Circuit of The Americas plays home to a Sprint weekend and a massive crowd as Formula 1 returns to Austin. A drivers’ favorite track, it’s a 20-turn, undulating challenge that features high-speed changes of direction, technical sections and some big stops.
While Oliver Bearman has yet to race at the home of the United States Grand Prix, it was a bit too good an opportunity to pass up the chance for this week’s track guide to actually feature a hot lap of COTA with a current driver for the Haas team.
AT A GLANCE
Race distance: 56 laps/191.4 miles
2024 pole time: 1m32.330s (Lando Norris, McLaren-Mercedes)
2024 winner: Charles Leclerc, Ferrari
Pirelli tire allotment: The United States Grand Prix will be the second race of the season for which Pirelli is bringing three non-consecutive compounds, the last time being Spa-Francorchamps and the available tires will once again be the C1 as Hard, the C3 as Medium and the C4 as Soft. In Belgium, bad weather meant it was not possible to find out how this choice might have affected strategy and so the event at COTA could be the first real test of this choice, which sees the use of a harder Hard than last year at the American track, while the Medium and Soft are the same.
The increased performance difference between the hardest compound and the middle one should, theoretically, give rise to two scenarios. If drivers prefer the C1, the slowest but also the most consistent of the three, then they could run a one-stop race combining it with the C3. On the other hand, using the latter along with the C4, with its improved resistance to degradation, would produce quicker lap times but would almost certainly require two stops.
Another similarity with the Belgian round is that the Austin weekend is also running to the Sprint format, which means teams only have one hour to try the various options over long and short runs, adding to the uncertainty as to how the grand prix might pan out.
MSC CRUISES UNITED STATES GRAND PRIX WEEKEND SCHEDULE (all times ET):
Friday, October 17
1:25pm – 2:30pm – Practice, ESPN2
5:25pm – 6:30pm – Sprint qualifying, ESPN2
Saturday, October 18
12:55pm – 2:00pm – Sprint, ESPNews
4:55pm – 6:00pm – GP qualifying, ESPNews
Sunday, October 19
3:00pm – 5:00pm – United States Grand Prix (56 laps or 120 minutes), ABC
