In Pictures: USA 2023
Formula 1 headed to the Americas for the American back-to-back trio of races, USA, Mexico, and Brazil. The race at Circuit of the Americas, home of the United States Grand Prix, is a significant fixture on the Formula 1 calendar and attracts a diverse and passionate audience from both the United States and around the globe.
THE AREA
AUSTIN
The Circuit of the Americas sits on the outskirts of an amazing city, Austin, the capital city of Texas. It was incorporated on December 27, 1839, and it is the 10th most populous city in the United States, the 4th most populous city in Texas, also It has been one of the fastest growing large cities in the United States since 2010.
Austin's official slogan is “The Live Music Capital of the World”, as the city has a vibrant live music scene with more music venues per capita than any other U.S. city. Also “Keep Austin Weird" has been a local motto for years, featured on bumper stickers and T-shirts. This motto has not only been used in promoting Austin's eccentricity and diversity but is also meant to bolster support of local independent businesses.
Austin adopted "Silicon Hills" as a nickname in the 1990s due to a rapid and continuous influx of technology and development companies. Texas Instruments was set up in Austin in 1969, Motorola (now NXP Semiconductors) started semiconductor chip manufacturing in 1974. A number of Fortune 500 companies have headquarters or regional offices in Austin, including 3M, Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), Amazon, Apple, Facebook (Meta), Google, IBM, Intel, NXP Semiconductors, Oracle, Tesla, Texas Instruments, and Whole Foods Market. Dell's worldwide headquarters is located in the nearby suburb of Round Rock. Other high-tech companies with operations in Austin include Cirrus Logic, Cisco Systems, Dropbox, eBay, Electronic Arts, Hewlett-Packard, Hoover's, National Instruments, Nintendo, Nvidia, Oracle, PayPal, Polycom, Qualcomm, Samsung Group, Silicon Labs, VMware, Xerox, and Zoho Corporation.
Austin is perhaps best known for its Texas barbecue and Tex-Mex cuisine. Franklin Barbecue is perhaps Austin's most famous barbecue restaurant; the restaurant has sold out of brisket every day since its establishment.
THE CIRCUIT
The Circuit of the Americas (COTA) is a Grade 1 FIA-specification motor racing track and facilities located in Austin, Texas, and home of the United States Grand Prix, among several major races and non-race related events, as it has become an important concert venue.
HKS, Inc. and Tilke Engineers & Architects designed the track, and Austin-based architectural firm Miró Rivera Architects designed the Grand Plaza, Observation Structure, Tower Amphitheater, and Main Grandstand. The circuit homologation design was submitted to the FIA in Geneva for approval on December 17, 2010, and construction began on December 31, 2010.
The track was officially opened on October 21, with Mario Andretti running the ceremonial first laps in a Lotus 79, the car he drove when he became the last American to win the World Drivers' Championship in 1978.
A crowd of 117,429 spectators watched the United States Grand Prix in November 2012 after four years of Formula One not hosting a Grand Prix in the United States. In October 2022, the three-day Formula One United States Grand Prix event drew a record number of fans. Roughly 440,000 people attended the event, breaking Formula One's attendance record of 400,000 set at the 2021 United States Grand Prix for an event held in North America.
The track design was inspired by the European tradition of sculpting the circuit to the contours of the land. The design 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 Turn Eight. Other corners were loosely inspired by the Senna 'S' at Interlagos, turn 4 at the Buddh International Circuit, and Turns 9-10 at Bahrain, the latter two tracks also designed by Tilke. A feature of the circuit is a deliberate widening of corners, to encourage drivers to follow multiple racing lines. A similar feature was used at the Buddh International Circuit in India, where the circuit widens on the approach to certain corners.
It is one of the few circuits to run in a counter-clockwise direction, because of this, 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.
The 3.426-mile (5.514 km) circuit has 20 turns, 11 left, 9 right, and 133 feet (41 m). The run towards Turn 1 (Big Red), the highest point of the circuit, has a gradient of over 11%!
FRIDAY
Many teams brought updates to COTA, the largest ones were the ones for Mercedes and Haas.
FP1
The sixty-minute session started with teams looking for answers and data for the rest of the weekend since this was a Sprint weekend, it meant this was the only practice one.
As expected, all cars were on track for most of the practice session, in the end, it was Max Verstappen setting the fastest lap, followed by Charles Leclerc, Lewis Hamilton, Sergio Perez, and Kevin Magnussen the top five.
QUALIFYING
Friday qualifying. Sprint weekends really don’t give the drivers much of a chance to catch their breath out there, with the action coming thick and fast.
This was a standard qualifying session. As such Q1 lasts 18 minutes and sees the slowest five cars drop out. Q2 decides 11th to 15th on the grid and lasts a quarter of an hour, and then the top 10 drive out for pole in the 12-minute Q3 segment.
Q1
After only one hour of practice, the twenty drivers went out to try for the top spot on Sunday’s grid. And after the 18 minutes had gone, Nico Hulkenberg, Fernando Alonso, Alex Albon, Lance Stroll, and Logan Sargeant were eliminated. Lewis Hamilton was the fastest.
Q2
The second stage of qualifying started similarly to Q1 albeit with only fifteen drivers. Eliminated were Yuki Tsunoda, Zhou Guanyu, Valtteri Bottas, Kevin Magnussen, and Daniel Ricciardo.
Q3
The top ten headed for the top spot on the grid, and as the track continued to evolve, that top spot changed time and time again, but it was Charles Leclerc on provisional pole after the first round in Q3.
The drivers then returned to the track for their final laps of the day, and it was Leclerc who crossed the line first. He improved on his first attempt with his time of 1m 34.723s now the one to beat for the rest of his rivals. No one did, except Verstappen by 0.005 seconds! but his lap was deleted for exceeding track limits at turn 19.
In the end, Leclerc's final lap time was enough to get him his twenty-first pole in Formula 1. He will start from the coveted P1 grid slot on Sunday, with Lando Norris alongside. Hamilton and Sainz share the second row, ahead of Russell and Verstappen. Gasly was seventh, half a tenth clear of his teammate. Perez was ninth, and Piastri tenth.
““On Sprint weekends, it’s important to get it right, starting from FP1. We did a great job as a team to prepare the car so it felt good to drive from the very start as well as during all the phases of qualifying.
My lap in Q3 was good and I’m very happy, as I love racing on this track and the atmosphere in this city is amazing. Tomorrow, we start from scratch again, with the whole day given over to the Sprint, but for now, we can enjoy this pole position for Sunday.””
SATURDAY
Since this was a Sprint weekend, the first F1 round of the day was the important Sprint Shootout, a format similar to the Grand Prix Qualifying, which dictated the grid order for the 19-lap dash called Sprint later on.
SHOOTOUT
SQ1
As the lights turned green the drivers filed out onto the track one by one, all strapping on a set of the mandatory medium tire, and after the first set of times, it was Max Verstappen who set the pace, his lap of 1m 35.997s seeing him lead Leclerc by over three-tenths.
As the checkered flag was shown, the times began to tumble as the track evolved. Verstappen’s last lap was enough by 0.002 seconds to claim the top spot over Leclerc.
Knocked out were Hulkenberg, Magnussen, Bottas, Tsunoda, and Sargeant.
SQ2
Verstappen once again continued to be the standard for the rest of the field. His lap of 1:35.181 was the lead time ahead of Leclerc, Sainz, Norris, Perez, Piastri, Stroll, and Zhou. But by the second run, the final top order was Verstappen, Leclerc, Sainz, Norris, Perez, and Piastri.
Ricciardo, Alonso, Ocon, Stroll, and Zhou, were eliminated.
SQ3
On his one and only lap in SQ3, Verstappen set a time of 1:34.538 to get pole position, just 0.055 seconds faster than Charles Leclerc in second. Lewis Hamilton finished third.
““The last lap wasn’t great, but we are still on pole, so the car is working well, today should be great, so many teams quite close. Normally in the race we are quite okay, but this track is quite demanding. Tire management is quite key around here. It’s going to be tough.””
SPRINT
Max Verstappen converted pole position into a dominant Sprint victory in Austin as the Dutch driver took the checkered flag comfortably ahead of Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc.
Verstappen and Leclerc came close at the start as the former defended stoutly into Turn 1. But, once he did, he pulled away from his rivals to take his third Sprint victory of the season.
Hamilton overtook Leclerc on the exit of Turn 1 at the start, and while he stayed within DRS range of Verstappen early on, he had to settle for second, with Leclerc holding off Lando Norris at the end to take the final spot in the top three.
The drivers met a much cooler track for the Sprint than the one they had for the Shootout. The Medium compound tire was the most popular choice for the Sprint, used by the entire field bar one driver, Carlos Sainz, who took a gamble on the Soft.
The final order was Verstappen, Hamilton, Leclerc, Norris, Perez, Sainz, Gasly, and Russel, the top eight, and only points-paying positions.
SUNDAY
With so little practice, this race turned into a tactical chess game, with several strategy options available to the teams and drivers.
UNITED STATES GRAND PRIX
Green lights and off they went! What a start from Lando Norris, overtaking pole-sitter Leclerc at Turn1. Hamilton tried but the Monegasque held second place, Hamilton just tagged Sainz, who also had an amazing start, but both kept going.
The order after the first lap was Norris leading Leclerc, Sainz, Hamilton, and Verstappen. A little bit back, Piastri and Ocon touched, both cars with some damage, in any case, Piastri trying to catch Verstappen...
By Lap 4/56, Norris was leading Leclerc by 2.4 seconds. Sainz was just behind his teammate but had Hamilton all over the back of him. Alpine swapped Ocon and Gasly around, as Esteban started losing speed. Meanwhile, Hamilton got past Sainz at Turn 12, and now the Spaniard had Verstappen all over his back.
By Lap 6/56 Ocon was now last and retired the ailing Alpine before the next lap. The order by now was Norris, Hamilton. Leclerc, Verstappen, and Sainz the top 5. Oscar Piastri retired his McLaren on Lap 11.
On Lap 17 Max Verstappen was the first of the front runners to stop, getting a new set of medium tires, but it triggered stops for Norris, Sainz, and Perez. Order now was Hamilton, Leclerc, Russell.
On Lap 21/56, Hamilton pitted for new hard tires, but it was a slow 3.6-second stop, coming out fifth, 5.5 seconds behind Verstappen. Leclerc finally pitted on Lap 24, trying to finish the race with only one pit stop.
On Lap 28, Verstappen gets past Norris going into Turn 12 and now was leading the Grand Prix. Norris tried to keep with the Dutchman but had to give up as Verstappen was faster, and Hamilton was closing in on him at a very fast pace, with just 5.5 seconds separating the three of them.
On Lap 34, Verstappen informed the team of having braking issues. A lap later, Norris pitted from second place for his final stop, coming out in sixth place, behind Leclerc. Verstappen pitted a lap later, coming out in front of Norris. Sainz also pitted that same lap. Hamilton was now leading ahead of Perez and Leclerc.
On Lap 39, Hamilton pitted, and Verstappen overtook Leclerc for the lead of the race. By Lap 48, Hamilton was all over the back of Norris for P2, overtaking him the next lap, and even though he was more than five seconds behind Verstappen, he continued pushing hard.
On Lap 51, The team politely asked Leclerc to let Sainz by. Sainz was now fourth, Leclerc fifth, and a fast Perez sixth and within striking distance.
In the end, it was Max Verstappen crossing the finish line first, his 15th of the season and 50th in his F1 career. Hamilton finished just two seconds back, and Norris third, completing the podium.
Yuki Tsunoda finished P10 and got the fastest lap of the race and the point that goes with it, so two points for the Japanese driver, and his AlphaTauri team.
Several hours after the race, the FIA communicated that Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc had been disqualified from the 2023 United States Grand Prix for a technical infringement (plank wear irregularities).
That promoted Norris to P2 and Carlos Sainz to P3. Also, Logan Sargeant got his first point in F1 classified P10 after the disqualification of Hamilton and Leclerc, becoming the first American to score points in thirty years… The last one? Michael Andretti in 1993.
QUOTES FROM THE PODIUM
““It’s incredible to win my 50th Grand Prix here today. I feel very proud to achieve this! This was a tough race, I was struggling with the brakes, but it’s great that we were still able to win. Amazing job by everyone in the team””
““I think we have to congratulate [Red Bull], they have done an incredible job and been flawless all year. My team did a fantastic job to bring the upgrade here, come in fighting and really happy with this result.””
““Leading the race, I could control it a lot but I’m happy. We knew our struggles, it was just degradation. The pace over the first ten laps of every stint was strong, I just couldn’t hold on. It’s progress. I did the best I could, I’m still happy to finish on the podium here is better than we expected coming into this weekend.””
““Sweet & Sour. Happy for P3 but gutted for Charles and the team. We’ll go at it again in Mexico.””
