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Formula 1 2019 United States Grand Prix Race Start, Circuit of the Americas, Austin, Texas. Image credit to F1. United States GP Preview.
United States GP Preview – After Valtteri Bottas triumphed at a damp Istanbul and Max Verstappen re-captured the Driver’s Championship lead by six-points over title-rival Lewis Hamilton round 17 of the 2021 FIA Formula 1 World Championship returns to the Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas for the Formula 1 Aramco United States Grand Prix 2021. This marks the 42nd 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.
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.
United States GP Preview – Onboard lap of Circuit of the Americas
Here is the onboard pole lap of the Circuit of the Americas set at the 2019 United States Grand Prix by Valtteri Bottas in his Mercedes AMG Petronas Motorsport F1 W10 EQ Power+, with the Briton posting a blistering 1:32.029. You can watch the video right here at the link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3lgkZpNEYUY.
United States GP Preview – The Last Five United States Grand Prix Winners
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. 2015: Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes AMG F1.
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.
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.
United States GP Preview – Pitlane Speed Limits
Pitlane speed limits will be 80km/h during practice, qualifying and the race.
ICYMI: Bottas claims his first victory of season in damp Turkish GP
Mercedes’ Valtteri Bottas clinched a dominant victory in a damp Turkish GP ahead of Red Bull duo Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez who completed the top three whilst Lewis Hamilton finished fifth.
Verstappen is now six points ahead of championship-rival Hamilton as the battle for this year’s World Driver’s Championship intensifies.
When the 58 lap Turkish GP began, when all drivers were fitted with the green side-walled intermediate rubber, the top three scrambled off the line in the same order as they lined-up, with pole-sitter Bottas comfortably leading Verstappen into the first corner.
Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc made the best start of the three but remained third after getting close on the outside of Verstappen before dropping back as they reached the left-hander.
Despite the slippery conditions, the only opening lap incidents were AlphaTauri’s Pierre Gasly tapping Alpine’s Fernando Alonso as the Spaniard attempted to sweep around the outside of turn one, which spun him down to the rear of the pack – where he was involved in a tangle that lead Haas F1 Team’s Mick Schumacher to spin at turn four on the second tour – and Williams Racing’s Nicholas Latifi suffering a spin by himself at turn nine.
Bottas lead by 1.3 seconds at the end of the first lap and the gap did not grow much beyond that over the next stage of proceedings – despite Verstappen looking for wet patches to cool his intermediates and reported a dashboard error message he was spotting when shifting gears.
By the tenth tour, Bottas lead reached 2.4 seconds – having grown suddenly on the previous two laps – at which point Hamilton was up into seventh place after passing Aston Martin’s Sebastian Vettel at the final sequence of corners on the opening lap and slipping past AlphaTauri’s Yuki Tsunoda and the other Aston Martin entry of Lance Stroll in consecutive laps of eight and nine, after Tsunoda kept the world champion at bay in the early stages of the Grand Prix.
Hamilton then got by McLaren’s Lando Norris to move into sixth place at turn nine, as Bottas continued to increase his lead over Verstappen – the two Mercedes entries at this phase the only cars lapping in the 1:33’s and Leclerc dropping back from Verstappen by a few seconds.
But as proceedings reached the 20th lap, with Hamilton up into fifth place after easily passing Gasly ahead of the turn 12 braking point at the end of the back straight on the 14th tour, Verstappen picked up his pace and began to reel in Bottas as the focus became on how long the inters would hold on.
Bottas also picked up his speed as the leaders went into the low 1:33’s bracket, with the Finn initially holding his lead to over three seconds until he lost half a second sliding his F1 W12 EQ Performance racer out of the opening corner on lap 20.
But from there Verstappen could not close into the Mercedes driver, with all the leaders looking for wet patches to cool their intermediate compounds as they wore down – Hamilton in fifth place initially cutting into Perez’s gap ahead before the Mexican improved his pace and kept clear in fourth, but well behind Leclerc, who continued to keep the leaders in sight.
McLaren pitted Daniel Ricciardo on the 22nd tour for a fresh set of inters from the rear of the pack, but the Australian could not go any faster and was slower than the leaders, who began considering if a one-stop strategy could be practicable as the midway point of proceedings approached.
Bottas began pulling away from Verstappen once more – his gap increasing to four seconds on the 30th lap – whilst Hamilton, who at one point had to back out of lapping Haas F1 Team’s Nikita Mazepin when coming close to the Russian at the turn 11 kink in the middle of the back straight, finally reaching the rear of Perez’s Red Bull, the pairing almost 20 seconds off the lead.
They engaged in a thrilling fight at the end of the 34th lap into the 35th tour, Hamilton attacking to the outside of the Red Bull at turn 12 and remained alongside all the way into the last corner, Perez at one stage forced into cutting behind the pit-entry bollard by the Mercedes at the penultimate turn.
The fight continued into the opening corner, where Perez held onto the inside line and remained in fourth place, with the battle then succeeded by the leaders putting.
Red Bull brought Verstappen in for a fresh set of inters on the 36th tour, with Bottas following suit a tour later and easily kept the lead, whilst Perez came in the same back and emerged behind Hamilton.
The world champion and Leclerc holding P1, remained out – Hamilton arguing against Mercedes call to pit him on lap 42.
Bottas over seven seconds in-front of Verstappen, who reported a steering wheel “left-hand down” problem as the last quarter of the Grand Prix approached, at first steadily closed in on Leclerc on his fresh intermediates.
He gained large amounts of time as the final laps drew near and reclaimed the lead with a major grip advantage on the wet line down the inside line into the opening corner on the 47th lap, at the end of which Leclerc finally stopped.
From there, Bottas went on to claim the Turkish GP victory, his first in 2021 by 14.584 seconds – posting the fastest lap of a 1:30.432 on the last lap – whilst Perez took the final podium place after passing Leclerc on lap 51.
Ferrari was hoping that Leclerc, on fresh inters, would close back up on the leading duo, but the Monegasque-youngster hit the bad graining phase all the drivers were experiencing a few laps in on the green-branded rubber after pitting, which meant Perez could easily take the position with a run around the outside of turn 12.
The tour before Perez overtook Leclerc, Hamilton finally made his pit-stop, with Mercedes feeling it had to abort it’s no-stop strategy because of Gasly in sixth place – already on a second set of intermediates.
Hamilton at first got close to Leclerc on his fresh inters, but then dropped back rapidly as he hit the graining phase, to which he was angry with Mercedes’ decision to pit him in a series of messages over the team radio.
Hamilton was able to hold Gasly off at the line, with the latter serving a five-second penalty at his pit-stop for his opening lap incident with Alonso, who did also for his tangle with Schumacher.
Norris came home in seventh, closely behind Gasly, with Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz eighth after climbing fast up the field from the rear with a series of solid overtakes – the Spaniard also had to recover from a slow pit-stop.
In that recovery drive, Sainz passed Stroll, who ended the race in ninth, and Alpine’s Esteban Ocon, who was the sole driver to complete the entire Grand Prix on one set of tyres, completed the top ten.
Alfa Romeo Racing pairing Antonio Giovinazzi and Kimi Raikkonen finished in 11th and 12th respectively and ahead of McLaren’s Daniel Ricciardo who was 13th.
AlphaTauri’s Tsunoda was 14th and in-front of Williams Racing’s George Russell who came 15th and the aforementioned Alonso in 16th.
The other Williams of Latifi ended the Grand Prix in 17th and in-front of Aston Martin’s Vettel with the latter the only driver to attempt a stint on the slicks, putting on the mediums with 22 laps remaining, but he came back in after a single lap, where the four-time world champion was struggling massively and twice went off the track, to switch back to the inters.
The Haas duo of Schumacher and Mazepin brought up the rear.
United States GP Preview – The Situation
Max Verstappen returns to Texas sitting on top of the World Driver’s Championship with 262.5 points and a six-point advantage over Lewis Hamilton who is second on 256.5 points whilst Valtteri Bottas is third and a further 85.5 behind the Dutchman on 177 points.
Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula One Team returns to Circuit of the Americas on top of the Constructors Championship standings with 433.5 points with a 36-point gap over nearest rivals Red Bull Racing who are second on 397.5 points while McLaren Racing are a further 193.5 behind the Silver Arrows in third on 240 points.
Click here for the 2021 Formula 1 World Driver’s (Top 10) and Constructors Championship Standings
2022 FIA Formula One World Championship Calendar Revealed
On Friday, Formula 1 revealed the calendar for the 2022 World Championship season, with a record-breaking 23 Grands Prix being approved by the FIA’s World Motor Sport Council.
The season begins March 20 with the Formula 1 Gulf Air Bahrain Grand Prix 2022 and finishes at the Yas Marina Circuit in Abu Dhabi November 20, one month before Christmas – with Miami hosting the first of two Grands Prix in the United States.
Due to the ongoing coronavirus plague, China is not included in the 2022 schedule and the country will be restored as soon as the conditions allow it to.
Formula One’s statement read: “The 2022 season follows an unprecedented two years for Formula 1 in which the COVID-19 pandemic resulted in revised calendar of 17 races in 2020 and 22 races in 2021 – a huge achievement given the international nature of the sport,”
“It has been fantastic to welcome fans back to events this year, and we will continue to ensure this is done safely and in line with national guidelines,”
“The pandemic has continued to present challenges to the 2021 season, but the entire sport has shown its ability to react and adapt to the challenges as they have arisen,”
“While we hope the virus recedes further in the coming months for everyone around the world, we will continue to closely monitor the situation and work closely with the promoters and national authorities.”
Provisional 2022 FIA Formula 1 World Championship calendar
| Date | Grand Prix | Venue |
| 20 March | Bahrain | Sakhir |
| 27 March | Saudi Arabia | Jeddah |
| 10 April | Australia | Melbourne |
| 24 April | Emilia Romagna | Imola* |
| 8 May | Miami | Miami** |
| 22 May | Spain | Barcelona* |
| 29 May | Monaco | Monaco |
| 12 June | Azerbaijan | Baku |
| 19 June | Canada | Montreal |
| 3 July | United Kingdom | Silverstone |
| 10 July | Austria | Spielberg |
| 24 July | France | Le Castellet |
| 31 July | Hungary | Budapest |
| 28 August | Belgium | Spa |
| 4 September | Netherlands | Zandvoort |
| 11 September | Italy | Monza |
| 25 September | Russia | Sochi |
| 2 October | Singapore | Singapore* |
| 9 October | Japan | Suzuka |
| 23 October | USA | Austin* |
| 30 October | Mexico | Mexico City |
| 13 November | Brazil | Sao Paulo |
| 20 November | Abu Dhabi | Abu Dhabi |
*subject to contract
**subject to FIA circuit homologation
President and CEO of Formula One Stefano Domenicali explained:
“We are excited to announce the 2022 calendar as we prepare to enter a new era for the sport with brand new regulations and cars for next year that are designed to create closer racing,”
“This season has been incredible so far with great battles on the track, large audiences tuning in and fans returning to the races after the impact of the pandemic. We look forward to welcoming more fans back next season and hope 2022 feels more normal than the life we have all experienced in the past two years,”
“We are very pleased with the interest in Formula 1 from places that want to host races and the growth of the sport and believe we have a fantastic calendar for 2022 with destinations like Miami joining famous and historic venues. The pandemic is still with us, and we will therefore continue to be vigilant and safe – to protect all our personnel and the communities we visit.” Domenicali concluded. Credit to F1 for the quote.
The Formula 1 Aramco United States Grand Prix weekend begins Friday October 22 with Free Practice 1 and 2, followed by Free Practice 3 and Qualifying Saturday October 23 along with the 56 lap Race Sunday October 24.
