AUSTIN 2016

[J.Clark]

I know it is still basically two weeks out, but I have time today and may not have time later to do this.

This is a race near and dear to my heart since it is in my country.  I may have some bias around this race as well, but I will try my best to be objective.  Frankly, it is one of the few Tilke circuits that I like.  It was interesting to watch the construction progress.

This will be the fifth time the US Grand Prix has been held in Austin.  I went to the first four, but will not go this year.  Austin is a great place for it, and the fan zone downtown is fantastic.  There is a lot of great food to be found in and around Austin as well, and if you are going, I highly recommend what is likely the best BBQ place I have ever been too - Salt Lick BBQ - which is a little south in the little town of Buda.  Google it.  If you go to breakfast at a place that has the moring paper, there is a huge section devoted to the F1 weekend in Thursday's paper, perhaps Friday's that has enclosed, a copy of a booklet similar to what you will pay $20 for at the track.

The circuit itself was fairly well thought out regarding the features.  There is 133' hill to climb heading to turn 1, which falls away from the driver, providing a difficult line.  From there it is down hill through the next few turns, which are similar to the esses at Silverstone, then a climb through turns 7, 8 & 9, cresting in the apex of 10.  A short down hill run to the hairpin at 11 (where some overtaking is often tried, especially in the support races).  Exiting toward turn 12, one of the longest straights on the calendar, with probably the highest speed ends with a sharp left, followed by a fairly challenging complex that doesn't end until turn 19, where several get the exit wrong and run off line.  Turn 20 puts one back on the start/finish straight.  There are two DRS zones in the obvious locations.

There are not really any "bad" seats for the general public.  Even the general admission tickets provide a lot of really good vantage points from which to watch the action.  Turn 1 grandstands are good, because of the run up the hill, but also because a good bit of other parts of the circuit are visible.  My favorite though was the two years at turn 15 - able to see long straight and watch all the way through turn 16.

The lap record of 1:39.347 was set by Vettel in 2012.
Previous winners are: Hamilton (3) and Vettel once.

I have included a photo from my trip in 2014 taken on my birthday.

This link is for the first race.


More to follow at another time.

[F1fanaticBD]

Great intro J.Clark, thanks for giving a first hand experience of the Austin track, also sharing a wonderful photo 

[J.Clark]

Here is a view from the tower.
That year, security wasn't terribly good.
We walked right into the infield - no one checked our credentials.  Last year they were checking very closely. 

We didn't have the special pass for the pitlane walk on Thursday that year, but since we were in the infield, we were entering the pitlane from a direction that nobody was looking at the passes.  I got up close to the Ferrari engineers, pit wall station.

[cosworth151]

It looks like good weather for the week-end. I just saw on the FP1 broadcast that this is Grosjean's 100 F1 race.

[J.Clark]

FP 1 results:
1.  Hamilton      Mercedes   1m 37.428
2.  Rosberg      Mercedes   1m 37.743
3.  Verstappen     Red Bull   1m 39.379
4.  Raikkonen      Ferrari   1m 39.407
5.  Hulkenberg      Force India   1m 39.712
6.  Bottas      Williams   1m 39.776
7.  Ricciardo      Red Bull   1m 39.963
8.  Vettel      Ferrari   1m 39.988
9.  Kvyat      Toro Rosso   1m 40.131
10. Sainz       Toro Rosso   1m 40.140
11. Massa      Williams   1m 40.191
12. Nasr      Sauber   1m 40.287
13. Alonso      McLaren   1m 40.362
14. Grosjean      Haas    1m 40.826
15. Gutierrez      Haas    1m 40.970
16. Ericsson      Sauber   1m 41.170
17. Celis      Force India   1m 41.422
18. Button      McLaren  1m 41.663
19. Magnussen      Renault   1m 41.942
20. King      Manor   1m 42.021
21. Palmer   Renault   1m 42.332
22. Ocon      Manor   1m 43.874

[J.Clark]

FP 2:
1.  Rosberg      Mercedes   1m 37.358
2.  Ricciardo      Red Bull   1m 37.552
3.  Hamilton      Mercedes   1m 37.649
4.  Vettel      Ferrari   1m 38.178
5.  Verstappen    Red Bull   1m 38.258
6.  Hulkenberg      Force India   1m 38.508
7.  Perez      Force India   1m 38.568
8.  Button      McLaren   1m 38.713
9.  Alonso      McLaren   1m 38.801
10. Raikkonen      Ferrari   1m 38.865
11. Sainz       Toro Rosso   1m 38.971
12. Magnussen      Renault   1m 39.159
13. Nasr      Sauber   1m 39.189
14. Bottas      Williams   1m 39.197
15. Kvyat      Toro Rosso   1m 39.202
16. Massa      Williams   1m 39.281
17. Palmer      Renault   1m 39.455
18. Grosjean      Haas    1m 39.554
19. Ocon      Manor   1m 40.086
20. Gutierrez      Haas    1m 40.114
21. Ericsson      Sauber   1m 40.219
22. Wehrlein      Manor   1m 41.131

Some surprising results in the mix.
Go fast is up next.

[Irisado]

For the first time since I started watching Formula 1, I am not planning to watch the race.  Channel 4 is showing the highlights stupidly late and the adverts in their highlights package really irritate me.  I'll resort to Radio 5's live broadcast instead.  I doubt that anything really exciting is going to happen.

Practice so far has suggested that Red Bull could challenge Mercedes a little bit, but in reality I doubt that this will happen come qualifying.  Mercedes have performance in hand in my opinion.  No other surprises, and I'm not expecting any in the race either.

[J.Clark]

You could be correct; however, it may be a more serious challenge than many would think.  Qualifying is just around the corner, but here is the time-sheet from Saturday Free Practice.

1.  Verstappen     Red Bull   1m 36.766
2.  Ricciardo      Red Bull   1m 37.032
3.  Raikkonen      Ferrari   1m 37.284
4.  Hamilton      Mercedes   1m 37.483
5.  Rosberg      Mercedes   1m 37.784
6.  Vettel      Ferrari   1m 37.894
7.  Hulkenberg      Force India   1m 37.948
8.  Bottas      Williams   1m 38.188
9.  Button      McLaren   1m 38.212
10. Alonso      McLaren  1m 38.452
11. Perez      Force India   1m 38.512
12. Palmer   Renault   1m 38.528
13. Massa      Williams   1m 38.607
14. Kvyat      Toro Rosso   1m 38.691
15. Sainz       Toro Rosso   1m 38.710
16. Gutierrez  Haas   1m 38.939
17. Grosjean  Haas   1m 39.097
18. Magnussen      Renault   1m 39.105
19. Ericsson   Sauber   1m 39.239
20. Nasr      Sauber   1m 39.509
21. Ocon      MRT   1m 39.771
22. Wehrlein    MRT   1m 41.427

[Scott]

I like the race in Austin.  I too am sorry that Ch4 is only showing highlights (Dam Sky!), but I'll watch it live on Swiss TV.  Looking forward to it.

[J.Clark]

The grid is set - fairly like what I would have thought, but it just wasn't certain earlier today.

1.  Hamilton      Mercedes   1:34.999
2.  Rosberg      Mercedes   1:35.215
3.  Ricciardo      Red Bull   1:35.509
4.  Verstappen     Red Bull   1:35.747
5.  Raikkonen      Ferrari   1:36.131
6.  Vettel      Ferrari   1:36.358
7.  Hulkenberg      Force India   1:36.628
8.  Bottas      Williams   1:37.116
9.  Massa      Williams   1:37.269
10. Sainz       Toro Rosso   1:37.326

11. Perez      Force India   1:37.353
12. Alonso      McLaren   1:37.417
13. Kvyat      Toro Rosso   1:37.480
14. Gutierrez     Haas   1:37.773
15. Palmer      Renault   1:37.935
16. Ericsson      Sauber   1:39.356
17. Grosjean    Haas   1:38.308
18. Magnussen      Renault   1:38.317
19. Button      McLaren   1:38.327
20. Wehrlein    MRT   1:38.548
21. Nasr      Sauber   1:38.583
22. Ocon      MRT   1:38.806

[J.Clark]

Race results:
1. Lewis Hamilton      Mercedes-Mercedes   5 1hr 38m 12.618
2. Nico Rosberg      Mercedes-Mercedes   +4.5
3. Daniel Ricciardo      Red Bull-TAG Heuer   +19.6
4. Sebastian Vettel      Ferrari-Ferrari   +43.1
5. Fernando Alonso      McLaren-Honda   +92.5
6. Carlos Sainz Jr      Toro Rosso-Ferrari   +93.4
7. Felipe Massa      Williams-Mercedes   +1 lap
8. Sergio Perez      Force India-Mercedes   +1 lap
9. Jenson Button      McLaren-Honda   +1 lap
10. Romain Grosjean  Haas-Ferrari   +1 lap

11. Kevin Magnussen   Renault-Renault   +1 lap
12. Daniil Kvyat      Toro Rosso-Ferrari   +1 lap
13. Jolyon Palmer      Renault-Renault   +1 lap
14. Marcus Ericsson      Sauber-Ferrari   +1 lap
15. Felipe Nasr      Sauber-Ferrari   +1 lap
16. Valtteri Bottas      Williams-Mercedes   +1 lap
17. Pascal Wehrlein       MRT-Mercedes   +1 lap
18. Esteban Ocon      MRT-Mercedes   +2 laps

Not Classified

Rtd. Kimi Raikkonen      Ferrari-Ferrari   
Rtd. Max Verstappen           Red Bull-TAG Heuer   
Rtd. Esteban Gutierrez      Haas-Ferrari   
Rtd. Nico Hulkenberg      Force India-Mercedes   

Fastest lap

Vettel   GER   Ferrari-Ferrari   1m 39.877

Great drive from Lewis, following his best start in many races.
Nico said he was pushing all of the way -  - with only needing to come second in the remaining races I believe.

Ricciardo did well.
Sad for Max who was having a heck of race for 4th.

Vettel and Ferrari ran well.
Kimi was the unlucky of the pair this race.

Massa ended up technically a lap down, but had driven a superb race and have finished on the lead lap had it not been for a puncture on the penultimate lap, requiring a pit stop.

Alonso did well, as did Button with both McLarens finishing in the points.  Fred's charge into Massa in turn 15 will be investigated, but even if he is given a time penalty it won't change anything since Massa having had to pit put him about 30 seconds back.

Grosjean did well for Haas in the team's first "home" grand prix, finishing in the points, even if it was due to both Ferrari and Red Bull losing a car.

[Scott]

Race of blunders.

Max was doing well until his brain turned off and he came in for a pit stop without bothering to tell anyone of his plans.  Earlier than that he was trying to show those listening on the radio how clever he is by telling his engineer that he "isn't racing to finish 4th", after his engineer told him to protect his equipment and make it through the stint, only to have the boys on Sky snickering about whether he is really racing for 6th or 7th place (or last as it turned out).  I haven't read anything yet post race, but I wonder if him having to edge the car into the pits while riding the clutch after they pushed the air lines out of the way might have damaged his transmission.  I doubt they will have much truth on the way the team spins it, but we'll see.  The whole debacle with Max trying to get back to the pits and then parking it in gear caused Ricciardo to lose a place and spoil his race as well.  Thanks Verstappen.

Ferrari also blundered.  Had they run Kimi on two stops, the third keystone cops caper wouldn't have happened and he could well have finished on the podium.  Will someone please fire the strategy guy at Ferrari?

During the race I called foul on Alonso for his bump with Massa.  On reflection and replay, I see he was beside Massa and it was up to Massa to take evasive action if they weren't pointing in the same direction. 

Glad Ricciardo cheered up for the podium.  No reports on whether the defect in MV's car had anything to do with his stop or not that I've seen.  I just hope Kimi doesn't get a grid penalty for Mexico because they didn't get his wheel on properly.  He avoided any dangerous situation by stopping on pit out and carefully backing back in and parking it on the pit apron.  Should be no foul.   

[cosworth151]

I thought it was amazingly fair of Max. He's ruined at least one race for every other top driver. Now he's ruined one of his own.

As I said in the Chat Room, the big loser from Max's blunder was Lewis. It moved Nico up to 2nd, giving him 3 more points.

[John S]

Quite enjoyed the race, but then COTA is a good track and always delivers some excitement.

Lewis did what he needed but again the other top teams found ways of helping Mr Cautious (Rosberg) - note his after you mode into and out of turn 1 at the start - get back into 2nd place.

Liked some of the jostling at the start from guys who out to know better, but can't see why they are leaving Massa in the car til seasons end - he's obviously already in retirement.

When Max did his phantom pit stop I thought my luck was in for the GG, I had him down for 6th place - then he stopped altogether.
Oh and then that dreaded Virtual safety car meant I get no points for SC and it allowed Mr Cautious to get into 2nd further dropping my GG score.

Well at least Nando livened up the end of the race even though his move on Sainz was done by leaving the track which to me seemed the same as Magnusson on Kvyat. There was a 5sec penalty in the latter though.     Seems some names are too big or Media friendly to penalise; it took long enough to stop Freaky Max's last minute moves in braking zone. 

 

[Monty]

As I said in the Chat Room, the big loser from Max's blunder was Lewis. It moved Nico up to 2nd, giving him 3 more points.

I was really hoping that something would reduce the points deficit between Rosberg and Hamilton (simply because it would be more exciting if they were on almost equal points and both needed to win). So I was gutted when the hapless Verstappen managed to miss all the safe parking spots and left it on the outside of a corner stuck in gear!