United States – Presentation: Will Mercedes and Hamilton Call the Shots?
In the United States, the state of Texas is more known for its arid climate than for heavy rain, yet Formula 1 is expected to experience a relatively wet United States Grand Prix this weekend. Under these unprecedented conditions in Austin, who between Lewis Hamilton and Sebastian Vettel will best exploit them to leave on Sunday night with the best result in hand?
« Austin is a great circuit and it combines several parts of other circuits into one. The first sector looks a lot like Suzuka and a narrow part that reminds me of the Autodrome in Mexico. Clearly, it’s a good circuit for battling with fast corners and enough overtaking opportunities. The first turn as well as the left at the end of the back straight are very good opportunities.
The first sector is simply my favorite. It’s very fast, very technical, and when entering the esses you must position the car well, otherwise, you lose a lot of time in the following corners. It’s fun but difficult to get perfectly right. Setting up the car is a big challenge. You need settings that give you confidence in the fast sections but are also good for the slow part, a hard compromise to achieve.
Configuring a car for racing is never an easy task. The magic of electronics and computers has helped to partially reduce the difficulty, especially with the simulation part, ahead of the on-track action. However, when hitting the track on Friday morning, everything still needs to be done because it is impossible to simulate reality perfectly to arrive at the circuit with “THE” perfect setup. Tuning a car is about finding the best compromise between handling and speed.
Esteban Ocon talks about it well, you can’t have a perfect setup to negotiate both a slow and a fast section optimally. Your first, basic limits are the laws of physics, to which are added the performance of the chassis and finally the driver’s instinct, which will know how to make the most of all the variables.
A tour of the property
Cowboys and Formula 1! Time to strap on those #Fit4F1 boots because it’s #USGP Race Week! https://t.co/lVNyCnRUdF pic.twitter.com/czUd0N6oiJ
— Pirelli Motorsport (@pirellisport) 15 octobre 2018
For posterity
Tarmac and mistral
Check out the boots selected by the #F1 cowboys for the Austin rodeo! #USGP
👉 https://t.co/yxd9yHOBrc pic.twitter.com/eqTBTw1dQc— Pirelli Motorsport (@pirellisport) 9 octobre 2018
In Austin, Mercedes and Ferrari have made fairly similar tire choices, with only one set of tires difference, as Sebastian Vettel has an additional set of ultra-softs. Red Bull arrives with the least aggressive strategy among the top three teams, but following the trend from the Japanese Grand Prix, it’s McLaren that has opted for the most conservative approach with as many (five) sets of soft tires as ultra-softs.
The wise tire choices made by the teams could be completely called into question as the United States Grand Prix is expected to suffer from adverse weather conditions. As early as Wednesday, extremely heavy rains hit the Austin area, causing flooding.
Friday, Free Practice 1 and Free Practice 2 could be disrupted by rain, and temperatures of 16 to 18°C are expected throughout the day. The same goes for Saturday, which is expected to be even worse with showers forecasted for the whole day and temperatures similar to those on Friday.
For Sunday, a rain-free day is forecast. Phew, the race would therefore take place in dry conditions with slick tires after practice sessions and qualifying held on a wet track if the weather predictions come true. We might therefore witness a Grand Prix that is a bit more uncertain in terms of forecasts and each team’s strategies.
The TV schedule
