There may be three grands prix being held in the United States of America this weekend, yet only one of them holds the title of ‘United States Grand Prix’.
This weekend, the Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas hosts the second of three rounds in Formula 1’s thriving US market, after the Miami Grand Prix back in May and the upcoming inaugural race in Las Vegas in November.The 11th time that the 5.5km circuit has hosted the US Grand Prix and the 44th time that the race is being held – making it the tenth-most historic event in the sport’s history.
As the first of a triple header – and another sprint round – this weekend’s race will kick off an intense final run to the end of the season. Here are the talking points for the United States Grand Prix…
Ricciardo’s return
Just under two months since breaking a metacarpal in his left hand in an accident in practice at Zandvoort, Daniel Ricciardo is fighting fit and ready to battle for much-needed points for AlphaTauri over the final five rounds of the 2023 season.
Fittingly, Ricciardo’s return comes at a venue that has become a de facto home grand prix for him. While Texas is over 16,500km away from Ricciardo’s Western Australian home, his appreciation of Texan culture and barbeque have made him a cult hero in Austin. Ricciardo also demonstrated a 2011 RB7 around the streets of Nashville last weekend, a final test of sorts to confirm he was indeed ready to race again.
Ricciardo’s comeback also signals the end to Liam Lawson’s stint racing the AlphaTauri in his place. However, the 21-year-old will instead be competing for the Japanese Super Formula championship in Suzuka next weekend.
Successive sprints
Just as the Qatar Grand Prix last time out, this weekend will be another sprint round – the first time two sprints have ever been held back-to-back. This will put some of the lesser-experienced drivers, such as Oscar Piastri and Logan Sargeant, under increased pressure with only an hour of practice before they must qualify their cars and have their set-ups locked in for the rest of the weekend.
Sergeant at least has the benefit of a single hour of running here in a Formula 1 car after stepping into Nicholas Latifi’s car at last year’s events in Austin, but Piastri has never driven the Circuit of the Americas before. However, just an hour of practice seemed more than enough for Piastri to get up to speed at the Losail circuit last time out, as he not only took pole position for the sprint but won the race itself ahead of Max Verstappen.
Piastri will certainly make headline news if he’s able to emulate those feats again this weekend, however he will first have to make sure he can beat his more experienced team mate, Lando Norris, who will be eager to make up for a frustrating round of near misses in Qatar…
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Home help for Haas
Despite so much attention to the ongoing saga of whether or not Formula 1 will allow Andretti to join its grid in either 2025 or 2026, it’s important to remember that there is already an American-owned F1 team on the grid. Haas are not just arriving to Austin bearing the Stars and Stripes on their VF-23, but they have a significant upgrade for this weekend that the team have been highly anticipating for months.
As the team have scored just a single point in the last eight rounds since the Austrian Grand Prix, this new package comes at a very welcome time indeed. With five rounds still to go and the field remaining so tightly compact, this could be a pivotal moment in the crucial fight for positions towards the rear of the grid.
Haas will not be the only team to bring upgrades to Austin this weekend. Both Mercedes and AlphaTauri will also be fitting new revised floors to both of their cars in an effort to wring as much performance as they can from these final races.
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Track limits at the limit
As a venue just over a decade old, the Circuit of the Americas features many asphalt run off areas outside of many of its corners. Last year, there were 30 times deleted by race control during the grand prix here due to drivers running off the track at turns six, nine, 11, 12 and 19. While fewer than the 51 offences noted during the Qatar Grand Prix alone, it’s hard not to wonder if drivers will struggle to stay within the lines again over four competitive sessions across three days this weekend.
Lance Stroll and Sergio Perez were the biggest offenders at the Losail circuit. With both of the former team mates under the spotlight for a string of underwhelming performances, the pressure will be on both of them to not get any penalties or lose critical laps in either qualifying session due to invalidated lap times.
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Checking the pulse on F1’s popularity
Coming at the point when hype around the sport in the USA was arguably at its highest following the dramatic conclusion to the 2021 championship battle and the introduction of the Miami Grand Prix earlier that year, Austin showed that fans were more than eager to come to watch a race even while Verstappen was dominating the sport.
After another full year of domination by Verstappen where he arrives in Texas already confirmed as champion, it will be an interesting measure of how much of an impact the lack of competition at the front is actually having on the popularity of Formula 1 in one of the most important markets in the world.
Stroll scoreless since summer
Besides Logan Sargeant, the only driver who does not know if he will be on the grid or not in 2024, one driver in desperate need of a good weekend or even points is Lance Stroll.
Stroll has failed to score a single point since the field returned from the summer break at Zandvoort, while team mate Fernando Alonso has wracked up a modest 34 points as Aston Martin’s rivals continue to outperform them. With five rounds remaining, Aston Martin seem near-certain to lose fourth place in the constructors’ standings to McLaren by the end of the season – a drastic turn around from the start of the year.
Frustrations boiled over for Stroll in Qatar, when he appeared to shove his coach after his Q1 elimination on Friday, earning the attention of the FIA. Stroll has since apologised and been warned by the governing body for his conduct, but the best way he can avoid his anger getting the better of him again in Austin is by putting in a strong performance and help his team earn some much-needed points.
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Are you going to the United States Grand Prix?
If you’re heading to USA for this weekend’s race, we want to hear from you:
2023 United States Grand Prix
- US GP was Mercedes’ best race of 2023 despite disqualification – Wolff
- Singapore and Austin retirements cost me top 10 championship place – Ocon
- United States Grand Prix result unchanged as FIA rejects Haas’ call for review
- Sargeant admits he’s ‘struggled to use all the downforce at times’ in F1
- Mercedes’ Brazilian GP set-up was “conservative” after US GP disqualification
Facts&Stats
17th October 2023, 7:44
I’m in the ‘strict’ enforcement camp. The track is defined by the white lines, then you have to stay within these lines to have a valid lap.
It would be better though to automate the policing by immediately cut out some of the (electric) power when crossing the line. This way you mimic to effect of running onto grass/gravel with an immediate effect.
PacificPR (@streydt)
17th October 2023, 8:24
Well they definitely need to find a better solution for the matter. As long as they don’t have a proper solution I think it would be better to ignore the white lines all together and don’t give penalties and let the drivers and teams deal with all the consequences (tires and floors ruined etc). Either that or stop racing at venues with asphalt run-off areas.
MichaelN
17th October 2023, 12:59
The drivers feel the kerbs the second the outside wheels touch them. Their cars are 200cm wide. If they still go off with all four wheels, it’s becuse they deliberately took a gamble to go faster through the corner.
If anything the penalties should be harsher.
PacificPR (@streydt)
17th October 2023, 14:42
Yes I agree. But the current penalties, deleting laps or time penalties are not working and corrupting the races. The first problem with the current penalties is the delay in decision taking, which corrupts the competition – a driver with a penalty can happily stay in front of a driver with no penalty and heavily compromise him (being stuck behind a penalized driver = dirty air, no chance the gain more positions or time etc). The second problem is the overview for us watching the race – since the FIA stewards are always two steps behind we aren’t really aware of the actual positions and if a battle is a battle or not. So for those two reasons alone they need to come up with much much better solutions. Maybe if a venue can’t facilitate a grass, gravel or wall solution they might think of a Long Lap solution – like they use in MotoGP on some tracks, it would at least be a bit better than a time penalty during a race.
MichaelN
17th October 2023, 15:15
Absolutely; the race people see should ideally be the race as is. And for the competitors this is important, too. This repeated business of reshuffling the order after the finish is a failure on the part of the FIA.
But I suspect that there won’t be a need for a long term physical solution if race control puts some serious penalties on this. The drivers can drive within the lines, it’s just that it’s worth taking the risk for most of them (except for Verstappen at the moment, for whom there are no benefits and only risks).
If they nail the corner whilst going in a bit too fast they gain a few tenths and if they don’t, well, in the race they can handle a few warnings. Even if they get a penalty there’s a good chance they’ll have gained that 5 seconds by repeatedly pushing their car to the limit (and sometimes over it) in those corners. But if they had to take a drive through? Unlikely, and that changes the risk/reward calculation.
There are a few corners where the track limits can perhaps be better marked so the drivers have a better feel for it, but usually they know exactly where they are.
Seppo (@helava)
17th October 2023, 15:36
This isn’t how cornering at the limit works. The drivers often can’t adjust their trajectories to stay within the lines once they feel the kerb. By that point it’s much too late. They misjudged their entry speed trying to push the limit, yes, but it’s fractional – the kind of adjustment that you or I would find imperceptibly small.
But the point is mid-corner adjustments at the limit are dangerous, and making adjustments like that at the limit of tire grip would send the car into a spin, or understeer off the track.
MichaelN
18th October 2023, 10:30
True, the speed they bring into the apex largely determines where they end up (they could in theory also drop the throttle, which they would if there was a wall). So that’s where they will make the adjustment on subsequent laps, based on how they took the corner previously and how wide they went.
These guys are all very good at what they do, they know when they’re pushing and what risks they take. And that’s good! Qualifying is fun precisely because they’re on edge. Unfortunately, deleting laptimes isn’t fun for anyone, but it beats repeated interruption of the session if cars get beached or hit a wall.
Jimmy Cliff
17th October 2023, 8:25
Tricky part is that a car has 4 wheels, you are not breaking track limits if 3 of the 4 are well beyond the line but 1 wheel is still marginally on the line (the whole line itself is still considered part of the track).
The system you describe will have a hard time separating those fine margins because as long as only 3 wheels cross the line there shouldn’t be any action, even if the 4th crosses the line as well no action should be taken if by that time 1 wheel has made it back onto the line.
So the system would need to register all 4 wheels simultaneously to be beyond the white lines.
I am all for stricter policing however currently it is too strict because during the race if someone runs wide (pushed or not), misses a chicane (issue or not) but is losing time it is still registered as a track limit violation. Only those corners where the fastest line is beyond the track should be policed.
The part where the FIA should get stricter is overtaking outside the track whereby having completed the overtake and then run wide is currently considered legal while is absolutely should not be. Making it black & white that gaining a position while having been off track the corner before, the corner itself or the next corner is considered illegal should also make it easier/quicker for positions to be given back – not like Lewis did in Singapore driving around a few more laps before giving back the position.
Keith Campbell (@keithedin)
17th October 2023, 11:28
I don’t think the current zero tolerance system is working well. It feels like track limits are even more of a talking point than ever, and we regularly have to wait a few minutes after each qualifying session to see which laps were actually valid before we can confirm the result. That makes the sessions very anti-climactic. I know it is consistent and is the same for everyone, but it still seems like a lot of instances, particularly in the race, are being missed – see Aston Martin’s protest in Austria as an egregious example. I don’t know what the best solution is, but at present the issue seems more invasive to the sport than ever.
And I agree that there are some ‘strikes’ during the race that shouldn’t be counted as track limit violations. When a driver is forced wide by a competitor, then by all means invalidate their lap time for the purposes of fastest lap, but it shouldn’t be a strike against them. I also don’t see the need to double penalise a car when they catch an oversteer mid-corner and go way off track, losing multiple seconds, but not to penalise would also introduce subjectivity in some cases. I believe going off track either immediately before, during, or after an overtake should be penalised under the current enforcement, but again it is dependent on the stewards picking up on it and i’m sure some cases go undetected, so that might be what you were seeing there.
S
17th October 2023, 11:38
Tell that to the people who keep breaking the rules, then.
Regardless of subjectivity – the objective context there is that if there were a different surface instead of tarmac (ie, grass or gravel) they would be penalised in exactly the same way. First from their driving mistake, and then by leaving the track and suffering whatever consequence that induced. Perhaps it would be a wall instead of grass or gravel, which typically brings a far more serious consequence.
The threat of a 5 second penalty for multiple breaches seems inadequate in that context, doesn’t it…
Coventry Climax
17th October 2023, 11:43
While in tennis any part of the ball still touching the white line is called ‘in’, it is in fact just a matter of choice or definition. If the track were elevated, with sharp cliffs (your last name, so must appeal to you) of any height going down right at the edge of the white line, all cars would have to keep 4 wheels within the lines or risk going down.
So,
is only your assumption they will/should use the ‘tennis’ definition.
Facts&Stats
17th October 2023, 20:07
Solving that is probably easier than you think:
A loop in the track 1m outside the white line.
Two sensors halfway between the front and the rear wheels.
If both sensors are simultaneously outside the loop then cut some power* for a few seconds.
* I would open the turbo bypass for 2-5s, which stops the MGU-H generating spin/energy and gives a loud noice for fans to enjoy and embarrass the driver.
The Dolphins
17th October 2023, 21:27
This is a sensible solution and the suggested penalty is perfect. My vote for CotD! (not that it counts)
Melbourne '96 (@melbourne-96)
18th October 2023, 7:13
Very nice indeed, CotD from me too!
Stoo (@stewart51)
18th October 2023, 12:23
Def. CoTD for me too, great idea, but will they do it ?
I doubt it, because it would cost the Circuit and F1 some money to police themselves.
spoutnik (@spoutnik)
17th October 2023, 20:08
Pretty sure this is achievable with a few on-site cameras and a good algorithm though.
Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine)
17th October 2023, 9:13
Agreed. The current system isn’t perfect but it is consistent and coherent. Most of the remaining track limits problems are case-specific and could be greatly improved by changing run-offs so there’s no incentive for drivers to run wide. Unfortunately we’ve had a couple of decades of new tracks being designed with no discouragement for drivers to abuse track limits, so there’s a lot of work to be done. And it appears no thought was put it into at the recent revamp of Losail, as drivers had times deleted for running wide at more than half of its corners during the last grand prix.
S
17th October 2023, 11:31
No thought is required from the track’s side. It’s entirely a driver problem.
The drivers have rules to abide by, and they miserably failed to do so yet again – to the point where it seems more intentional than accidental.
It shows to me that they got the track design just right, in that it clearly provides a decent challenge to the drivers while also providing plenty of safety margin for those who get it wrong.
Coventry Climax
17th October 2023, 11:55
I’m in the consistency camp.
I agree with your suggestions though, as that’s the best way to implement that consistency.
If the cars were fitted with a system to detect wheels onto or outside of the white line we’d also immediately be rid of the nonsense of delayed deleted lap times in qualifying, as that could immediately invalidate that lap.
It would rob the FiA of a means of manipulation though, so I doubt they are in favor of such a system.
I’m in favor of having to keep all of the car on the black and inbetween the white lines. That’s consistent with the word limit, which means you’re incapable and/or not allowed beyond. Maybe the FiA will fall for the argument it’s also road relevant; consistent with the curbs defining sidewalks.
Coventry Climax
17th October 2023, 14:31
PS: Also, I’m convinced all tracks are designed with the cars staying between the white lines in mind. It’s hard to imagine a track designer creating corners such that the drivers are intended to exceed the boundaries.
AlanD
18th October 2023, 0:57
I’ve just had an off the wall idea. You know the stingers that police use to safely stop stolen cars, that push hollow needles into the tyres to create slow punctures, what about if they just put strips of those things down around the corners where drivers most blatantly cut them? Exceed track limits and risk an extra pit stop. That would certainly be a deterrant.
Moshambles (@moshambles)
17th October 2023, 12:59
While certain circuits are the way they are, the current system is unfortunately the best solution, if we want consistency in enforcing a track limit. A natural track limit solution, such as grass and gravel is obviously best, but I also understand why it’s not always applicable.
AlanD
17th October 2023, 20:44
I wouldn’t mind strict enforcement. What I would like more though is consistency and immediate enforcement. I am very much in favour of automated systems which apply an immediate penalty regardless of mitigating circumstances, in the same way that a wall doesn’t care if you were pushed wide or not. What I really don’t want to see more of is stewards reviewing footage and trying to decide whether or not it was an infringement or a racing move or whatever, and giving a verdict ten or twenty minutes later.
Stephen Crowsen (@drycrust)
17th October 2023, 21:51
I agree with drivers being penalised for exceeding track limits. I don’t see any reason why the system couldn’t be automated, so if a driver exceeds the track limits something like 1 second is added to their lap time. If the driver or team believes the penalty is unfair then they should appeal it. You could start each session / race with each driver being in credit, e.g. – 5 seconds, so the first 5 excursions are without penalty. This would also get rid of this nonsense in the race, where drivers have lap times deleted, but they are still credited with having completed the lap.
I must admit I’m not sure how to make exactly sure what sort of technology can be used which is precise enough to detect the difference between all 4 wheels were over the white line and three wheels over the track and one on the white line. In fact I recently saw a case where a driver had 3 wheels over the white line while having one wheel on the white line, e.g. the rear wheel, and then a second later another wheel was on the white line, e.g. the front wheel, and the first one was off. I suppose they could change the rules and say a driver is off the track if they have more than two wheels over the white line. I also noticed some drivers being penalised because the tyre tread was over the white line but the tyre wall was still above the white line, which I found an interesting interpretation of the rules.
AlanD
18th October 2023, 0:25
Stephen:
I think with an automated system, you stop worrying about wheels on lines. The idea of “all four wheels off track” is just an interpretation dreamed up in an office one day by lawyers and bureaucrats. If there was a wall there instead of a white line, you’d be in trouble if even one wheel is beyond the track limits.
Instead you put sensors outside the white line, maybe put them along the outside edge of the kerbing, and put a transducer in the nose of the car. If the nose of the car goes over one of those sensors, it is detected and generates a track limits penalty, regardless of where the wheels happen to be at that time, and prefereably the penalty is an immediate decrease in engine power for the next 30 seconds, rather than warnings, referral to stewards, etc. Drivers would pretty soon learn how to stay within the track limits. The technology isn’t the issue.
Dan G (@dang)
17th October 2023, 7:57
New floor for Mercedes, you say? That will be including what they learnt from Red Bull at Monaco. Expect Mercedes to be at the head of the field…
SteveP
17th October 2023, 8:16
I guess you missed the earlier article where Allison was quoted as saying not to expect a big jump in performance.
I think the main thing people learned from Monaco was that Red Bull cars can’t drive through the barriers and that it’s a fine line between being Perez and breaking the car on the barrier and Verstappen and surviving a similar impact to produce pole.
Nick T.
17th October 2023, 12:43
They ALWAYS play down expectations. I’m not saying it’s not the truth, but 90% of the time you really can’t take anything away from comments like those. The only time to expect anything big (whether in performance or disappointment) is when the team is updating so many areas at once that it’s called or basically is a b-spec car.
elchinero (@elchinero)
17th October 2023, 14:31
#44 #1
grat
17th October 2023, 15:13
Except that the consensus seems to be the floor is about half the issue, and suspension is the other half– and fixing the W14’s suspension would require a new chassis.
The Dolphins
17th October 2023, 21:31
That does seem to be the case, re: suspension. The best they can do at this point is correlate data with the new floor and their simulations and use that data for 2024 development. In the short term however they can only use the simulations available to help with suspension setup given their existing geometry.
SteveP
17th October 2023, 8:06
This should be interesting, the comparison of Ricciardo’s performance compared to Lawson.
Coventry Climax
17th October 2023, 14:17
With an updated Alpha Tauri? The only (direct) comparison you can make now is with Tsunoda.
SteveP
17th October 2023, 18:17
That was the reason people gave for Lawson exceeding Ricciardo’s results.
Stephen Crowsen (@drycrust)
17th October 2023, 22:00
I didn’t, I gave Lawson all the credit for exceeding Ricciardo’s results, but then I’m biased. Regardless, unless AlphaTauri decide to roll back the upgrade then Daniel will be driving the same car as Liam did.
Coventry Climax
18th October 2023, 1:26
Nope.
They will bring an updated floor in Austin.
Coventry Climax
18th October 2023, 1:46
SteveP:
What the article doesn’t touch on, is that Ricciardo now has only 5 races left to prove he’s back, with no added experience in the car, and maybe a concern about his hand nagging somewhere in the back of his head.
To prove he really is back (and worthy of a Red Bull seat again, which I’m certain of must be his goal), he now needs to consistently beat Tsunoda, and preferably with decent margins. He’s probably had quite a bit of simulator time, but still. They also bring an updated floor for this race, although I expect that’s covered in the simulator program.
But it all adds extra pressure, and that might bring the risk of overdriving the car and making mistakes. Going for gaps that aren’t there could be one of those, and he’s been know to do that before. His trademark divebomb worked best in cars of previous specs, and under previous stewardship.
So yes, his return will be interesting.
Jere (@jerejj)
17th October 2023, 11:08
Ricciardo’s return – I don’t have high expectations for him after another competitive racing hiatus even if shorter than the previous. Regarding Lawson, the final SF round occurs on the Mexico City GP weekend unless the ‘next weekend’ reference is indeed about next week’s weekend.
Successive sprints – The same as with any other sprint event, so I don’t expect any differences regarding how prepared teams will be with a single session & as for the rookies, Sargeant indeed has the positive benefit of having real-life driving experience at COTA from last season’s US GP FP1, but probably unimpactful in the end.
Home help for Haas – The story probably won’t be much different anyway.
Track limits at the limit – Indeed as COTA has always been among the most problematic circuits for track limit enforcement, so I expect a similar story to the last race weekend, although to be precise, the more laid back approach was originally Charlie Whiting’s with Masi merely continuing from where he left with that.
Checking the pulse on F1’s popularity – We’ll see, but rather than expecting anything different, I expect a sellout crowd once again.
Stroll scoreless since summer – He’s already confirmed for next season (well, effectively by Krack anyway) & every season as long as Lawrence is in the team, but he should definitely start to score some points & decent qualifying positions again even if those might be too little too late to keep Mclaren behind.
Nick T.
17th October 2023, 12:54
I’d much rather the drivers use as much of the track (including outside the painted lines) than deal with track limits policing.
Frank
17th October 2023, 14:23
The problem is that you need track limits. Otherwise drivers can just go straight through a chicane or drive in circles between the pit lane and the finishing straight.
Why would overshooting a corner be different from cutting a corner? Both are mmeansto.avoid driving through the prescribed corner.
If you do not have track limits, how to decide when a driver goes too far in avoiding to drive through a corner ?
As with many criticisms of rules and regulations, your proposed solution is too simplistic.
AlanD
18th October 2023, 0:52
Frank “The problem is that you need track limits”
Well, not quite. You can define a course in terms of things the competitors need to go round, so you could stick some flags in the ground and say “you must pass the first flag on the left, the second on the right, etc, much as happens in ski slalom, for example where the flags define the minimum length of the course. The slalom doesn’t try to limit how wide you take a flag, but a perimeter fence means puts a natural limit on it. I think it should be the same with an F1 track. Put a pylon on the inside of a corner and if they don’t clear that, it is a penalty, (and ideally takes a bit of front wing off as well). But going wide? If they can go faster by bouncing over grass and gravel and scraping against a wall, good luck to them. Isn’t the real problem that tracks are designed with acres of smooth tarmac so there is no natural penalty for running crazily wide?
Mark Zastrow (@markzastrow)
18th October 2023, 10:19
This argument runs into reality, which is that many series choose to ignore painted lines and treat them as decorative — e.g. IndyCar, Nascar, and rallycross — and the world does not end. They’ve simply chosen to define the circuit differently, such that the outer limit is whatever physical barrier exists. And then there’s Extreme E, which effectively eschews limits entirely and simply uses checkpoints, rally-style. AlanD is right: All a race circuit really needs is a start/finish line and a mark to go around. Sailboats get by with that just fine on their standard windward/leeward courses.
Prescribing a track as a strip of tarmac that must be adhered to at all costs is one form of circuit racing, perfectly valid, but I find it rather sterile. One of the things I love about IndyCar is that it’s a product of a different ecosystem. Up until 1970, the Indy car national championship included not just paved circuits but also dirt ovals and the Pikes Peak hillclimb. The idea that going off-road was something that required intervention from race officials simply didn’t exist — the cars were built to go off-road, so if that worked for you, good luck!
Of course, there are parallels in F1 — grand prix racing is rooted in racing on public roads, where obviously no policing of track limits existed, either. But I find it admirable that IndyCar has done its best to maintain this tradition whereby drivers are allowed to fully exploit the track and the track is allowed to punish drivers for their mistakes, even when running on tracks unfit for the purpose, like COTA.
Nick T.
19th October 2023, 1:26
Driving through chicanes and cutting corners was never allowed even when track limits weren’t policed. This should be obvious. We have no track limits (e.g., going too wide), but we’ll get penalized for cutting a chicane or anything similarly blatant. Even at tracks with endless run off, it’d be clearly what’s just optimizing a line and what would be simply running your own course. It’s not rocket science if even the SCCA can make it work and it worked before they had HD cameras in every corner to see if a driver went over.
Zann (@zann)
17th October 2023, 11:28
I shall be watching Checo. Just imagine, if Liam should be another Oscar… next year could be 2007 all over again
Nick T.
17th October 2023, 12:51
Not a Lewis fan, but if Liam were as talented as Lewis (or even close), he would have done better than basically being even on lap times with Yuki and likely would have been better than just one point ahead of Logan in F2.
Liam got a lot of luck that flattered him too initially (would have been easily outside the points without a lot of unlikely action and unreliability in front of him), terrible luck for Yuki during Monza (car died before start) and Singapore (he was having far faster times in Singapore before Max impeded him). In Japan, Yuki out qualified him and they basically finished nose-to-tail. In Qatar, Liam never looked good.
Zann (@zann)
17th October 2023, 13:01
I’m being a bit hopeful aren’t I. Still, Lewis had quite a bit of time in an F1 car before he started.
AlanD
17th October 2023, 14:28
“Lewis had quite a bit of time in an F1 car before he started”
Did he? If you mean that everybody had more time in F1 cars in 2007 then that may be true, I cannot remember when testing restrictions first started coming in. If you mean more time than the average driver enetering F1 in 2007, I don’t think that would be true. He perhaps had more experience in single seaters before getting into F1 as he was 22 before McClaren gave him a shot.
Coventry Climax
17th October 2023, 14:21
That also depends on how bad the Alpha Tauri is/was. The worse the car, the more equal the team mates results.
Nick T.
19th October 2023, 1:28
That’s not true at all. Great drivers tend to make the gap between them and their teammate even more exaggerated in badly handling cars.
Keith Campbell (@keithedin)
17th October 2023, 14:21
@zann I think the days of a rookie coming into F1 and doing a Lewis 2007 season are over. Even if a mega talented rookie was put straight into a winning team, they can’t do the thousands of miles of testing that were possible pre-season and during the season back then, and experience counts for too much these days, especially with how to manage the tyres. It seems to be a bit of a trend with the inexperienced drivers that they can get up to speed in qualifying in reasonable time, but the race pace learning has a longer development curve.
Zann (@zann)
17th October 2023, 16:29
This is it isn’t it. Probably. Still, he was dropped into F1 from Superformula in Japan, he might not even have had a lot of simulator time, and the cars have a million settings to manage, that he’s had to learn, so Liam could still be seriously good. Oscar’s been doing okay in his first year, so it’s not totally impossible. In any case, he can only be more interesting than Checo and the Red Bull top brass must be thinking the same thing for selling more fizzy drinks, and they are a marketing company more than anything.
Nick T.
19th October 2023, 1:31
Yeah, now it will take about four races instead of the opening one to see when a new superstar has arrived. It was clear Max was special within three races of arriving IMO.