As F1 returns to Austin, Circuit of the Americas will be home to sprint weekends and big crowds. The driver’s favorite track is a undulating 20-turn challenge with some fast changes of direction, technical sections and big stops.
Oliver Bearman has yet to race at his home turf at the US Grand Prix, but it would have been a bit of a shame to miss out on the opportunity to feature some hot COTA laps from the Haas team’s current drivers in this week’s Track Guide.
At a glance
Race distance: 56 laps/191.4 miles
2024 pole time: 1 minute 32.330 seconds (Lando Norris, McLaren Mercedes)
2024 winner: Charles Leclerc, Ferrari
Pirelli tire assignment: The American Grand Prix will be the second race of the season in which Pirelli will introduce three non-consecutive compounds. Last time it was at Spa-Francorchamps, the available tires are once again the hard C1, medium C3 and soft C4. Due to bad weather in Belgium, it was not possible to see how this choice affected strategy. So the event at COTA could be the first real test of this option. The American track will have the same medium and soft tracks, but will use harder hard tracks than last year.
In theory, the increasing performance difference between the stiffest and intermediate compounds should result in two scenarios. If the driver prefers the C1, which is the slowest but most stable of the three, it can also be combined with the C3 for one-stop racing. On the other hand, if the latter is used in conjunction with the C4, which is more resistant to degradation, lap times will be faster, but will almost certainly require two stops.
Another similarity to the Belgian round is that the Austin weekend will also be run in a sprint format. This means teams will only have an hour to try out different options for long and short runs, adding to the uncertainty as to how the Grand Prix will turn out.
MSC Cruises U.S. Grand Prix Weekend Schedule (all Eastern Time):
Friday, October 17th
1:25pm – 2:30pm – Practice, ESPN2
5:25pm – 6:30pm – Sprint Qualifying, ESPN2
Saturday, October 18th
12:55pm – 2:00pm – Sprint, ESP News
4:55pm – 6pm – GP Qualifying, ESP News
Sunday October 19th
3pm – 5pm – American Grand Prix (56 laps or 120 minutes), ABC
