#F1 @Aramco #UnitedStatesGP 2022 Preview. #USGP

United States GP Preview – After Max Verstappen wrapped up his back-to-back World Driver’s Championship with victory at a wet Japanese Grand Prix, round 19 of the 2022 FIA Formula 1 World Championship returns to the Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas for the Formula 1 Aramco United States Grand Prix 2022. This marks the 43^rd time that the United States Grand Prix has been run as a round of the World Championship since its inception in 1950 and the ninth time being held in Austin, Texas.

 

 

2022 United States GP Preview – A look at The Circuit of the Americas

 

 

Circuit of the Americas is a permanent racing circuit located in Elroy, Travis County on the south-eastern periphery of Austin city limits in Central Texas. The circuit and Grand Prix were proposed in 2010 and was the first in the United States to be purposely built for Formula 1. The layout was conceived by Tavo Hellmund and 1993 World Motorcycle Champion Kevin Schwantz with assistance from circuit designer and architect Hermann Tilke. The circuit was opened on October 21, 2012. The Circuit of the Americas is also used for MotoGP, the FIA World Endurance Championship and the Tudor United SportsCar Championship.

 

The circuit draws inspiration from some of the best circuits in the world, as well as taking advantage of the site’s natural contours which features dramatic elevation changes of up to 40 metres.

 

There is a steep, uphill run into the first corner hairpin, which quickly became the track’s signature corner. Turns three to six looks nearly similar to Silverstone’s high-speed Maggotts/Becketts/Chapel complex; turns 12 through 15 is similar to Hockenheim’s stadium section; and turns 16 through 18 mirrors the popular turn eight at Turkey’s Istanbul Park Circuit.

 

Support buildings include a medical facility, 14 executive meeting suites, a conference centre, a banquet hall, as well as an outdoor live music space.

 

The Circuit of the Americas is 5.513km (3.427 miles) in length with 20 corners and runs in an anti-clockwise direction.

 

Race distance is 308.405km (191.634 miles) in length with 56 laps in total.

 

Charles Leclerc holds the fastest lap record at the circuit with a 1:36.169 set at the 2019 event in his Scuderia Ferrari SF90.

 

Lewis Hamilton holds the record for most United States Grand Prix victories with six.

 

Scuderia Ferrari are the most successful constructor at the United States Grand Prix with ten victories.

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2022 United States GP Preview – Onboard Pole Lap Of The Circuit of the Americas

 

Here is the onboard pole lap of the Circuit of the Americas set at the 2021 United States Grand Prix by Max Verstappen in his Red Bull Racing-Honda RB16B, with the Dutchman posting a 1:32.910. You can watch the video right here at the link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OdLS8Rvh334

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2022 United States GP Preview – The Last Five United States Grand Prix Winners

 

 

2021: Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing. 2020: Not Held. 2019: Valtteri Bottas, Mercedes AMG F1. 2018: Kimi Raikkonen, Scuderia Ferrari. 2017: Lewis Hamilton: Mercedes AMG F1. 2016: Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes AMG F1.

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2022 United States GP Preview – Tyres

 

 

Pirelli will be bringing with them to Texas the white side-walled C2 Hard rubber, the yellow-branded C3 Medium compounds and the C4 red-marked Soft tyres due to the Circuit of the America’s combination of fast corners and more technical sections along with the green-branded Intermediate and blue-marked Full Wet tyre compounds in case of rain.

 

Drivers will have eight sets of the softs, three sets of the mediums and two sets of the harder tyres.

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2022 United States GP Preview – DRS Zones

 

There will be two DRS Zones at the Circuit of the Americas with the first detection point 150 metres after turn 10 with the activation point 320 metres after turn 11. The second detection point is 65 metres after turn 18 with the activation point 80 metres after the final corner on the main-straight.

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2022 United States GP Preview – Pitlane Speed Limits

Pitlane speed limits will be 80km/h during practice, qualifying and the race.

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ICYMI: Verstappen clinches second world title with victory in wet Japanese GP

 

 

Max Verstappen clinched victory and his second World Driver’s Championship crown in a heavily-delayed and wet Japanese GP, ahead of Red Bull team-mate Sergio Perez with Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc hit with a five-second time penalty for leaving the track and gaining an advantage at Casio Triangle and thus finished third behind the Mexican.

 

The Dutchman dominated the time-limited and controversial race at Suzuka to win by a huge 26.763 seconds, but not scoring the fastest lap bonus point, which looked to leave him one point short of the title.

 

However, a post-race five-second timed penalty for second-placed Leclerc – deemed to have squeezed Perez excessively out of the Casio Triangle – relegated the Ferrari driver behind the Mexican to give Verstappen the world title.

 

The ever-changing weather forecast for the Japanese Grand Prix weekend saw the rain shower, which was originally predicted to hit after the race come earlier than expected.

 

All drivers opted to begin the race on the green side-walled intermediate rubber for what remained as a proper standing-start.

 

But the conditions proved small, as the red flag was waved due to a messy opening lap.

 

When the rain-soaked shortened-timed 28-lap Japanese GP began, pole-sitter Verstappen got a poor run off the line compared to rival Leclerc who had a slight lead over the Red Bull driver, but the former managed to re-take the first place by holding onto the left-hand wider side and carried momentum to stay in-front of the Ferrari.

 

Ferrari’s third starting Carlos Sainz, who was jumped by Perez, became the first retiree from the race after catching a patch of standing water whilst hitting the throttle and the torque surge sent the F1-75 into the wall.

 

Sainz was eliminated with a crushed rear-wing, while Williams Racing’s Alexander Albon pulled over into the gravel with an engine problem, as Alfa Romeo’s Zhou Guanyu spun his C42 racer to re-join in 17^th place.

 

Aston Martin’s Sebastian Vettel dropped from his impressive ninth in qualifying to 16^th after a tangle with Alpine’s Fernando Alonso into the opening corner, which sent the German into the gravel and the AMR22 racer spun.

 

Vettel’s team-mate Lance Stroll jumped seven places from 11^th with a great opening tour.

 

Scuderia AlphaTauri’s Pierre Gasly, who started the race from pit-lane, due to a rear-wing change and revised suspension, drove over an advertising board ripped off after the Sainz crash.

 

This tore off the front wing from his AT03 racer and became stuck to block his visibility and forced the Frenchman to pit.

 

For all of this, the safety car was deployed before the red flags stopped the Grand Prix.

 

A moment of concern came when Gasly re-joined on full wet compounds and just as the red flags were waved, appeared to pass at full-speed a flatbed recovery tractor on track through turn 12, making the Frenchman furious.

 

The investigation is currently being looked at by the stewards, with Gasly heading to the office.

 

The contention sits with Gasly’s speed while chasing the pack, which the FIA stated that was “up to 250kph.” The recovery tractor was on circuit at that spot for the entire field.

 

There was a lot of backlash from current and former Formula 1 drivers on social media.

 

The suspension lasted for 42 minutes before a local 1450 local start time for the restart was planned, which was meant to be a rolling start behind the safety car as the full wet tyre was mandated by the FIA.

 

However, two minutes before the restart, the race restart procedure was suspended again by race control and over the next 80 minutes, the rain got heavier and continued to tumble.

 

In that time, the medical car was sent out occasionally for sighting laps, but conditions did not improve until two hours had passed after the first red flag.

 

But the Grand Prix finally scheduled to begin at 1615 local time with the cars as before, on the blue-marked full wet compounds for a rolling start with 48 minutes remaining on the clock.

 

As the drivers held mixed opinions on visibility and circuit conditions, the safety car lead an out-lap, full and in-lap, before returning to the pits to leave Verstappen clear of Leclerc.

 

Vettel and Williams Racing’s Nicholas Latifi jumped into the pits to switch onto the intermediates, but the former was released side-by-side to the Canadian, before McLaren’s Lando Norris and Alfa Romeo’s Valtteri Bottas and stopped a tour later.

 

With those runners setting quickest sectors, Verstappen lead Leclerc into the pits, but the latter lost one second to a sticky right-rear as Perez and Mercedes’ George Russell were held up by double-stacks.

 

This left Alonso in the lead over McLaren’s Daniel Ricciardo and Haas F1 Team’s Mick Schumacher, but only the latter, anticipating a safety car intervention, opting not to pit for intermediates next time round.

 

Verstappen flew by Schumacher on the inside, but Leclerc lost 1.6 seconds trying to relegate the German to leave him 4.6 seconds adrift of Verstappen on the ninth tour with 31 minutes remaining.

 

Schumacher remained a sitting duck, lost out to Perez, Alpine’s Esteban Ocon and Mercedes Sir Lewis Hamilton over the next lap before finally stopping on the 12^th tour having already fallen to 13^th place.

 

Verstappen continued his charge, extending his gap at over 1.5 seconds a lap, as Leclerc, seemed to struggle as Perez continued to circulate a second faster than the Ferrari in-front.

 

With eight minutes left, Verstappen held an 18-second lead as Perez was 0.8 seconds behind Leclerc, but despite a couple of chances, could not get passed.

 

Perez’s best opportunity came when Leclerc missed the first sequence of the chicane only for the Ferrari driver to re-join and squeeze Perez to the edge of the circuit on the rundown to the chequered flag.

 

This order prevented Verstappen from stopping one last time for a fresh set of inters for an attempt of the fastest tour, as the Verstappen took the Japanese GP victory and clinched his second world title by a whopping 26.876 seconds over Leclerc.

 

It looked to be, without the extra point, Verstappen appeared to miss out on his crown until the United States Grand Prix next up, only for Leclerc to be slapped with a five-second time penalty to drop behind Perez.

 

Verstappen only learned of his achievement in the post-race interview.

 

Behind the top three finishers, overtaking was a premium following the rush for intermediate rubber, which had previously mixed the order.

 

Ocon defended bravely against a fast-charging Mercedes of Hamilton to hold fourth.

 

Vettel placed sixth, having gained a position after Alonso made a late stop for intermediates to drop to tenth before climbing back up the field, as behind the Spaniard was Russell.

 

The Mercedes driver was one of the few movers, but swiftly passed AlphaTauri’s Yuki Tsunoda, Norris and Latifi for eighth place.

 

Latifi’s early stop for inters gave the Canadian a return to the points in ninth as Norris rounded out the top ten over McLaren team-mate Ricciardo.

 

The aforementioned Stroll and Tsunoda were 12^th and 13^th respectively as Haas F1 Team’s Kevin Magnussen took 14^th in the classification.

 

Alfa Romeo pairing Bottas and Zhou came 15^th and 16^th respectively with AlphaTauri’s Gasly and Haas F1 Team’s Schumacher bringing up the rear.

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2022 United States GP Preview – The Situation

 

 

Defending US GP winner Max Verstappen returns to Texas with his second World Driver’s Championship wrapped up with 366 points and a 113-point advantage over Red Bull team-mate Sergio Perez who is second on 253 points whilst Charles Leclerc is third and a further 114 behind the Dutchman on 252 points.

 

Oracle Red Bull Racing returns to the Circuit of the Americas on top of the World Constructors Championship standings with 619 points with a 165-point gap over nearest rivals Scuderia Ferrari who are second on 454 points while Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula One Team are a further 232 behind the Milton Keynes based-outfit in third on 387 points.

 

Red Bull can secure their fifth World Constructor’s Championship, and first since the 2013 campaign if Ferrari fail to outscore them by 19 points.

 

Four drivers will make their debuts in opening practice on Friday with Logan Sargeant taking the place of Nicholas Latifi for Williams in the FW44, Robert Shwartzman pilots Carlos Sainz’s Ferrari F1-75 racer, Theo Pourchaire taking the place of Valtteri Bottas in the Alfa Romeo C42 and Alex Palou in the Mercedes-powered MCL36 McLaren of Daniel Ricciardo. Meanwhile, Antonio Giovinazzi is due to drive the Haas VF-22 in place of Kevin Magnussen in the same session.

 

Click here for the 2022 Formula 1 World Driver’s (Top 10) and Constructors Championship Standings

 

The Formula 1 Aramco United States Grand Prix 2022 weekend begins Friday October 21 with Free Practice 1 and 2, followed by Free Practice 3 and Qualifying Saturday October 22 along with the 56 lap Race Sunday October 23.