2024 United States Grand Prix Recap
21 October 2024
The 2024 Formula 1 schedule is quite strange with the three-week break between Singapore and the United States Grand Prix at the Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas. I had an opportunity to watch every session and with the sprint, it was a very busy weekend! Let’s go through the weekend! It was one of the more exciting weekends that I can remember. Every session provided a lot of action.
Sprint Qualifying
Eight of the ten teams brought various upgrades to COTA but with only one free practice, the teams really didn’t get a lot of track time to lock in their cars. The nice part with the sprint schedule this year, is that after the sprint qualifying and sprint, the teams could change the configuration for the qualifying and the grand prix. I was surprised that there were surprises in SQ1, SQ2, and SQ3. It makes for an exciting time.
- It was cool to hear that this was Franco Colapinto’s first time ever racing a formula car in the western hemisphere having spent his entire career so far at European tracks.
- Sauber’s upgrades don’t seem to be doing anything for them as both Bottas and Guanyu are knocked out in SQ1.
- The real surprise was Oscar Piastri getting knocked out in SQ1 for exceeding track limits. That is going to come up a lot this weekend.
- Then we get the shocker of SQ2 with Sergio Perez getting knocked out. After Max turning it around, one has to wonder how the hell he still has his seat in Red Bull.
- The Ferrari are looking really good despite no upgrades. Their car seems well suited for the track conditions.
- Max and that Red Bull aren’t looking as dominant as earlier this season, but he’s looking good and it doesn’t bode well for Lando’s championship hopes.
- Good job on the Haas to get both cars into SQ3 with a P6 and P8.
The starting grid:
- Max Verstappen
- George Russell
- Charles Leclerc
- Lando Norris
- Carlos Sainz
- Nico Hulkenberg
- Lewis Hamilton
- Kevin Magnussen
- Yuki Tsunoda
- Franco Colapinto
- Sergio Perez
- Fernando Alonso
- Liam Lawson
- Pierre Gasly
- Lance Stroll
- Oscar Piastri
- Esteban Ocon
- Alex Albon
- Valterri Bottas
- Zhou Guanyu
Sprint
Last season the sprints were very boring, but this was one of the more exciting 19 lap races. I don’t think there was ever a lull in the action.
- Lando has a great start and starts to stick with Max. It’s been his story of the season, which I don’t think is entirely fair and this is evidence of it.
- Carlos generated a lot of excitement in this one.
- Max breaks the DRS in lap 4. This is more evidence that the Red Bull is doing well.
- Alonso seems a bit pissy, but I loved when he called the VCARB an Alpha Tauri.
- At lap 10, Lando was closing in on Max and the stupid AWS graphic of striking distance comes up. There is no intelligence in that graphic. It looks at delta in the last lap and extrapolates how many laps to catch based on the gap. To illustrate how dumb it was, it said striking distance in 3 laps and after the next lap Max extended his advantage to 0.5 seconds.
- Carlos looked really good to get beyond Lando into P2.
- The championship gap grows to 54 after Max gets 8 points and Lando gets 6 points.
- I’m very excited to see Haas getting 3 points with both drivers netting points.
Here’s how things ended:
- Max Versappen (+8)
- Carlos Sains (+7)
- Lando Norris (+6)
- Charles Leclerc (+5)
- George Russell (+4)
- Lewis Hamilton (+3)
- Kevin Magnussen (+2)
- Nico Hulkenberg (+1)
- Sergio Perez
- Oscar Piastri
- Yuki Tsunoda
- Franco Colapinto
- Lance Stroll
- Pierre Gasly
- Esteban Ocon
- Liam Lawson
- Alex Albon
- Fernando Alonso
- Zhou Guanyu
- Valtteri Bottas
Qualifying
Formula 1 had a good amount of story lines for the three qualifying sessions. I wasn’t a fan of how it ended, but it’s the reality of motorsport.
- Hamilton getting knocked out in Q1 was crazy. He was on his second flying lap and I was wondering why he slowed down, but we learned he had exceeded track limits. After he was interviewed, he sounded very dejected.
- I loved Lawson hitting P3 at one point, but it would be moot as he was inheriting a 60-grid penalty from Ricciardo. He was only used in Q2 to try to give Yuki a slipstream advantage, but it doesn’t really matter as he doesn’t make it to Q3.
- The cars were only able to put in one lap on Q3. Lando had a really good lap and it seemed like a minor mistake from Max put him into P2.
- Good job to Gasly to getting into Q3 and setting some good times.
- With their last attempts, George Russell crashes and ends the session. Lando was not on an improved laptop through S1 but Max was on a personal best and I would have bet any money that he would have gotten pole position if he finished.
- Russell must have had to take new parts and will start from the pitlane. Not good considering he was in Q3.
- Perez never set a clean lap in Q3, but at least he made it to Q3.
The starting grid:
- Lando Norris
- Max Verstappen
- Carlos Sainz
- Charles Leclerc
- Oscar Piastri
- Pierre Gasly
- Fernando Alonso
- Kevin Magnussen
- Sergio Perez
- Yuki Tsunoda
- Nico Hulkenberg
- Esteban Ocon
- Lance Stroll
- Alex Albon
- Franco Colapinto
- Valterri Bottas
- Lewis Hamilton
- Zhou Guanyu
- Liam Lawson
- George Russell
The Race
Even with the good weekend Ferrari was having, I don’t think any one of us were going to expect the opening and how the race ultimately went. At the start, it looked like Lando had a good start, but Charles had a monster start. He jumped from P4 to P1. Max retained P2. Carlos jumped to P2 and Lando dropped to P3. It was quite exciting and the rest of the race delivered plenty of storylines to make this a really good race to watch.
- It was not Lewis Hamilton’s day. His radio message of saying “Damn, this is far back” was supposed to be the worst of it, but he went wide on lap 3 and that was his day.
- Charles looks like he is in total control. His lead kept increasing consistently until the pit stops started.
- Sainz was looking like he was going to have some car issues, but was able to execute the undercut successfully on Max to take P2. The Ferrari’s then held on for their first 1-2 in a long time.
- It was not Pierre Gasly’s day. He qualified well, but had a really bad stop (6.9 seconds) and was given a 5 second penalty for leaving the track and gaining an advantage.
- Speaking of 5 second penalties, George also got one for doing the same as Pierre. More on this a little later. But George quietly had a really good race. He started in the pitlane after needing upgrades to fix the car after his crash in Q3. He was able to jump up to P6.
- The last 24 laps were quite exciting for who would take P3. Max was holding it, but Lando finally pits at that point. His tires were 6 laps newer than Max’s and had to cut the 6 second gap. The Red Bull never really could get it going with the hard tires, and the McLaren seems to be a rocket on them. Lando had no issues catching up, but as soon as he caught up with Max that’s when things got interesting.
- The fight between Lando and Max was exciting. Lando never was able to get enough to pass him, until he did make it happen at lap 52. However, it looks like he did a repeat of Pierre and George by leaving the track. Even if Max was also off the track, it was similar enough that the stewards were likely going to give him a 5 second penalty. The radio fights proceeded. I hate that. We don’t really need to hear the “he said/he said” crap. Of course, there’s going to bias. Ultimately, the stewards did give Norris a 5 second penalty and the 4 second lead he built on Max was not enough to take P3. He’d have to settle with P4.
- With that, the championships get interesting. Max gets another +3 advantage on the drivers championship.
- With Lando (P4) and Oscar (P5), McLaren extends its lead to to 544 points. Red Bull lost ground since Max (P3) and Sergio (P7) only got 21 points to McLaren’s 22.
- However, enter Ferrari. With their 43 points, they are now only 8 points behind Red Bull in P3. It could be interesting going into the end of the season. I personally think McLaren has the Constructors, but Ferrari could get P2. With teh 57 point advantage, Max likely has the Drivers Championship.
- Nico Hulkenberg finishing P8 gives Haas another 4 points. They had a really good weekend.
- The P9 and P10 spots were quite a surprise. Liam Lawson gets P9 in his come back to Formula 1. Not bad for starting at the back. Franco Colapinto gets another point. He was in line for the fastest lap point, but was denied that extra point late when Esteban Ocon pitted for what looks like the sole purpose of denying Williams an extra point. At this point, I’m glad the fastest lap point is going away in 2025. Too much drama related to it.
Here’s how things ended:
- Charles Leclerc (+25)
- Carlos Sainz (+18)
- Max Verstappen (+15)
- Lando Norris (+12)
- Oscar Piastri (+10)
- George Russell (+8)
- Sergio Perez (+6)
- Nico Hulkenberg (+4)
- Liam Lawson (+2)
- Franco Colapino (+1)
- Kevin Magnussen
- Pierre Gasly
- Fernando Alonoso
- Yuki Tsunoda
- Lance Stroll
- Alex Albon
- Valtteri Bottas
- Esteban Ocon
- Zhou Guanyu
- Lewis Hamilton (DNF)
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