to keeping the momentum from Singapore going, while Red Bull will need to work on their pace, for both qualifying and the race.
Ferrari needs to keep up with what they are doing, especially Leclerc, who is now only 34 points behind Norris in the Driver Standings.
Who knows? Maybe we can see Leclerc fighting for the Championship in these last couple of races.
Austin is stronger for Red Bull, Ferrari, and even Mercedes than for McLaren. There will be some really fun battles on track for sure.
Schedule
- Free Practice 1 - Friday, October 18th - 1:30 pm ET (10:30 am PT)
- Sprint Qualifying - Friday, October 18th - 5:30 pm ET (2:30 pm PT)
- Sprint Race - Saturday, October 19th - 2:00 pm ET (11:00 am PT)
- Qualifying - Saturday, October 19th - 6:00 pm ET (3:00 pm PT)
- Race - Sunday, October 20th - 3:00 pm ET (12:00 pm PT)
